Thursday 4-30-26 Visiting Council Bluffs & Walking

 

Sunset at Lake Manawa State Park

We had a chilly windy day. The morning temperature was 47 degrees and the high temperature was 56 degrees. It was windy and the wind kept it chilly all day. We did have sunshine.

The front blew in last night around 11:30 and stayed around until the morning. The front brought in a steady rain. This morning I wasn't in any hurry to get out of bed. I got up at 7:30 and got dressed. Then I made mini waffles for breakfast. 

After breakfast we went on a three mile walk for an hour and a half . We started from the Minnie and walked to the paved trail by the day area but where it yd off we went toward the power plant. We walked to a parking area, which was about a mile. Then we did the short loop trail, which was .8 mile long. Then we took the trail to the day area and walked by the boat ramp. Then we walked to Dreamland Playground and walked around it. Everytime we walk to Dreamland Playground there are parents there with their little ones. It's just an amazing playground. Then we walked back to the Minnie.

Dreamland Playground

 

As we were walking to the parking lot we saw a turkey walking very fast. We were wondering why he was running because nothing was there. After doing the loop we saw five other turkeys walking across the road. We were too far away to get any pictures. We had a great walk.

Larry finished reading a book he started yesterday and started another one. I played my games.

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Medium Mayhem of 27 games. It took me 1 hour, 28 minutes and 17 seconds, which put me in 8th place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

In the afternoon once it warmed up a little about 1:00 we drove the motorcycle to Council Bluffs. It was still a bit chilly but we didn't have to go as far today as yesterday. We went to the downtown area. It's an old downtown, the parking meters still use quarters. One quarter was 30 minutes. We fed our meter for an hour. 

First place we visited was Bayliss Park, which is a beautiful park with a lot of trees and gorgeous fountain. People say it gorgeous at night time because it's all lit up. There are benches all around the fountain and squirrels sculptures holding an acorn. There is a beautiful peach color wall at the Veterans Memorial Park. They have the list of people from Council Bluffs, who lost their lives defending our country in all the wars. There are stainless statues at the memorial park. We saw two black squirrels chasing each other because one had food in it's mouth. 

Bayliss Park

Part of the memorial wall

Sculpture of a man and woman looking for a name on the wall

 

A statue holding a flag

A statue representing the Arm Forces 

The fountain in the park

A picture from the web when the fountain is running

Two black squirrels playing in the park

A couple of squirrels sculptures at the fountain

Next place we visited was the Union Pacific Railroad Museum, just across the street from the park. It was in a historic 1905 Carnegie Library. It's the biggest one I have ever seen. It's a free museum about the 150 years history of the Pacific Union Railroad. It has displays on three floors. When we got to the second floor a gentleman greeted us and explained that the museum is in the process of getting remodeled and some of the displays are getting moved around. He showed us an exhibit of President Lincoln and Dr. Thomas Clark Durant discussing how to start the Pacific Union Railroad. The exhibits were in chronicle order from the construction of the first transcontinental railroad to modern freight operations. It had artifacts, photographs and interactive exhibits. The Native Americans didn't want the railroad to go through their land. So they had to convince them, that it wasn't going to take away their way of life. They had to hire law enforcement people to ride the railroad to protect the people from outlaws. A lot of famous actors and actresses rode on the train. Pacific Union Railroad provides all the artifacts, photographs and other stuff in the museum.  The gentleman was very nice and so were the two ladies who greeted us as we walked in the door. It was a very nice museum.  

Pacific Union Railroad Museum

Sculpture at the entrance of the museum

Lincoln display

Native American dress

The summit tunnel

The route the Pacific Union Railroad had

Law and Order display at the museum

Telegraph office display

A model train

Seating on the train 

Bar on the train

Some of the movie stars 

Union Pacific Sleeping Cars

Union Pacific Dining Cars

After walking around the museum we walked around the downtown. It was very nice and had some beautiful old buildings. As we walked they had tiles on the sidewalk about the historic buildings in the area, that were there at one time. In the center of the street, there was well manicured bushes with three sculptures of rabbits and each rabbit was a little different. Council Bluffs is a very nice city.

Downtown Council Bluffs

When we got back to the campground we put the motorcycle on it's carrier. While I did my night walk Larry covered it.

After dinner I walked around the campground for an hour and did five laps around the loops for 3 miles.

By the end of the day I did 18,000 steps. We had a super day.

  

Wednesday 4-29-26 Lake Manawa State Park & Fun Times in Omaha

 

A beautiful day at Lake Manawa

We woke up to a brisk 38 degrees. There was a little breeze. It got up to 62 degrees.

I wasn't in any hurry to get out of bed so I didn't get up until 8:00 am. Larry had already been up for a couple of hours. I got dressed and then made breakfast.

After breakfast we went on a walk around the park and to the Missouri River, a total of 3 miles. We started the walk from our site and walked to the park main road. We walked the road to the Missouri River, where there were two boat ramps. There was a huge power plant at the river, a lot of steam was coming from it's stacks. But if you look the other way you can see a very nice river. Then we walked the road back to where the paved trail was. We walked the trail the other way from yesterday. While walking we saw a few people walking and said hi to them. When we got back to the campground we walked around Dreamland Playground. It was a slower walk around because Larry read the signs. The signs explained the history of Council Bluffs and the playground and it's buildings. The buildings represented different buildings from the mid 1800s and the railroad. Each building had a sign explaining it. It's a great playground for the kids and we told the local mothers there with their kids it was. One cool sign was when the circus came to town. They let their sixteen elephants go for a swim in the river. This attracted We had a super walk.

Power plant on the river

Missouri River

The dreamland playground was first built in (1992 - 1993) and was re-imaged in (2016 - 2018). The playground was increased in size during the re-image from 10,000 square feet to 17,800 square feet. The original playground had 6 giant towers with connecting decking and an Elephant slide, Wiggly bridge, Monkey bar rings, Tire and chain climber, Funny mirror panels, Music panels and Tiny tots area with swings. The re-image playground now has unique Council Bluffs elements: General Dodge House (1869), City Hall/Police Station (1880), Dohany Opera House (1883)/Strand Theater (1916), Fire Station (1885), Nellie the Asian Elephant (June 25, 1905), Lewis & Clark (mahogany red rubber surfacing), Missouri River (blue rubber path), Lake Manawa (blue rubberized area) and Tiny tot area with swings. The playground had composite material throughout the area designed for endurance. It's a gorgeous facility.

Squirrel Cage Jail (1885) and Police Station/City Hall (1884)

Strand Theater (1916) and Dohany Opera House (1883)

Nellie the Elephant

Larry started a book last night and finished it today. He read his news groups and other groups he follows. He started a new book. He did research on where to go after leaving here.

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Easy Street Mini of 5 games. It took me 9 minutes and 30 seconds to finish, which put me in 20th place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

In the afternoon we went to Omaha, Nebraska to do some fun stuff. We didn't leave until 1:30, we waited because it was quite cool and we were taking the motorcycle, we also wanted to play pinball at Beer Cade 2 and it didn't open until 2:00. It was about 10 miles to downtown Omaha. We drove around the park to the Missouri River bridge and took it to Nebraska. They were doing a lot of construction in downtown Omaha so parking was a challenge. We were glad we didn't try to park the Minnie. The ride was cool but it wasn't too far.

We arrived five minutes early so we walked around. Beer Cade 2 opened right on time. Their hours are 2:00 pm to 2:00 am. They didn't serve food but they did serve 30 rotating beer taps. They have arcade games such as Asteroids, Frogger, NBA Jam, Ms. Pac-Man and others for a quarter. They had Cirqus Voltaire, Medieval Madness, The Addams Family, Cactus Canyon, Scared Stiff, Avengers, Stranger Things, Dungeons and Dragons, Junk Yard, Dial In, Attack From Mars (twice), Dr. No and Pulp Fiction. I played them all and Larry played a few. All the games were $.50 except Medieval Madness was $1.00 and Pulk Fiction was $.75. Beer Cade 2 was very clean the games were in great shape. The only complaint I have was on Cirqus Voltaire the Ring Master's head wasn't working and the Boom Balloons weren't working. They didn't do many matching at the end of a game. I got one match and Larry played that game. We played pinball for an hour and had a great time. 

Beer Cade 2

Playing Medieval Madness

The Addams Family

Cactus Canyon

Avengers

Junk Yard

Attack From Mars

Dr. No

After playing pinball we loaded back onto the motorcycle and drove a mile or so to walk around the downtown where they have great sculptures of Pioneer Courage and The First National Park 2002 Spirit of Nebraska's Wilderness. The Pioneer Courage Park has 100 life size bronze and stainless statues of pioneers expanding to the west. They were outstanding statues and huge.

Pioneer Courage Park 

Native Americans talking with the Pioneers

A man leading his oxen onward bound

Pushing the wagon out of the mud (part of the statue shows mud)

A family all packed up to move west 

Mom and older daughter walking behind their wagon

 

Family moving with all their belongs mother walking with baby in her arms

Mother and daughters walking on the hill

 

A boy and his hound 

Mother walking with her kids on a horse

One of the wagon masters making sure everything is moving on

The Spirit of Nebraska Wilderness statues were down the street from Pioneer Courage Park. As we walked the couple of block we saw a lot of bison bronze statues in buildings, on the corners and in the grass. It was cool to see. The Spirit of Nebraska Wilderness Park is linked with the Pioneer Courage Park, it pays tribute to geese and the buffalo. The statues are gorgeous. The statues show the geese flying and they are made out of bronze and fades into the stainless to show the changing in time. You once saw a lot of geese flying around now you don't see too many. Same goes for the buffalo, you use to see herds of buffalo roaming the plains now you don't see any at all. The grounds are very well maintained. While we were walking around we saw a couple of guys (one guy was pushing a mower and the other one was weed eating). They were doing a great job. They even had geese on top of the traffic lights. It was a great walk around.

The Spirit of Nebraska's Wilderness

A cow running with her calf

Geese in flight

A bull running through the grass

More geese in flight at the back of the flock

Geese at the beginning of the flock

Geese on a traffic light

After walking around downtown Omaha for an hour or so we loaded back on the motorcycle and started our journey back to Lake Manawa State Park. It was a challenge getting back because some of the streets were closed due to construction. But Larry figured it out because he had programmed the route back to the campground on his phone's GPS. We were almost back to the park when Larry saw a sign, that said ice cream. So he turned into the parking lot of Doozie's. Doozie's is a cute hamburger joint, that looks like it's in the 50s, they have a fake juke box on every table (doesn't play). The layout of the restaurant is very clean and open. The tables and booths are a step higher then the floor and the step has lights on it. The menu is old fashioned where you can read it and it doesn't keep flipping around. The employees were friendly and the service was fast. They have daily specials combos, todays special was the cowboy burger. The combo came with the cowboy burger (5 oz. burger patty with bacon, cheddar cheese, BBQ sauce and an onion ring on a toasted bun), you get a choice of fries or onion rings and a medium drink. We shared the cowboy burger, onion rings and a diet Pepsi. For dessert we had a butter scotch sundae. It was a lot of food and very good. We had a super experience.

Doozie's

Doozie's Restaurant

Our dinner

After eating we went back to the campground. By the time we got back we were tried. Before going inside we put the motorcycle back on it's carrier. After I rested a little while I went on an hour walk around the campground loops five times for 3 miles to get some steps. I ended up doing 17,000 steps.

Larry read while I went for a walk. He started a new book. After I finished my games I continued reading The Curse of Pietro Houdini.

We had a super day.