Back to Las Vegas – Slowly - Part 1
/‘Rushing’ is not part of our vocabulary lately, so the ~1800-mile trip back to Las Vegas from Schererville, Indiana took several days. We averaged 250-300 miles/day and strove to take frequent walks along the route and see what we could see… with the help of Trail Links and Atlas Obscura.
Schererville, IN to Iowa City, IA – 240 miles
We chose the I-80 to I-76- to I-70 to I-15 route to get home… all interstates. Not particularly scenic, but more direct and faster than the alternatives with the caveat that we could detour whenever we felt like it. It would end up taking us a full week to get home.
Yet another major canal? Who knew? Certainly not us.
Our first stop was the I&M Canal Trail in Joliet, Illinois. We never realized just how many hand-dug canals there were in the USA. We were familiar with the Chesapeake & Ohio since we’d just ridden the C&O Towpath Trail and then, of course, there’s the well-known Erie Canal. But the I & M?
Like the Chesapeake & Ohio, mules towed the barges along the canal. The tracks are now a walking path.
Taking 12 years to build, the Illinois and Michigan Canal opened in 1848. It was 96 miles long and connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, helping to establish Chicago as a transportation hub of the United States before the railroad era. With the expansion of railroad lines and the completion of the Illinois Waterway, it ceased operations in 1933, but much of it is now considered a national landmark and has been preserved.
We stopped at the Lower Rock Trail and walked a few miles along the canal which closely resembled all the other canals we’d walked or ridden recently. We spotted all the usual water-based critters in residence… geese, ducks, turtles, and a great blue heron. A new addition to the menagerie was a big muskrat.
A sign alerted us to be on the lookout for WOW. At I-80, Exit 284, we stopped in Walcott, Iowa for a leg stretch at the World’s Largest Truck Stop, a Pilot with 900 truck parking places and lots of amenities beyond fuel ranging from restaurants to barber shops to chiropractors catering to long haul truckers and travelers.
Nearby was the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum. Other than a chance to stretch a bit more, we really weren’t interested in the museum, but it was free and there, so why not? We were, therefore, surprised when we ended up spending over an hour learning about trucking history and wandering around the interesting display of trucks dating from 1910.
Just before heading to our hotel for the night, we detoured off the highway in Iowa City to check out the World’s Largest Wooden Nickel. According to Iowa City Press-Citizen, around 2000, the 16-foot diameter, 2-ton wooden nickel was built in a horse pasture as a political protest to a $7 million county project to widen, straighten and subsequently increase the speed limit on a local county road. An estimated 85% of the neighbors were opposed. Jim Glasgow, a local land developer, erected the wooden nickel during the protest with the message [Don’t Tread On Me] engraved and the not-so-subtle insinuation that the county’s proposal was “not worth a wooden nickel.”
Iowa City, IA to Omaha, NE – 250 miles
It was cold and sunny as we hit the road in the morning. Using TrailLinks and Atlas Obscura, we managed to find stops to offset the miles and miles of cornfields, wind turbines, cornfields, rolling hills, and cornfields. We’d spent time in Iowa before, exploring its covered bridges… especially the Bridges of Madison County, so we opted to find some new sites this time through.
Warm jackets, collars up, hands in pockets on this brisk walk.
We stopped in Urbandale, just outside of Des Moines for a walk at Walker Johnston Regional Park. It was cold and raw walking the park’s maze of intersecting paths. The sun peeked out occasionally and we relished walking in the intermittent shafts of warm sunlight, otherwise, the overcast sky and the stiff breeze ensured we kept up our pace to get back to the warmth of Blanche again.
There really wasn’t much to see along our path until we veered off the highway to Adair, Iowa to investigate the site of the First Train Robbery in the West perpetrated by the infamous Jesse James Gang on July 21, 1873. The gang held up the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad looking for a reported $75,000 gold shipment which actually had been delayed and wasn’t on the train. They netted about $3000 in currency and loot from passengers. Not only was it the First Train Robbery in the West, it is also considered the World’s First Robbery of a Moving Train. With all this interesting history, the site itself wasn’t much, but once again, we got a chance to stretch our legs.
In Council Bluffs, Iowa we couldn’t resist the Squirrel Cage Jail Museum. Who could? Just the name was intriguing… much more intriguing than the jail itself in actuality. According to the Historic Society of Pottawattamie County... Built in 1885, this unusual jail was in continuous use until 1969. It was one of 18 revolving (“squirrel cage”, "human rotary", or "lazy Susan") jails built. It is the only three-story one ever constructed. Built at a cost of about $30,000, this unique jail has three floors of revolving pie-shaped cells inside a cage. A patent issued on July 12, 1881, declared, "The object of our invention is to produce a jail in which prisoners can be controlled without the necessity of personal contact between them and the jailer."
So why call it a Squirrel cage?” According to the plastic-paged notebook we carried with us, it was so-named because it resembled the ‘squirrel cage’ employed on fans to protect users from the blades. We thought the $8/pp admission fee was a bit steep for what we got. Although it was a novelty, I think we probably wouldn’t recommend it.
Omaha, NE to North Platte, NE – 280 miles
Nebraska is a very wide state and by the end of the day, we were still in Nebraska. It was a cold 31F when we left Omaha. We passed by Milford and got a quick look at the World’s Largest Covered Wagon which was quite dilapidated with an asphalt shingled roof. We didn’t even bother getting out of the van.
World’s Largest (most dilapidated) Covered Wagon
Rolls and bales of hay littered the fields. Irrigation systems lay idle in flat, now-harvested acres . Some reminded us of prehistoric creatures or otherworldly oversize insects.
The highlight of the day? We stopped in Hastings, home of Edward Perkins, who in 1927, invented KoolAid. Hastings touts itself as the “Birthplace of KoolAid”, quite the distinction. Perkins was only in Hastings for four years, but the town celebrates KoolAid Days on the second weekend of August each year. Perkins sold KoolAid to General Foods in 1953. We checked out the World’s Largest KoolAid Stand. Didn’t take long.
Just outside of Hastings, we attempted to visit the Big Foot Museum. We drove by it twice expecting more than a small driveway to a private home. The museum was indeed there, but to our disappointment, closed.
In Kearney (pronounced Car-nee, we’re told), we stopped at the Nebraska Gateway Monument Museum. Its arch stretches over I-80 and is pretty impressive.
Inside is a museum, very commercial gift shop, restrooms, and tourist information. At $15/pp, we gave the museum a pass, but a nearby walkway provided ample opportunity to walk, get a little exercise and provide great views of the museum from across the river.
North Platte, Nebraska was our day’s destination and with all of our stops, we didn’t check in till after 6pm. An in-room, makeshift dinner and we were all tucked in for the night.
Next time, North Platte to Denver to Beaver, Utah and then home with lots of interesting stops along the way. Join us.