Moville, Iowa day 2

We had a fascinating tour of some of the sites of Sioux City today. We started at the excellent city museum. They had a really interesting movie to start our tour.

Sioux City had the original Corn Palace.
Entering the museum

Next we went to the Sioux CityArt Center.

Inside the Sioux City Art Center

Next we went down to the Missouri River to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.

Checking out the Missouri River
Inside the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center

Then we went next door to the Sergeant Floyd River Museum. The museum is in a towboat built for the Army Corp. of Engineers in 1932. It is named for Sergeant Charles Floyd who was the only member of the Lewis And Clark Expedition to die during the journey. He died near the present site of Sioux City and is buried nearby.

The Sergeant Floyd River Museum

We ended our tour at the Oscar’s Carl Vineyard. We shared a bottle of wine, had a picnic lunch and played some cards. The vineyard building is very cool because they allow you to bring in your own food and use the tables with no hassle.

Loveland, Colorado to Broken Bow, Nebraska

This morning we left Loveland and headed north into Wyoming. We stopped for a bit at Fort Laramie at the confluence of the North Platte and the Laramie River.

Fort Laramie
First Bridge over the North Platte River. It was built in 1877.

We are definitely on the plains now. We drove through Nebraskas Sand Hill country. It was beautiful and quite green. Tonight we are at the Arrow Hotel in Broken Bow, Nebraska.

The Great Plains
The Arrow Hotel

We had a fantastic dinner at the Kinkaider Brewing Company just outside of town. We sat outside. The temperature was perfect and we had a nice view of the lush corn field and green hills in the distance.

Dinner outside at Kinkaider Brewing Company

Loveland, Colorado day 2

Today we had a wonderful time exploring Loveland and the surrounding area.

We went for a walk across Pinewood dam. You can see in this fascinating video the dam they are buiding nearby. It has an asphalt core.

The new dam

We stopped to take a break and sit overlooking another beautiful reservoir.

Taking a break

We enjoyed talking and catching up.

Hattie enjoyed our conversation.

Rangely, Colorado to Loveland, Colorado

Sunday morning we spent exploring some of Dinosaur National Monument. Duke was here in the mid seventies and remembers taking the road to Echo Canyon on the Green River. So we drove the dirt road down to the same spot today. It was an amazing spot and he did a great job demonstrating the echo.

Echo canyon on the Green River
Duke demonstrating the echo

For lunch we had leftover pizza from dinner the night before. Then we drove the length of the park on more dirt roads. It is an absolutely beautiful park. And we didn’t see any other people on the road. It took us a few hours to get back to pavement. But we thoroughly enjoyed the drive.

Lunch
Dinosaur National Monument

From Dinosaur National Monument we drove to Loveland to see our friends Rick and Elaine. We went out to dinner at a great local restaurant, Henry’s. As we got there it started to rain. There was lots of thunder and lightning and it rained hard. The rain gauge back at the house said we got 1.6 inches of rain.