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.