From The Mississippi to The Missouri

Location: Lewis & Clark State Park; Onawa, Iowa (on the Iowa/Nebraska border, half way between Omaha and Sioux City)

I've crossed the width of Iowa and am now along her western border, which is the Missouri River. I've seen lots of corn. From here I'll follow the Missouri River through South Dakota and into North Dakota. I have campground reservations all the way to my final destination of Teddy Roosevelt National Park. Today is moving day. My next stops are a COE near Yankton, SD, then another COE near Fort Thompson, SD, then an Indian Casino Campground near Mobridge, SD, then a State Park in Bismarck, ND, then a City owned campground near Dickerson, ND. I'll stay 4 days in Dickerson so I can see both the North and South parts of the National Park. There is also an "enchanted highway" that sounds interesting. 

I really need to start thinking about which direction I go after seeing the National Park in the last week of August. 

We scored a nice campsite and feel lucky in do so since the campground is completed full for the weekend. The tree have provided shade for most of the day and the lake is about 100 yards away.

This Lewis & Clark campground is a state park that fills up entirely every weekend for the entire summer. It's a nice campground with 50 amp electric campsites. You get fresh water from spigots scattered out around the campground. I stayed here a few years ago and came back this time because the museum was closed when I was here last. The museum is small and not worth the visit. The best thing they have is Keel Boat built to the dimensions of the original boat used by Lewis & Clark. But even that isn't worth the stay. So, I just took it easy for the three days I was here and did a little maintenance work on Liberty. I also found a nice laundromat and a nice family owned, local restaurant since the town didn't have a Taco Bell.

I'm only a couple hours away from my next campground, so I won't be pulling out until around noon. By then, a lot of the campground will be empty as the "weekenders" head by home in preparation for work tomorrow. 

I took this picture as a trial. One of the best things about my old cell phone/camera was its ability and ease of taking pictures through Freedom's windshield. Some of those pictures over the years have been my favorites. This new cell phone/camera is not as easy to take these type of travel pictures, but maybe I just need more practice.

I took this picture on a lark while crossing the narrow bridge between Iowa and Nebraska. I was holding the cell phone in hopes of getting a shot of the bridge but instead just too a random shot out the side window. I didn't expect it to turn out so good. I guess the cell phone was trying to prove to me it could do the job. Anyway, that is the Missouri River down there. 

I included this picture, not for the bridge, but for the corn. One thing I have notice while being in Iowa is that every available piece of land is planted in a crop. Mostly corn but a couple other crops. I've seen corn being raised so close to houses you could almost reach out a window to pick an ear of corn. This is not common down south. There are a lot of acres in Louisiana that are just sitting there with no crop growing and no animals grazing. Puzzling. 

 

This the keel boat in the museum. The one in the middle is built to the dimensions of the original boat use by Lewis & Clark

This is the keel boat I saw the time I was here. I thought this was the replica. But nope, this one is much larger than the original and is used to give rides on the lake during the middle of the summer. 

Looking at the "commercial enterprise" replica from off the starboard bow.

One of the few shots I took of the lake which is surprising since it is a pretty lake. There is no springs feeding it and relies solely on rainfall to keep it full.

Dirty 2 Pretty Laundromat, or "wastateria" for some southern folks. 

This is the second post with a picture of food. I have to stop doing that but couldn't resist this one. This is from a family owned, local restaurant just a couple doors down from the laundromat. I had already ate half of the dish before taking hte picture. The roast beef was tender and the mashed taters just right. All for $7.00. Really good meal, almost worth the 3 day stop here.  

Since there wasn't anything else to do and the weather had cooled off one of the days, I decided to clean the coils on one of Liberty's air conditioners. I bought this product from Home Depot when I was in Davenport a century year week ago. I didn't take the shroud off the unit and just sprayed the foam through the slots. I was able to foam up all the coils. After waiting about 10 minutes I used a spray bottle to squirt water on the coils. The bottle says "no rinse" is needed on evaporator coils but I wasn't 100% sure which coil I was cleaning, condenser or evaporator, so I just gently sprayed it down anyhow. I guess I could have researched it, but it would have seemed strange not rinsing it. After about 15 minutes of time, the coil was spotless. The product worked great.  

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.