Aug 19 Day 3

Where are Tom and Lennie Now? - Click here for our current location !

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Day 3 of our trip, and we wake up to another cool morning. The morning temps have been great for riding!  

While packing up the bike and trailer this morning, I had a conversation with a fellow from Canton Ohio. He and his wife were traveling with another couple, both couples being on Goldwing trikes. Unfortunately, the drive shaft broke on his trike, it then flipped around under the bike and busted up the rear trans-axle. Needless to say, the bike will be out of commission for a while. A local Honda dealer is helping to get a new rear trans-axle and drive shaft, but they have to get shipped from California. The dealer is telling him it will be ready Tuesday! I was surprised he was in such good spirits. Instead of letting the issue ruin his trip, he and his wife rented a car and will continue on to visit South Dakota.  They will pick the bike up on the way back home.  Seems like a good approach?? I felt really bad for him as I thought about how a mechanical issue while traveling on a bike can really put a damper on a long road trip.

On to happier topics...  

Our plan for today was to get through the rest of Iowa and across most of Nebraska.  We will end up in Ogallala for the night.

Talk about a sleepy ride...  Nothing to see but corn, trucks, corn, wind turbines, corn, cows, and did I mention corn?

We ran through a stretch of Iowa where we saw at least a hundred wind turbines in the corn fields. When we run across these wind farms, it always amazes me to see that most of the time only half (or less) of the turbines are actually spinning.  Not sure why that is ??? 

We passed under this interesting bridge in western Iowa.  There were two large sculptures mounted at each end of the bridge. It was really hard to tell what they represented while flying by on the highway.

So, a quick look on the internet when we got to the hotel, and I found this information. The sculptures were created by a fellow named Albert Paley, and are called the Odyssey.  The sculptures are meant to be a gateway into Iowa and the City of Council Bluffs.  They stand at 100 feet above Interstate 80. This bridge and its sculptures is a prioritized site within the City's Public Art Master Plan (whatever that means). Click here to read more about the city-wide Public Art Master Plan.

While other single works of Paley's are larger in scale, Paley's Odyssey is his largest composition, with each of the four individual sculptures ranging from 46 to 61 feet high and weighing in at 46,000 to 70,000 pounds. Public Art & Practice assisted with the selection process of the artist, contract negotiations, and coordination of planning efforts for this project. Communication from the beginning between all parties allowed the Iowa Department of Transportation to properly engineer Paley's plinths (located at the four corners of the bridge) based on Paley's estimated weight, wind loads, and dimensions during initial 2009 bridge construction.

Paley's design for the site includes four works of art constructed of bronze (which has a green patina), Cor-Ten steel (which develops a rust color) and brushed stainless steel (which reflects sunlight). Each material was chosen to represent the dialogue between the land and air and sky and light, as well as minimize future maintenance expenses (love the artsy talk, but it all looks like a jumble of metal to me).

The area of Council Bluffs is so excited about the sculptures and bridge, they actually have a webcam so you too can view the magic... click here.

Shortly down the road from Council Bluffs, we cross the Missouri River, which takes us into Nebraska.

This was the welcome sign as we entered into Nebraska.  Pretty neat mock train bridge with a couple of locomotives and tenders.  But wait, what does the wording say....  "Welcome to Omaha" ???  We are right near the city of Omaha, but why doesn't the sign say Welcome to Nebraska???  I guess only the folks in Omaha City care about us, and the remainder of folks in Nebraska could give a crap?  Omaha is not even the capital city of Nebraska, it is the largest, but Lincoln is the capital???  I guess it will just remain a mystery.

And the straight, boring, corn lined roads continue in Nebraska. I am glad Lennie is with me on the bike, otherwise I may be inclined to fall asleep. At least there was not much traffic today.

We ran across a couple of trucks transporting these... more blades for those wind turbines that never seem to be turning.

With the car in the foreground, you can really get an idea of the size of these blades.

What's this?  Another bridge with some sort of sculptures on the ends?  Like the last one, this is pretty much in the middle of no where...

Another internet search, and here's the scoop...

Turns out, this is the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument in Kearney, Nebraska.

The Archway is a relative newcomer to Great Plains tourism, it was installed in grand style in a single night, and opened in 2000. Using giant multi-wheeled transporters, the 1,500-ton, 309-foot structure was rolled across the highway in one piece on the night of Aug. 16, 1999. The interstate was closed for eight hours while the archway was locked onto its support platforms.

The interesting part...  there's no exit ramp for the Monument!   Try attracting speeding drivers to stop at a privately-owned, $64 million "log bridge" arching over busy I-80, with NO exit ramp.

The exit access problem was a shock to investors, no doubt; the workaround is a winding service road from a public exit a few miles west. Tepees and wire buffalo decorate the roadside. "Oh Shenandoah" plays on loudspeakers in the parking lot.

The structure -- a dream of Nebraska’s last living three-term governor, Frank B. Morrison Sr. -- was designed by a Walt Disney team from Orlando.

Perhaps we missed an interesting tourist spot, but needless to say, we did not stop in...

Bet you never thought reading this blog would be so educational did ya??

Most of Nebraska has pretty high speed limits.  With the wide open road and little traffic, most folks tend to travel closer to eighty five !!!  With our trailer in tow, we decided to stick to 75, staying in the right lane out of everyone's way.

Tomorrow we will make our way across most of Colorado, ending up in Grand Junction.  Once we get past Denver, the scenery should start getting a little more interesting.

We covered 473 miles today from West Des Moines Iowa to Ogallala Nebraska. This brings the trip total to 1210 miles. Below is a map of the route from today.