Loess Hills Vacation

Tuesday, 10/15/24

We started our vacation to the Loess Hills today. Loess is pronounced as
LUSS. We drove directly from Cedar Rapids to Council Bluffs with only one stop.

We had heard about a quirky Iowa landmark on an Iowa Public TeleVision show called Roadtrip Iowa. They visited a remote crossroads that had a very big and ancient cottonwood tree growing in the exact center. The site was on a dirt road and far from any towns. As we got near the site I had the idea to stop on the hill slightly above it to get a feel for the tree’s size and the land surrounding. A farmer came down one road just as we arrived and turned to go-around the tree without hesitation. I’m sure he had done it many times before. Not earth shaking, but fun to see nonetheless.

We decided to have a quick lunch in downtown Omaha then went directly to the Joselyn Art Museum. We spent an hour or two exploring this beautiful building and their collection until we had thoroughly worn out our poor old legs and feet.

We decided we had had enough and checked in to our hotel. We had the nice surprise of a call from Wendy before going to bed.

Wednesday, 10/16/24

After a leisurely hotel breakfast we set off for The Steamboat Bertrand museum in the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge. The Bertrand was a steam boat traveling from St. Louis to the Montana Territory in 1865. She was carrying tons of supplies and goods to miners, settlers, and military bases when she ran into a snag and sank to the muddy bottom of the Missouri River. In 1967, the wreck was excavated in hopes of recovering valuable containers of mercury carried in the cargo. What was unearthed was an amazingly preserved cargo of thousands of items representing life at the time, including champagne, canned and preserved food, mining supplies, tools and luxury goods. The museum was organized much like the cargo hold in order to display the great number of artifacts found. The boat itself was re-sunk into the mud to preserve the wooden framework. Ironically, of the 500 lead mercury containers on board, only nine were recovered. Probably most were stolen in the intervening years.

We also visited the DeSota Wildlife museum and bird sanctuary. At migration times, the wetlands are crowded with migrating birds of many varieties but our visit was earlier than the fall migration which is in late October and into November. We did get to see a bird murmuration as we were driving into the preserve. It was hard to tell what type of birds they were but they were small. They swirled and reformed several times as we drove along. The wetlands are also beautiful to look at on their own with lots of fall color for our visit.

Thursday, 10/17/24

On our second morning of our stay in Council Bluffs we went down the hall to the breakfast room in our motel. I noticed a table of men who all had long hair and scruffy beards. I am generally not alarmed by this because Butch had a pony tail and a beard for most of the time we have been married. I did notice that one of the men was wearing a t-shirt with some message on it about being a patriot. I briefly thought he was probably a Trump supporter because the idea of patriotism has been co-opted by his followers which irks me. After the men had gone, Butch asked if I had noticed that the green t-shirt guy had been wearing a holster with a pistol in it! Luckily I had not noticed! I am outraged that people see the need to openly carry weapons in the dining room of a Country Inn at breakfast!

Anyway, today was our day to drive the Loess Hill National Scenic Byway. We planned to take our time and enjoy the nature and views. The Loess Hills are a unique land form stretching north to south along the Iowa border with Nebraska. It was formed by deposits of very fine windblown soil at the end of the last ice age. These hills are rare and in fact are only found in one other place in the world. There are many unique plants and animals found in this protected area.

Our first stop was Harrison County Village where we were given much helpful information at the visitor center. We also toured a settler’s cottage that displayed lots of artifacts from the early settlers of Iowa.

From there, we traveled the Sawmill Loop to Sawmill Hollow Farm where we visited an aronia berry farm. Aronia berries are similar in size and color to blueberries. The family farm has been in operation since the 1850’s and it now grows aronia berries to be turned into various fruit products. We met the owners who let us taste some of the products that they have developed recipes for. We bought some varieties of their wine, an aronia berry chipotle sauce, a vinaigrette, a chili starter base, and a jar of jam. We enjoyed meeting and talking with the owners who were very friendly and welcoming.

Our Byway travels took us through Turin Iowa where an ancient burial was found. It was excavated in the 1950’s and at the time the remains were thought to be the most ancient in Iowa. After the initial dig three more bodies were found. There are some informational placards in a town park that explain what was discovered. We continued into the Loess Hills National Forest where we stopped several times for scenic overlooks. Since it was now late afternoon, we decided to take the interstate into Sioux City and on to our hotel. There was a very nice restaurant just across the street that we could walk to called Table 32. We enjoyed our meals so much we planned to return the next night too.

Friday, 10/18/24

Today we visited the Lewis and Clark Center and the Sergeant Floyd River Museum. The Lewis and Clark expedition was meant to find a waterway from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. They soon discovered that there was no continuous water path across this vast continent. Their journey did, however, discover, map, and document land forms, indigenous people, plants, and animals found along the way. The Lewis and Clark museum includes beautifully made animatronic figures of members of the party. Just one member of the party died on the journey, Sargent Floyd. It is believed that he died of a ruptured appendix based on the accounts of his illness prior to his death.

The Sergeant Floyd museum is named in honor of him and is housed inside a steam boat of the same name brought up on land. It displays models of boats used to explore and travel the Missouri as well as artifacts from the early settlers of the state.

We also visited the MidAmerican Transportation Museum at the Sioux City airport. It includes artifacts of aviation history from WWI through modern times. One area is devoted to the crash of flight 232 at the Sioux City airport in 1989. The cool head of the pilot, the readiness and training of emergency crews, and the coordination of health care workers saved most of the 188 passengers on board. I remember when it happened and at the time it was big news.

Saturday, 10/19/24

This morning we decided to visit the Dorothy Picaut Nature Center on our way out of town. Each of the museums and sites we have visited has helped us understand the land, the history, and the culture of this part of Iowa. The nature center’s focus was on the unique flora and fauna of the Loess Hills. Some of the native plants covering the area are not found anywhere else in Iowa or in the world. The museum was set up as a series of large dioramas that included models of unique plants and animals in the area. They also had some live fish, reptiles, and native birds on display.

From here we made our way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota which was only a little over an hour away. Our motel was near the interstate so we decided to check it out first even though it was too early to check in when we arrived. As we pulled off at our exit, we encountered the worst huge intersection ever. It was a place where several major streets and roads came together. In order to accommodate all the traffic they had built in several “s” curves that funneled traffic from one side of the mashup to the other. It was super complicated and felt like on-coming traffic next to you was driving on the wrong side of the road! I hated it.

Once we had found our motel, we decided to cruise down the Main Street of town to scope out the sculpture exhibits we had come to see. We had hoped to get an overview of some of the sculptures we particularly liked so that Butch could come back to take pictures of them later. We were dismayed to see how crowded the streets were with pedestrians and cars up the wazoo!

The main road took us down to the falls. When we went on our Yellowstone trip we really liked the falls when we saw them and found them quite beautiful. This time, we were very disappointed. There were new structures built to view the falls but everything seemed pretty run down and unappealing. We went to an overlook and looked down into the water only to see trash and pollution along the banks. Even the rocks seemed different and there was a railroad track going right across the falls that we didn’t remember from before.

We decided to head back towards our motel and find a restaurant for an early dinner. We had a nice meal at a restaurant called the Incan.

Sunday, 10/20/24

We got up fairly early so we could go downtown again to find the sculptures Butch wanted to take pictures of. The streets were calm on a Sunday morning and we were able to get close enough to the sculptures without too much walking for Butch. Sioux Falls hosts this sculpture event every year and has grown a lot since the first time we saw it 8 or 9 years ago.

After Butch was photographically satisfied we headed for our last stop in Mason City, Iowa. We had a long drive of over 3 hours ahead of us. Butch and I are both big fans of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.

Mason City is home to the only Wright designed hotel still standing. The bones of the building are very beautiful and it is designed in the Prairie Style. The lobby and common areas have been updated but remain much as Wright originally intended. There is beautiful woodwork, lighting in the Prairie style and nice touches in the soft furnishings. The rooms have been upgraded to reflect the needs of modern travelers. Every room has a bathroom and modern necessities like tv, and technology plug-ins to appeal to travelers.

We were disappointed to find that the hotel restaurant was not open on Sunday evenings. Instead we ordered starters from the basement cocktail lounge and were given a card for a free dessert. The offerings turned out to be very tasty and plenty for us to feel satisfied.

Monday, 10/21/24

We had planned to drive around to some of the other homes in town that were designed by students or colleagues of Wright. Unfortunately, we were not able to find a breakfast restaurant nearby and decided it was time to head home.