08.01.2023 - hello iowa

after saying goodbye to christopher, but before leaving nebraska, i took a walk around the new downtown parks that are just being finished up.  very nice.  the 'gene leahy mall at the river front'.  they spent some money on this.  phase 2 & 3 ties this into the river front, missouri river.  that part is scheduled to open in two weeks with a big festival.

the famous pedestrian bridge over the missouri connecting to council bluffs.  one thing i don't understand is where are the bluffs?

rode bike trails about 20 miles out of the city, looping around council bluffs to the highway, railroad highway.  mostly flat, didn't see any bluffs. 

miles down the road, going through the small community of underwood, i glanced down a side street and saw a couple of buildings and several cars parked.  so i decided to take a gander.  there was a post office, little city hall, a mexican restaurant with no customers and the nesting grounds.  the nesting grounds is a small, well designed coffee shop, primarily drive-through, no seating inside.  it's made from three metal shipping containers in a u-shape that creates a little sitting courtyard with two small tables.  very simple and nice.  and so unexpected.

five miles up the road, it turns east and no longer runs up the valleys.  and, yes i have to admit, anne is correct of course, there are hills in iowa.  the next 20 miles is spent going up and dow, up and down.  i guess it's easier for surveyors to shoot straight lines than curve.

i learn later that the town of walnut was, like many small rural towns, dying.  so they tried to reinvent themselves as an antiques center.  every store is antique.  there's no place to eat or get a drink, just antiques.

after a small dodge on the edge of a rain system, i reach my warm shower host.  a small farmhouse a mile down a country road.  quiet, peaceful, green.  penny, lives here with her 40 year old daughter and 13+cats (all but 3 outside).  her husband, dan, is currently fulfilling his dream of riding his bike across country.  he's somewhere in wyoming, near devil's tower, heading east toward new york.  in the evening, the wind chimes on the front porch play in the breeze sounding like an episode of npr's hearts and space