July 20: Iowa ride to Sioux City

Replica of Lewis & Clark keelboat

The I left Tekamah as the rain was letting up, and within an hour or so, the sky was clearing  up. My final city to visit in Nebraska was Decatur, which advertises to have the widest Main Street in Nebraska. More interesting than that was the small park pictured below which included a trolley car. The story is that in the early 1900’s the city wanted to promote itself so they put together a postcard in which they superimposed the picture of a trolley on a photo of the Main St.

So a group was formed in the 2000’s and they called themselves Rural Legends. They raised money and somehow found a trolley car they could purchase, and transported it to Decatur.

After a sandwich for lunch, it was time  to leave Nebraska so that I could visit Iowa. While I traveled through Iowa to get to St. Louis to start the journey, it was important to include Iowa in this part of the trip, because I wanted to travel all of the states that border on the Missouri River. The trip included crossing the river on a narrow two lane bridge with a metal grating surface. While on the bridge a semi passed me going in the same direction as me. No problem; he swung out into the other lane to get by me, giving me a wide berth. Anybody keeping count how many times  I’ve crossed the river on my journey so far?  If you said  8 you are correct.

The scenic highlight of the day was definitely Lewis & Clark State Park, which is located on Blue Lake, which is an oxbow lake, next to the Missouri. The feature attraction is a full scale replica of the L & C keelboat. The visitor center was predictably closed. (However it’s possible it was closed due to it being Monday.) The Park includes camping and swimming; it would be a nice place for me to camp but it was too early in the day to stop.

I finish my ride for the day, by traveling up to Sioux City, the last place I will visit in Iowa.

Miles: 60

Elevations: Max 1298 at Sioux City; Low 1052 at Iowa/Nebraska line

Max speed: 19.3 mph

                                                Small Park in Decatur, NE

                                                Entrance at Lewis & Clark State Park in Iowa

                                                  Two lane bridge across a Missouri River

                                                                      Welcome to Iowa

                                                       Keelboat - another viewpoint  

 

                                                  Missouri River viewpoint from steel bridge 

                                                                         Blue Lake at state park