Yaycation! Travel Log – Day 1 – DURING BACKFLIPS USE BOTH LANES

Almost every family trip I’ve ever tried to take starts out with a lot of frustration and often an angry squealing of the tires from the driveway, sometimes hours later than intended. Things just never seem to go as planned, whether it’s something forgotten during packing or just too much time eating breakfast or a satellite plummets from the sky leaving a massive hole in your roof.

Our departure was scheduled for 5 a.m.; a lofty goal, to be sure. When we pulled out of the driveway at 5:20 a.m., I was flying high, amazed by the fact that nothing had gone completely wrong. Things were going our way and we were starting our vacation on a high note. Even when we rolled past the Dunn Bros. we’d wanted to stop at because they weren’t open yet, I easily shrugged it off. We could simply stop at Caribou, right?

Everything was going great until we hit traffic on I-94 just east of Cty Hwy 101, less than a minute after entering the freeway. After waiting 20 minutes to travel less than a mile in three lanes of traffic, having not yet reached the signs that indicated that we were approaching a reduction to one lane. We followed several other cars all making illegal u-turns to go north on 94 again and we headed back to 101. The most frustrating part of all of this was that we had no way of knowing about the traffic problems before we entered 94, but by the time we made it back to 101, it seemed traffic was then backed up well into St. Michael. If we’d just been running a little later, we would have avoided a whole lot of aggravated waiting.

Apples into lemonade, however, the Dunn Bros. was now open. Thus, Manda and I were able to get ourselves some delicious coffee and the kids got smoothies. After a short stay at the coffee house to make sure final bathroom needs had been met and with caffeine ingestion underway, we got our trip back on track.

It wasn’t too difficult to avoid the congestion and soon we were on 494 travelling south at around 80 mph.

Things clipped along well enough. On I-35 I found humor in misreading a construction sign that said, “DURING BACKUPS USE BOTH LANES”, bringing us our snappy title. Even after realizing that the sign had nothing at all to do with back flips, I still didn’t understand its meaning.

Shortly thereafter we crossed the border into Iowa and within a few minutes had pulled into our first rest stop. With cheers from the kids in the back seat we made our first official stop of the day.

Here we see the first evidence that Iowa has decided to embrace their stereotype. The rest stop, which is shaped like a barn with a silo shares a parking lot with Diamond Jo’s, a casino shaped like a farm. There’s even a sign you can see from the road that appears to be a classic but functioning water tower.

We took a little time to take some pictures while we were there.

It’s clear from this and other rest stops that we visited that Iowa is light years (yes, a measure of distance) ahead of Minnesota in terms of rest area technology. Among other things, most seem to have been given facelifts, upgraded bathroom facilities, and now seem to offer free wireless internet at most that we saw. all the rest stops that we stopped at along the way seemed also to be clean, no longer the dingy, dirty, scary places I recall from my youth.

In Iowa, you don’t even need to press a button for free bacon. It’s automagical.

Before we reached Des Moines we discovered that there are hungry machines currently chewing the northbound lanes for a solid several miles. They seem to be tearing up the north bound lanes of I-35 and doing so in a very thorough manner. It seemed a small and unusual section of road to be working on. I was curious enough to wonder what the ends were, but not to have actually looked into it at all. I’m sure the internet holds the answer to this conundrum, and maybe someday I’ll look into it. 

Passing through Des Moines we stopped at a CiCi’s for lunch.

I fear for Iowa’s future generations.

The drive through southern Minnesota and northern Iowa is beautiful in many ways, but is also where a lot of the stereotype that Iowa is flat farmland comes from. Still, we couldn’t help but to marvel at the beautiful views as they rolled past our windows.

I love Minnesota for many reasons. It’s beautiful country in every direction whether you’re looking at the rolling farm land of the south and south west, or the natural forest of the north, or the rocky hills of the north west or the river valleys of the east. On top of that the Minneapolis – St. Paul area is home to incredible old architecture, new sky scrapers, commerce and on and on.

Yet, Iowa has it’s own allure, and I certainly don’t subscribe to the idea that there’s nothing to see or do in Iowa, or that it’s all just corn fields. Sure, there are a lot of corn fields, and their biggest city is pretty small my Minnesota standards, but there’s still something about it. I'll talk a little more about that when I describe the drive from Council Bluffs to Sioux City, which has some breathtaking views.

Our arrival at the hotel was interesting. While it was satisfying to reach our destination, it was a little disappointing to discover our view was not exactly stellar as it overlooked a truck yard next door. Located in Council Bluffs, across the river from Omaha, it is not the most pleasant area of the city. The hotel is in the midst of the casinos, which also happens to be a more industrial area of the city being right on the banks of the Missouri River. The room, however, was clean and well appointed for a cheap hotel. First impressions were that the building is quite new and clean but definitely deserving of the high ratings on Priceline.com.

After dropping our stuff at the room and taking a few minutes to refresh, it was off to Old Market. Old Market is a lot of fun but as with any place you visit, there are always high and low points. The architecture in the area is amazing, there are a great many old buildings that still bear a lot of the vestiges of years gone by. The variety of various shop types is nice, between trendy clothiers and a cigar bar, to antique shops and a gift shop similar to mashing a Spencer's and The Afternoon together. Sadly, many of the shops in Old Market aren't near as old as the buildings in which they're housed. I found that some of the art contained in the galleries was bland and uninteresting, and we saw a couple of street performers in the area that just weren't worth the coins being thrown to them. Still, there was a lot to see and take in, and it was an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon.

After Old Market, we drove around the downtown and midtown areas for a little while looking for someplace to patronize for dinner, but being that we hadn't come prepared for metered parking, we decided to head back to Council Bluffs and eat someplace with a parking lot and a slightly lower sales tax rate. We chose Golden Corral based on our ‘Buffet’s That Aren’t Close to Home’ theme that we wound up with for the day.

After dinner we went back to the hotel for a refreshing swim. We followed the swimming with the arduous task of getting everyone in and then back out of the shower. While it took a while, it felt great to wash the long drive off and let it swirl down the drain.

Once cleaned, refreshed and ready for the evening, it was off to the beautiful Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge. The bridge spans the Missouri river and goes from a park on the Council Bluffs side to the another on the Omaha side. While I could try to sugarcoat it, the truth is that the park and neighborhood you have to pass through on the Council Bluffs side feels very ghetto. Perhaps it was the darkness, perhaps it was the run down cars and old beat down houses, perhaps it was all the people playing basketball under the stadium lights they’d turned on, or maybe it was the guy in the doorway of the bathroom leaning against the wall because he likely couldn’t hold himself up while drinking from a large jug I assume wasn't chocolate milk.

The view of downtown Omaha was pretty gorgeous, though.

Once you peel all that away, though, it all seemed to be fine. I would be willing to guess that both the neighborhood and park aren’t so bad in the light of day. Once we were on the bridge and nearer to other tourists also checking out night attraction, we felt better. What really sealed our feeling of safety, however, was discovering that Segway Guy was on the job.

We assume that by night, Segway Guy roams the pedestrian bridge making obvious idle observations to all the tourists, garbed in his safe-t-green neon vest and helmet and red emergency lights flashing bravely in the night while by day he is an AD&D champion with the ability to quote The Lord of the Rings. Verbatim. From the original Tolkien text.

What most amused me about Segway Guy was that he approached us for the first time as Tristan stood straddling the Iowa / Nebraska imaginary stateline that's painted on the bridge while I was pointing my camera at her. He proceeded to say that we should take a picture of her straddling the state line.

It made our night, however, I think, being able to chuckle at the silly man riding the segway back and forth across the bridge. I didn’t feel right taking a picture of him, but now I almost wish I had.

After the bridge, it was a short drive back to the hotel where everyone piled into their respective beds and fell asleep, all were excited for the day ahead when we would visit the Henry Doorly Zoo...

For a gallery of images from this trip, please check out this link, I will be updating the gallery with more images as time goes on.