Council Bluffs - Omaha

We arrived at the Elk's Lodge on Thursday. It is a small lodge near a residential neighborhood. We parked on the far edge and have a house next door and a big hill out the front right windshield. We have been on the outlook for the buck and his harem. The lodge people are so friendly and told us we can stay here "free" until we get our tires next Tuesday.

Friday we toured the Squirrel Cage Jail. This is a model. Here is a link to it. The jailer & his wife were able to take care of all the prisoner's by mean of a turntable jail. Three tiers with lots of cells on each level. The jailer cranked a handle and when a cell came to him he would give him a tray of food.

Each cell was meant to hold 2 prisoner's but they had held up to 5 or 6 prisoners each of the cells.
This was a full size cell.

We also toured the Union Pacific Railroad museum next door.

We drove by the Golden Spike Memorial.
In the evening we volunteered to help with the steak dinner the lodge had. Bob helped cook the steaks on the outdoor grill and I helped in the kitchen serving the rest of the food and taking the plates out to the diners. We served 14 dinners and got our steak dinner and drinks free. Got to know the members a little better also.

We headed to the zoo as Diana recommended but the crowds were so huge it must have been free day. We just kept going and left. We toured the Dodge House instead. General Dodge was the person who started the Union Pacific railroad that created the railroad line west from Council Bluffs to the Pacific. He was an amazing man and had a lovely home. BTW did you know the railroad created the time zones that were finally adopted by congress?
We also went to the Lewis & Clark monument.

Sunday we again tried the zoo and was more successful.

We went early and by the time it got real hot and crowded we went to the IMAX and saw the Lewis & Clark movie. We will be crossing parts of it in our Dakota's Sundowner.

Monday we rested. We spent a great deal of time in the Lodge visiting with the people as it was HOT while we were there and it was air conditioned inside. Our friend Ron Walker arrived. They thought our rig was long. All they could say when they saw Ron's was "holy s..t". We are 65', he is 78'.

Tuesday was a very LONG day. We arrived at Camping World at 7:30 am for our 8 am appointment. Disconnected the trailer. We went our to breakfast and when we got back the MH was still outside. We went into the lounge and read. They finally took the coach into the bay around 11:30. Started to remove the first tire when their impact wrench broke. They called for another one to be delivered. We went shopping at Bass Pro and to the casino nearby for an early dinner. As we were driving back fully expecting all to be done we noticed our MH heading for the freeway. Back at Camping World there was a truck with our tires ready to head out. The replacement wrench wouldn't work with the air hose they had and they couldn't get a new one. Soooo they took the MH to have someone else do the changing. At 6 pm our MH was returned. The manager's decided that since we were so patient and uncomplaining they would knock $200 of the price of the tires. They ate the difference in having to have some other company change the tires. Gave us the $30 rebate per tire without us having to send for it and then when we were getting propane topped off the store manager told Bob that the propane was free. We estimated that it was at least another $75.

We hit the road around 7 pm and got to the Lewis & Clark State Park at Onawa, IA where we met Ron Walker who had saved us a site next to him.