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Day 1
Sunday, July 9th
Westward Ho!
We headed out of Cedar Rapids this morning on Hwy 30, the Lincoln Highway, for a brief stop in Montour, Iowa to take care of some family things. Montour is now a tiny town of about 200 people, when the railroad closed the depot many years ago, things started going downhill as so commonly happened in small towns. |
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First stop - Tama, Iowa for a quick look at the Lincoln Highway Bridge, this is a great bridge! |
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Then we took to the old stretch of the Lincoln Highway through downtown Tama and into the countryside to Montour. Just east of Montour, there is still a set of well cared for Burma Shave signs. Finally, we got a good set of photos on a nice sunny day!
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After our stop in Montour, it was back to "new" Hwy 30 and southwest toward Interstate 80. While we'd prefer driving the Lincoln Hwy, Portland is still about 2000 miles away and we need to get there on time for the pen show! | |
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Walnut, Iowa is famous in these parts for antiques, probably 20 nice shops here. So, a good place to stop and picnic for lunch and do a little pen hunting. We found Memorial Park on the edge of town with a nice shady pavilion, welcomed in the 90 degree temps. |
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Even though this travelogue started in Cedar Rapids this morning where we picked up Kayla, for Frank and I it started about 4 am in Fort Madison. By the time afternoon hit, we were taking turns driving and sleeping enroute to Grand Island, Nebraska, our home away from home for the night. So, not a lot of picture taking.
We found a fun spot for dinner in Grand Island though - The Bonzai Pizza and Beach Club right downtown. The pizza rivals any big city pizza we've had and if you're ever in Grand Island, you should check it out, complete with a funky plastic shark over the front door! |
Day 2
Monday, July 10
Driving through Nebraska
Nebraska is a long state, but plenty of things to stop and see and do along the highway, never boring! We were aiming to visit places we had not taken Kayla to before.
First stop - Gothenburg, home to one of the original Pony Express stations. Actually, it wasn't originally in Gothenburg, but was moved here from a ranch a few miles north. The station dates to about 1861.
Onward to North Platte, home of Wild Bill Cody! Cody's original ranch, home and stables are preserved in a state park on the north end of town. Very well one and lots of old original posters and signs from the Wild West Show. Note the photo of Wild Bill's office, nice inkwell on the desk! Yep, buffalo out back, they were having a lazy day!
In western Nebraska, near Sidney, a glimpse of the mountains in the distance
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Nice neon and well cared for buildings
along the Lincoln Hwy in North Platte |
Between Cheyenne and Laramie, our stopping point for the night, there are some beautiful rock formations. Also saw the antelope at play, but they scoot around too fast for photos from a moving car!
Day 3
Tuesday, July 11
We took a little drive through Laramie this morning, past the University of Wyoming and into the historic downtown area. Many beautiful old Victorian buildings with a hint of wild west frontier style.
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We drove out of Laramie on scenic route 130 toward Centennial, Wyoming and the Medicine Bow National Forest past the Wyoming Territorial Prison, now a historic site. |
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Hwy 130 is a beautiful 2 lane winding road that takes us into Centennial. Very touristy, ski area, high real estate area. Nice for a stop to stretch and stop in a few shops and drop off postcards at the tiny post office. Even though we are far from Route 66, the Old Corral Hotel had a map on their front porch! |
This is where the deer and the antelope play! Sorry, no deer, just antelope today! |
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Upward we go past Centennial and into the Medicine Bow National Forest, the mountains and scenery here are spectacular. Still a good amount of snow in some areas in mid-July. Kayla was wishing she wasn't wearing her flip flops about now! |
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We could have stayed in this beautiful area much longer, but still need to get to Portland for the pen show, so it's back to the interstate and westward through Wyoming and into Utah. The oil refinery shown is in Sinclair, Wyoming and the magnificent red rocks are right at the Wyoming-Utah state line.
Day 4
Wednesday, July 12
Two years ago when we drove this stretch of I-84 through Idaho, we were just about bored to tears, granted we were also running a little behind schedule, so not much time to sight see. This year, we we were not bored at all and found all sorts of beautiful scenery and things to do. Yay! Much better perception of this part of Idaho now.
Our first stop was to see Shoshone Falls, the Niagra Falls of the West as it was called, along the Snake River near Twin Falls. Shoshone Falls was part of a lovely state park and aside from seeing the falls, we found a nice spot to picnic.
We caught back up with Hwy 30 again and took the old route through Twin Falls and along the Snake River Valley, it was very beautiful along the way.
Frank and I can easily stay off the beaten path for days, but Kayla still needs a little civilization and breaks from nature, so we made a little stop in Boise at a shopping mall to regain 12 year old sanity!
Onward to Oregon and Baker City for the evening. Baker City turned out to be a great little town, and in fact reminded me a little of Fort Madison. Beautiful Victorian architecture including the Geiser Grand Hotel amongst other buildings. We had dinner at a fun little local micro brewery and restaurant with local and Oregon grown food - good stuff! Especially the espresso stout I tried!
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Our journey on Thursday will take us along the
Columbia River into Portland, another stretch with amazing scenery.
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Day 5
Thursday, July 13
Another beautiful day as we head out from Bakery City, Oregon toward Portland.
First stop - La Grande, a quaint little Victorian town tucked away in the mountains, great scenery, great architecture including an old Union Pacific Depot
Spectacular views along the Columbia
We stopped at Multnomah Falls two years ago and revisited briefly for a break from driving again this year and to gaze at the falls again. A nice afternoon stop, quick tour through their nice gift shop, ice cream cones and fresh cherries, too!
We got into Portland late afternoon, nice to arrive early and have a little time to get re-settled for our four days here. Frank and Kayla spotted a theatre just down the street and they are anxious to see Pirates of the Caribbean!
Day 6
Friday, July 14
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It's nice to be back in Portland and the northwest! Even though we've only been to this area of the Pacific Coast once before, I can see where a Friday trip to the ocean is becoming traditional. The coast is about 70 miles west of Portland, a short and scenic drive through dense forests, farming country and mountains. Our destination is Tilamook, home of the Tilamook Cheese Factory. |
I read a little on Tilamook before we departed from Iowa, and the Cheese Factory looked interesting. Huge factory and self guided tours where you can look down on the factory floor to see the cheese being, weighted, sliced, inspected and packaged. Very high tech and very efficient - well, at least it looked that way to us, seeing none of us had ever been to a cheese factory before! Of course there was the cheese shop, and a gift shop, plus two ice cream shops to try out the Tilamook ice cream, excellent, the hardest part being, trying to decide amongst the vast array of flavors - mocha espresso for me, bubblegum for Kayla and ultra chocolate for Frank.
We decided to let the ice cream settle a bit and drive part of the Three Capes Loop, a scenic route that goes between bay and ocean on a tree canopied winding road in the mountains. Good choice, Spectacular scenery again and no traffic whatsoever. The entire loop is 78 miles, we traveled a good part of it.
Oceanside was a cute little town right on the Pacific, we stopped here to dip our toes in the water and find a spot for lunch. Pleasantly surprised, we walked into Roseanna's, a cute cafe with fabulous food that we discovered later is a popular place for many who visit here. Delicious seafood all around, plus Marionberry Cobbler to die for!
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We wound our way along the Pacific further on the Three Capes Loop, and finally had to turn back toward to Portland. After being to the cheese factory and learning a little about the dairy farms in the area, we got a chuckle our of this line of cows being herded toward the milking barn east of Tilamook |
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Traffic was thick as we neared Portland. I would think people would be leaving the city for the weekend instead of heading in, but perhaps they were all arriving for the Portland Pen Show!!
We were running a little behind, but made it to the show's Friday evening reception for a chance to catch up with everyone there for the show. Great fun and Carla and her crew go all out for these receptions which make the Portland Pen Show even more special.
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Days 7 - 8
Saturday, July 15 - Sunday, July 16
Portland Pen Show
The Portland Pen Show, sometimes referred to as a small show, is not so small, as some of you who have not attended may have thought! Nearly doubling in size to over 50 tables this year, there were more than enough pens to keep everyone entertained for several days, not mention a warm, friendly atmosphere conducive to renewing old friendships and making new friends, too. You can't ask for better host than Carla Mortensen and the Portland Pen Club gang. Excellent venue at the Embassy Suites-Multnomah Hotel. Put Portland on your list of pen shows to go to, I'm sure you won't be disappointed! We had a great time and can't wait to come back!
Photography by Kayla
Day 9
Monday, July 17
Seattle
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The next part of Portland Pen Show Adventure takes us north to Seattle. I have not been to Seattle in about 40 years and neither Frank or Kayla had been here, so it was time for some new territory. We drove north on I-5, the most direct route, and suitable scenic, but probably not as nice as some of the smaller roads, but we'll have to give those a drive another time. On the excellent advice of friends in Portland, we decided to visit Mt. St. Helens, we were not disappointed one tiny bit. Lovely drive toward the mountain, about 50 miles and the route is dotted with informative, well done Visitor's Centers which are all worth visiting just themselves. |
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We stopped at the Coldwater Ridge area for a picnic lunch, doesn't get much better than having lunch with a view like this!
The scenery on the drive up changes quickly and often from spectacular forests, mountain vistas and wildflowers to stark devastation. When Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980 it created an entire new landscape, and an ever changing one as the wildlife and vegetation slowly recovers. Well worth the side trip, I'm glad we took time to do this.
We got into Seattle a little later than originally planned, but got to see the nighttime skyline.
After a brief stop at our hotel to unload and get our bearings, we walked over to visit the Space Needle. Kayla was a little unsure about the elevator ride up and the sheer height, but once there, she was just fine and had a blast! It didn't hurt than in addition to 360 degree vistas and just the sheer fun of the pace Needle itself, there was a huge gift shop, remember - Kayla is a pro shopper - LOL
Day 10
Tuesday, July 18
See Seattle Day
Today was "See Seattle Day" and being good travelers, plus with a little planning, we squeezed in a lot!
Our first adventure was to ride the Duck! The Duck is a WWII era land and water vehicle that was loads of fun. We had a wonderful Captain/Tour Guide/Driver who was also a commercial fisherwoman during the winter and a Seattle native. She was great and we got far more than we expected in our land tour of the waterfront area and downtown, plus a ride on Lake Union Highly recommended tour and I'm not real big on the tour scene.
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Driving through downtown, the owner of the Three Dog Bakery and his two dogs came to the door to wave and say hello. Now if you've never bought your dog treats from Three Dog, do it right away! We get the cats "Pity the Kitties" salmon treats from here and they are hooked. |
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The last photo shown is the houseboat used in the movie Sleepless In Seattle. We had a lovely tour of Lake Union. I loved the floating houses!
After our Duck ride, we drove down to the waterfront to spend the rest of the day there. Feat number one was finding a parking spot we fit into and could back back out of! Then it was off for a Harbor Cruise with great views of the city from the water. We saw huge container ships, the ferries that run back and forth to Victoria and just wonderful water views all around. Nice way to see the sights, learn a little more about Seattle and sit back and relax for an hour on the water.
Next up was the Seattle Aquarium. Very well done with multitudes of fish and sea creatures to look at. Our absolute favorite though were the sea otters - they were just irresistible!
One of my favorite stops today was the Pike Place Market, a conglomeration of small shops of all kinds both inside and outside with everything and anything you could imagine. A feast for the eyes! We wandered for a long time just looking and people watching. Made a stop at the very first Starbucks which started at the market, talk about a small shop grown to huge proportions (about 4 new stores open every day!). Grabbed some local berries and baked goods - all delectable!
Down many fights of stairs, back to the waterfront for seafood at Ivar's, a walk along the water and stops to enjoy the abundant flowers
Our last stop for the day was at the Nordstrom flagship store downtown to take Kayla for a little shopping and a lot of looking! I have fond memories of getting one of my first pairs of "nice" shoes in this very store when I was about the same age as Kayla, so it was nice to reminisce a little and wonderful to visit what might be one of the best shoe departments I've ever seen! Perfect for Kayla, remember, she's a pro shopper - LOL!
Day 11
Wednesday, July 19
Today is a driving day, in and out of the mountain and forests across Washington, Idaho and into Montana. Also our longest mileage day at close to 500 miles, which means we didn't stop to see as many things a we usually do. Sometimes you just have to put some miles behind you!
The photo below shows Mount Rainier which wasn't overly visible today, you have to squint a little bit! Also Snoqualmie National Forest
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These little chipmunks were being well taken care of by staff at a rather remote rest area in Washington. Cute!
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Tribute and monument to wild horses in eastern Washington
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We all got a kick out of the signs for George, Washington, I daresay the town founders were quite creative in naming the town. 
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East of George, Washington is very agriculture and we passed endless fields of sweet corn, carrots, potatoes, and even peppermint! Something we had not seen before, in empty fields were these weird dust devils, mini tornadoes spinning in the dust. Hard to catch on camera because they popped up out of nowhere, not to mention we were driving 70mph and snapping photos through the car window. |
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We love this part of Idaho we cross through and stopped in Wallace two years ago. We dropped in again to get the car kinks out, walked around town, stopped in a few shops and grabbed huckleberry ice cream to cool off. |
Days 12 - 13
Thursday, July 20 - Friday, July 21
West Yellowstone, Montana
Base camp for us for the next few days is West Yellowstone, Montana, a small town just outside the East Entrance to Yelllowstone National Park. Year round permanent population of about 1,000 people, probably tripling in the summertime with tourists who stay here for proximity to Yellowstone. We liked it here, just the right mix of tourist and local things to do, excellent restaurants and for Kayla, shops that stayed open until 10PM at night! For food, if you are ever here, the Bear Tooth Restaurant specializing in BBQ and only BBQ is a must stop for dinner, this is the first place I think we've ever been to west of Kansas City that make Frank's fave BBQ list! The Grizzly Discovery Center is also worth a visit, they shelter bears and wolves who have either been orphaned or had to be removed from the wild for endangering people. Sadly this happens when people forget these magnificent animals are wild and they think feeding them will help them, in the long run it only hurts because they get brave, approach people for food and the rest of the story is not good, don't feed the bears!
Days 12 - 13
Thursday, July 20 - Friday, July 21
Yellowstone National Park
Between Frank and Kayla, we had dual cameras going and I conservatively estimate they each took approximately 5 gajillion photos each!! Needless to say, I can't show them all here, but we'll put many of them into a scrapbook when we get back to Iowa. I sort of picked through them and I hope you'll enjoy the splendor of Yellowstone as much as we did.
We took two days to see as much as we could, without having to rush a whole lot. Far busier on Saturday as we suspected it would be, and especially at Old Faithful, but all in all, except when a large wild animal was spotted and cars pulled over wherever they could, traffic moved along nicely and very few crowds or lines anywhere, I was relieved.
I went to Yellowstone a number of times when I was growing up and have fond memories. Frank and I last went to the park in 1977. In 1988 Yellowstone was ravished by forest fires, so we knew the scenery would be different, and it was, but the new growth was moving along nicely in areas that had been pretty much devastated and there were areas that were exactly as we remembered them. One thing the folks at Yellowstone do so well is letting Mother Nature take her course. There was actually a forest fire while we were at the park, we heard about it before we arrived, saw the smoke and it was winding down when we left. Amazing that Yellowstone is so big, that never one did we come anywhere close to crossing paths with it.
We managed to sneak peeks and get photos of mule deer, elk, buffalo, moose and assorted birds including a monster size eagle's nest. But, alas, no bear sightings for us on this trip. Kayla and I made it a habit to rub the noses of all the bear statues we encountered, and we think we probably just didn't rub enough good luck bear noses!
An awesome two days with more scenery than can be soaked in, lots of walking and surprises around every turn. If you've never been to Yellowstone, definitely try to get there, an experience you'll never forget.
This was Kayla's photo of Old Faithful
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The best part of the drive for me was leaving the park via Sylvan Pass at the East entrance to the park, headed toward Cody, Wyoming. I knew the views would be awesome, what I didn't know was that 7 miles of the pass had been stripped down to gravel, guard rails removed, sheer drops to the passenger side of the car - this didn't please Frank a whole lot since he was the one looking out the window and straight down, but it sure was a great drive!
Day 14
Saturday, July 23
Cody, Wyoming
Our home away from home after leaving Yellowstone was Cody, Wyoming, about 50 miles east of the park. Cody is an old Wild West home and stomping grounds of Wild Bill Cody (remember seeing his him in North Platte a couple weeks back? Scroll up!) We got downtown in time to see the nightly staged shoot out in front of the Irma Hotel, built by Wild Bill, had dinner at The Irma (excellent and the inside was beautiful and mostly authentic), and we wandered the shops downtown for awhile.
Day 15
Sunday, July 23
Cody to Thermopolis
We had under 100 miles to drive today and we all welcomed a little extra sleep! We left Cody and headed out Wyoming state road 120 though the mountains to Thermopolis. Towns are few and far in between in this part of the country, but about midway is Meeteetse with a few restaurants, a Museum that looked nice from the outside and some shops, also closed - it is Sunday and not much shopping today! However, the Meeteetse Choclatier was open and I find it hard to pass up a good taste of chocolate so in we went. Yummmmmm! Hand mode chocolates and baked goods - Frank and Kayla had chocolate croissants, I opted for a lemon brownie. Well worth the stop! Check out their website, you can order chocolates by mail once summer has passed: http://www.meeteetsechocolatier.com
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I spent much time in Thermopolis growing up and was last back here 3 years ago, but Frank had never visited so we managed to sneak in the better part of a day here, home of the World's Largest Mineral Hot Springs amongst other things. It was too early to check in to our hotel, so we took a quick tour around town and up to the buffalo pastures at the edge of town. As you can see from the photos, the buffalo were not out in the pastures, but waiting for us in the road - perfect! |
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We have figured out that Kayla is not an outdoors girl - LOL! However, I did convince her that the world would not come to an end if we climbed down the edge and waded in the Big Horn River in Wind River Canyon, OK - actually, I waded, Kayla stood on a rock! Clear, cold water!
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After dinner, we went on a carriage ride through town and then to the Star Plunge. The Star Plunge is a complex of pools built in 1900 that are fed from the hot springs, water temp is always around 100 F and you can swim year round. The mineral water is high in sulphur content and good for you, people come from around the world to swim here. The deer you see in the photo below had come down off Round Top Mountain and was calmly wandering the street, not an unusual sight in town. |
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Day 16
Monday, July 24
Thermopolis to Torrington
Today mostly a driving day, once east of the Wind River Canyon, the scenery turns more to the range of the high plains, the mountains are further in the distance. Elevation through this area is still about a mile high for most of the day though, deceiving because it just doesn't look or feel that you are that high up!
We left Thermopolis through Wind River Canyon, this is Hwy 20 that winds along the river. The wood structure in the photo is the end of a train tunnel.
The Big Horn was dammed in the early 1950s to form Boysen Reservoir
Towns are far apart the further we drive east. Most are very small, some as few as 10 people! Unfortunately many have not survived the years well, but no ghost towns yet! This is also oil country and you see many oil wells and what I call Trailer Towns set up on the edge of towns for oil workers.
About 40 miles east of Casper is Hell's Half Acre. This is one of my all time favorite tourist places. I went into shock when I saw a Closed Sign nailed over the Hell's Half Acre highway sign and knew it was true when we pulled in to find concrete barriers blocking entrance to the parking lot and the windows of the shop boarded over. Worse, the little motel had been torn down. So sad. Hell's Half Acre has been around forever and was once a thriving tourist stop with restaurant, bar, motel, campgrounds, gas station - the whole works! Aside from the tourist stuff, there's a lot of historical significance to these 320 acres (not just a half acre!) of bizarre scenery in the middle of the range. Indians used this area to herd buffalo off the steep cliffs into the canyons and it's presence was noted by early explorers in the 1830s. Downright shame that another roadside legend is no longer open. We explored quite a bit and took lots of photos to remember Hell's Half Acre.
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We stopped in Casper for gas and a bite to eat. At well over 100 degrees and not a spec of shade in sight, it was not a good day to picnic! We also drove through Douglas, home of the Jackalope - this one may be the world's largest! If you don't know what a jackalope is, you'll have to travel out to this part of Wyoming to find out! |
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Our stop for the night was Torrington in extreme eastern Wyoming. Old railroad town with a great downtown that still serves it's original purpose and has not become empty storefronts. Check out the great theatre neon below!
We're headed back into Nebraska tomorrow morning.
Day 17 - Tuesday, July 25th
Back to Nebraska! Torrington, Wyoming to Grand Island, Nebraska
Don't ever let anyone fool you into thinking Nebraska is a long, flat, hot in the summertime state with nothing to do. My parents used to tell me that when we'd drive across Nebraska from Iowa to Wyoming, I think they were just making excuses so we didn't have to stop - LOL!
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Our trip today took us out of the far eastern edge of Wyoming and into Nebraska on mostly byways. First stop Scottsbluff National Monument near, you guessed it - Scottsbluff, Nebraska. These odd rock formations jutting out of the prairie are on the Oregon Trail and were once landmarks for the pioneers making their way west. |
This photo is of the original Oregon Trail. What puzzled me was why the National Park Service, usually very conservation oriented felt the need to put asphalt down on a dirt trail full of wagon wheel ruts and weathered by the years! Still pretty cool to walk *on top* of a piece of land known to be part of the Oregon Trail!
Aside from the asphalt on the trail, the Scottsbluff Monument is a nice place to visit. Glad we had the time to visit. |
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This is Chimney Rock, another landmark used by the pioneers....we were starting to run a little behind though, and only viewed the rock from the road! |
Destination for tonight was Grand Island, for no other particular reason that it was far enough to drive for the day and put us close enough to Omaha for a short drive in to the zoo tomorrow.
Day 18
Wednesday, July 26th
Lions and Tigers & Bears, oh my!
We've now been on the road 18 days, each one enjoyable! Sometimes, though when you get toward the end of a long journey, you start thinking about how nice it would be to be back home and instead of continuing to enjoy, you rush on home. So, we purposely made plans to visit the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha today. We had heard so may good things about this zoo, it sounded like it would definitely be worthwhile - and it was!
We left Grand Island early, hoping to get to the zoo fairly early and beat some of the midday heat. We didn't leave early enough! Hovering around 100 F when we arrived at the zoo and just walking across the parking lot a short distance and we all worked up a good sweat! It felt like about 150 degrees - honest! What I do know was it was getting hotter by the moment! Heat aside, we still had a fun day at the zoo. Had to cut it a little short to recover in some air conditioning, but not so short that we didn't get to visit most of the exhibits, and even took a little train ride around part of the zoo. If you enjoy zoos, the Henry Doorly zoo is one to put on your list to visit! We took lots of animal photos for our scrapbook. A few are here for you, I thought Frank's tiger photo came out fantastic!
We met up with our friend, Kim, for a lovely end to the day - dinner on the Omaha waterfront at Rick's Waterfront Cafe. Good food and good company!
Day 19
Thursday, July 27th
Our last day on the road!
Today was the last day of our Portland Adventure. Instead of leaving Omaha and taking the most direct route, I-80, we decided to drive a bit north and take the Lincoln Highway to Cedar Rapids. We have both been on I-80 in this stretch more times than I care to think about, but Frank had never been on this stretch of Hwy 30 and it had been several decades for me, so almost as good as new! Turned out to be an excellent choice. We passed through many small, but thriving towns in western and central Iowa. The terrain along here continues to be rolling hill as a good part of Iowa is. I have to keep reminding ya'll that Iowa is not as flat as some you seem to think! LOL.
We made a few stops, first the tiny town of Dow City, Iowa which had one of those brown Historic Attraction signs. This was for the Dow House, sitting on top of a hill on the south end of town and unfortunately closed, so I can't tell you anything about it other than showing you a photo. Also in Dow was a well kept city park with this nicely maintained Rick Island RR caboose.
Our next stop was Carroll where we could tell something was going on - streets filled with people, lots of balloons, so a stop to investigate was in order! Carroll looked to be about the size of Fort Madison, maybe 10,000 people and in spite of size, had to drive around several times to find a parking spot. The downtown area was having their annual Ridiculous Days Sale, aside from people filling the street, all of the merchants had their wares set up outside. Nice festive atmosphere and good place to stretch our legs and yes, for Kayla to do a little shopping. Nice antique shops here, but not too much in their pen departments! Once again the temps were rising, too and we were quickly approaching 100 degrees again. Oh, and no, I do not know who that woman is that walked into our photo!
Continuing our eastbound drive, we decided we should make a quick stop in Ames, home of Iowa State University and also the place where Frank and I met well over 30 years ago. Lots of memories here, also lots of road construction on Lincolnway, the main drag through town. We wound our way through Campustown and the University to downtown Ames and found a nice Pub with microbrews made on the premises for a quiet, quick and cool lunch. Hmmm.. maybe we should try to find our first house, actually a tiny duplex that we could barely afford on that old student budget. After much driving around and getting turned around, with a call to Heather to pull up mapquest for us (who put all those new roads in?!?), we finally found it! Mission accomplished, time to hit the road again!
Just outside Marshalltown (no, Resa, NOT Marshmallowtown!!), we lost the old Lincoln Highway. No, we didn't get off onto the new Highway 30, we missed a sign amongst the cornfields and once again wandered aimlessly seeing Marshalltown in the distance, but taking a bit to figure out which gravel road was the right gravel road to get back to a main road! Kayla has never been with us on our Route 66 adventures on these older roads and tends to roll her eyes at us a lot when we get too far off the beaten track! Obviously, we got it figured out otherwise I wouldn't be back at the computer writing this!
After Marshalltown and the grave roads in the cornfields incident we figured it was probably time to get going and we drove the last 60 miles straight on to Cedar Rapids through LeGrand, Montour, Tama and Toledo and onto the new Highway 30. Heather had dinner waiting, we got most of Kayla's things separated and untangled from ours and after a brief stop and eat, we made the two hour drive down to Fort Madison in the dark, on deer alert!
Great trip, lots of unchartered territory, lots of things we'd like to go back to and visit further and some things we didn't have time for that we'd definitely like to check out in the future. Three weeks on the road, 4,388 miles! Thanks for traveling along with us, nice to have your company.
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About 40 miles east of Casper is Hell's Half Acre. This is one of my all time favorite tourist places. I went into shock when I saw a Closed Sign nailed over the Hell's Half Acre highway sign and knew it was true when we pulled in to find concrete barriers blocking entrance to the parking lot and the windows of the shop boarded over. Worse, the little motel had been torn down. So sad. Hell's Half Acre has been around forever and was once a thriving tourist stop with restaurant, bar, motel, campgrounds, gas station - the whole works! Aside from the tourist stuff, there's a lot of historical significance to these 320 acres (not just a half acre!) of bizarre scenery in the middle of the range. Indians used this area to herd buffalo off the steep cliffs into the canyons and it's presence was noted by early explorers in the 1830s. Downright shame that another roadside legend is no longer open. We explored quite a bit and took lots of photos to remember Hell's Half Acre.
We've now been on the road 18 days, each one enjoyable! Sometimes, though when you get toward the end of a long journey, you start thinking about how nice it would be to be back home and instead of continuing to enjoy, you rush on home. So, we purposely made plans to visit the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha today. We had heard so may good things about this zoo, it sounded like it would definitely be worthwhile - and it was!
Continuing our eastbound drive, we decided we should make a quick stop in Ames, home of Iowa State University and also the place where Frank and I met well over 30 years ago. Lots of memories here, also lots of road construction on Lincolnway, the main drag through town. We wound our way through Campustown and the University to downtown Ames and found a nice Pub with microbrews made on the premises for a quiet, quick and cool lunch. Hmmm.. maybe we should try to find our first house, actually a tiny duplex that we could barely afford on that old student budget. After much driving around and getting turned around, with a call to Heather to pull up mapquest for us (who put all those new roads in?!?), we finally found it! Mission accomplished, time to hit the road again! 
