Around Omaha

We spent the day around Omaha today and visited several interesting places.

The Western Historic Trails Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa has a number of exhibits concerning the several trails, and how travel then compares with travel now.

They also have a beautiful model of the keel boat.

We don't know why we always  pick a place for lunch that caters to bikers.

But it didn't make any differene, because we all were too late for lunch.

 On July 30th Clark journaled;

"Proceeded on to a clear open prairie...formed a camp...From the bluff...above our camp, the most beautiful prospect of the river, up and down...which I ever beheld..."

This is that view today.

The state of Iowa has placed a beautiful monument at that place 

With description engraved in the stone.

Further up river, actually at the place the council in "Council Bluffs" was held, is Fort Atkinson. The museum has the most interesting exhibit I have seen, and that is a replica of the famous "air rifle" which could fire 30 shots on a charge with the impact of the percussion cap muskets they used, but which made no noise. This example of the superior technology (or magic) of the white men went a long way toward avoiding armed conflict.

The fort itself was, for many years, the largest military installation in the United States, although it was hundreds of miles from any other activities.





We plan to proceed on to Yankton, SD tomorrow, unless we get involved in other interesting places along the way. We are learning to be flexible.

Long day, so, short post

We saw some more very interesting towns along the Missouri River in Missouri today, but we didn't plan as well as we should. By the time we got to the Kansas City environs, we realized we were short on time to reach Omaha where we had a reservation. We should have cancelled the reservation and just winged it for a while, but instead we put the pedal to the metal and high tailed it up I-29. Found out the sunglasses block most of the Prius displays including fuel gauge. When John took off the sunglasses he found that the car was declaring a fuel emergency and we really sweated out the problem. We made it to a service station, and put 10.4 gallons in a 10 gallon tank. Don't want to do that again.

We did see Rocheport, and should have grabbed one of the bed and breakfasts, but didn't.

We like to find the view of the River from the towns we visit.

They have some very fine establishments.

The view from Arrow Rock was great.








After 30 minutes of diligent searching, we found that  Lexington, Missouri, founded by folks from Lexington, Kentucky, has no view of the River.

We do know, however, that the Corps camped there on June 20, 1804.

Captain Clark; "Some very swift water today....a beautiful night but the air exceedingly damp, and the mosquitoes very troublesome."

At Fort Osage we found a beach which would have been what the Corps would have been looking for to beach the keelboat and pirogues.






Very tired tonight. Planning to head to Yankton, South Dakota tomorrow.

Getting Our Feet Wet

For our first day actually on the Trail we decided to visit a few of the towns on the River in Missouri.

After fighting the St Louis and St Charles traffic for a while, we decided to find a good little back road food stop and wound up in Marthasville at a place called Treolar Bar and Grill. The sign said "Beer and Burgers," and what could be better than that.

It doesn't look like much from the outside, but it is really quite nice inside, the food was great, with friendly service staff. We didn't realize it was a biker bar until we found that it is not only right on the marked route of the Lewis and Clark Trail, but the Katy trail. This is a 240 mile bicycle trail (longest in the country,) the State has designated as a State Park on the old Missouri - Kansas - Texas railroad. Kansas - Texas, KT or Katy. There were quite a few "bikers" there at the time.

I turns out that there are a number of pleasant little towns on the banks of the Missouri, and we visited a few.

Washington Missouri has a park right on the water front. It seems that they all do!

So we finally got our feet wet in the River, well, John and Doc did at least.

The Corps camped here on 5/25/1804 They had just passed the small town of La Charette, the last white settlement they would see for two years.

Two days earlier, during the first days of the voyage, Lewis was nearly killed when he narrowly escaped a 300 foot fall the rocks below.

We found a number of interesting places in New Haven. One was a boutique brewery where they distill corn whiskey and age it in used Port casks.

How could John resist two of his favorite flavors?





Another find was a memorial to John Colter.

John Colter was a member of the Corps and an excellent hunter. After they returned, he returned to the West and found Yellowstone for the enjoyment of future generations. He also was a mountain man and trapper and had a fascinating adventure with the Indians that we will tell you about when we see you.

This is a boulder the citizens of Montana donated for the Memorial.

 On the way to Hermann we saw a red tailed hawk and a family of a mother and four young animals that appear to be weasels.

Hermann is about as German a town you will ever find outside of Germany. It has a winery - of course it does. We tasted some wine, bought some wine, cheese, bread and sausage. They are Germans, after all. It all made a great supper tonight.

Didn't attend a concert, but would love to.

Pleasantly tired after a full day - planning more adventures for tomorrow.

Last day in the St Louis area

We drove to St Charles today and visited the Lewis & Clark Boathouse.

It houses the three replicas of the Corps' craft used in the re-enactment featured in the Ken Burns series.



















The boats are downstairs.








There were many exhibits upstairs. There a series of dioramas portraying many of the most interesting events during the voyage which were spectacular in their artistry and detail.

 We liked the statue of Sacajawea and Pompey

Doc liked the coyote

We had a great lunch at the Mother-In-Law House restaurant. It seems a man got engaged and built a beautiful house on Main Street in St Charles. After his wedding he learned it had been a package deal,  and he would be living with his beautiful new bride AND her mother. So he had a partition put in down the middle of the house and invited her to use one side and the happy couple used the other, thus creating the first duplex ever built west of the Mississippi.

We did visit the River Museum and the Confluence Tower before we retired to the motel.

It was really a great day.





By the way. I have encouraged you to leave comments, but neglected to allow anyone to make a comment. I think I have corrected this error, and once again encourage you to comment. Lets see if it works this time.

The Point of Departure

We wanted to show you one more view of Fort Massac, as it would have appeared to the Corps as they climbed the bank of the Ohio.

We arrived in the St Louis area and couldn't just go check in to the motel, we had o go see where the Corps actually spent the winter of 1803, and started their Voyage of Discovery.

"The mouth of the River Dubois is to be considered the point of departure."
Meriwether Lewis, May 14, 1804

The Lewis & Clark State Historic Site, in Hartford, Illinois is built very close to that point at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The siting is not exact, because both rivers have moved considerably in the centuries since 1804. This wonderful museum houses many interesting replicas of the tools and implements used by the Corps, the most interesting of which is a full scale replica of the keel boat sliced in half, showing all the storage and living compartments within.

There is a replica of the Camp, which has fallen down, and a replica of a cabin settlers would have used as a "starter home."

Tomorrow we will visit St Charles, where Lewis met Clark and the crew to get started in earnest. We then plan to visit the Confluence Tower, a 150 foot tower with observation posts at several heights giving a great view up and down the mississippi, and up the Missouri. Next on the tour is the Natioal Great Rivers Museum at the lock and damn in Alton Illinois. We went by there before heading for the motel, and Gail simply could not resist taking some wild flowers back with us.

On our way

We are well and proper on our way now. Our first stop was Decatur Alabama on June 18. Lewis and Clark never saw Decatur, but Confederate General John Bell Hood did. He fought a four day battle in Decatur involving cavalry, infantry and gun boats. His goal was to reach Nashville and cut General William Tecumseh Sherman's supply lines and bring to "March to the Sea" to an end. He failed.

Our trip to Decatur, however, was a success. We planned to spend some time with Gail's Niece and her family, and were met with David's steaks on the grill and birthday cake. The highlight for John was that sweet Beth made him a cherry pie. Beth spent some time with us in Pensacola, and leaned that was the way to his heart, and she came through on Fathers Day for him.

                                                              Gail, Emma and Beth

Today we traveled through some very interesting terrain. We crossed the Tennessee River several times. This river is part of the Mississippi River watershed, but it's way to that great river is blocked by a ridge of very hard rock. It therefore is forced by that ridge to head south, and then turn north for a long way, before it joins the Ohio River and then flows into the Mississippi. I-65 and I-24 cut right through that ridge and provide a very interesting landscape for the freeway traveler. Our destination today was Fort Massac, in Illinois, right across the Ohio River from Paducah Kentucky. This is where we first touch the route of Louis and Clark. Fort Massac has played an important part in our nation's history going back to 1757 when it was built by the French. During the Revolutionary War Colonel George Rogers Clark (our William Clark's older brother,) led his "long knives" regiment into Illinois at Massac Creek and was able to capture Kaskaskia, 100 miles to the north by a cunning display of military strategy and deception. This took the entire Illinois Territory for the state of Virginia and the fledgling United States. Who knew that Virginia's western boundary was once the Mississippi River?

Lewis had the keel boat built in Pittsburgh. The 55 foot boat, with an 8 foot beam, was finished on August 15, 1803, and Lewis headed her down the Ohio River within hours of it's completion. On November 11th and 12th the Corps of Discovery stayed at Fort Massac before continuing down the Ohio and Up the Mississippi to their winter quarters at Camp River Dubois on December 12, 1803.

                                                                     Fort Massac

Tomorrow on to Pontoon Beach Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St Louis, near where the Corps of Discovery spent the winter of 1803 before embarking on their great adventure.