Saturday January 12, 2008

Bob's Journal

Thursday July 03, 2003

It’s not a dry heat. 85 degrees at Midnight in St. Louis. Long and pretty much uneventful day. We got in late so our hotel room is the best we can do for a picture. I have been looking forward to this trip for sometime. Our trip will take us over 3200 miles over the next ten days. Tomorrow we get underway in earnest. From Fort Wood, where the Corps of Discovery launched its boats, to Kansas City. Happy Fourth of July. Good-night Carla.

Friday July 04, 2003

Hi Kim. Day two of our trip was full of Lewis and Clark faire as well as heat and humidity. We started the day at Camp Wood, where the expedition spent the winter before the expedition began. There we viewed our first of many Keel Boats. Afterwards, we went to downtown St. Louis to visit the Gateway Arch. Here we faced our most perilous challenge. We found ourselves on the wrong side of a 4th of July Parade. We forded the parade between a bagpipe band and a float and made our way to the Arch. There was a fair going on around the Arch along with an air show. We went to the Museum of Western Expansion under the Arch.

After the Arch, we made our way to a local Cemetery to view William Clark’s grave which is where we took our picture of the day. The location was chosen on a hill with a view of the Missouri River. Now the view is mainly that of a rail yard. It was interesting to see the many generations of Clark’s descendants buried in the family plot. Next stop was St. Charles Lewis met up with Clark and the Corps proceeded up the Missouri. In St. Charles, we viewed another Keel Boat and two pirogues, which are large, open boats that resemble dories.

In the evening, we went to Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City to see the Royals play the Detroit Tigers and watch the fireworks display after the game. One curious thing I noticed was the locals’ habit of watching the game while standing in the aisles. The heat and humidity at the game was, as one local weatherman said, “incredible”, 90 at 9:00. I told Steve that I wasn’t walking back to the hotel until the temperature dropped into the seventies. He said that wouldn’t be until September, so we did what all good So. Cals do and left in the seventh inning. We watched the fireworks from across the street, in front of our hotel. We were surprised at how many illegal fireworks were being shot off around us.

Day three will take us 350 miles to Sioux City, Iowa, the birthplace of my lovely and fetching wife.

Saturday July 05, 2003

So, I’ve been told to stop whining about the heat. I will. As I write this from the Hampton Inn in North Sioux City, South Dakota, we are in the midst of a thunderstorm and a tornado watch. The heat is the least of my worries.

We started the day at the Truman house in Independence, Missouri. We had a very interesting tour of the home and then went to the Truman Presidential Library. While this wasn’t exactly Lewis and Clark related, Truman did have framed letters written by Lewis and Clark in his office.

Our first Lewis and Clark experience of the day came at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. It was there that the Corps of Discovery landed on July 2, 1804 and celebrated the Fourth of July before continuing north on the Missouri. This is where we took our picture of the day. Also at Fort Leavenworth, we visited the Buffalo Soldier Memorial and the Frontier Army Museum. We then drove north toward Iowa, passing through Atchison, Kansas, the birthplace of Amelia Earhart and St. Joseph, Missouri where we saw the Pony Express Monument.

When we got to Council Bluffs, Iowa we got lost, but finally found the Lewis and Clark Memorial. It was worth the search. The Memorial was situated on top of a ridge, far above the Missouri River. From the park, we were able to view Council Bluffs, Omaha and the River. Somewhere below this point, Lewis and Clark met with the Oto and Missouri Indians.

After this we continued north to Sioux City, Iowa, got a preview of the Sgt. Floyd Memorial from the highway and in to North Sioux City, which we were surprised to find is actually in South Dakota. There are Casinos and fireworks stores everywhere and besides the lightning, fireworks are being shot off all around our hotel.

Day four takes us back to Sioux City and then up to Yankton and Pierre in South Dakota.

Sunday July 06, 2003

We survived the tornado watch from last night. We did get quite a lightning and thunder show though.

We started the day at the Sgt. Charles Floyd Monument in Sioux City, Iowa. Sgt. Floyd was the only member of the expedition to die on the trip. He died of what is believed to be a burst appendix and was buried atop a hill overlooking the Missouri River. In 1900, the residents of Sioux City erected an obelisk over his remains to create a memorial.

We next went in search of my wife Carla’s childhood home. We found that home, her Mother’s home and the home of two of her uncles. Afterward, we drove back by the Floyd Monument, down Floyd Drive to the Floyd Welcome Center which is located on the Floyd Steamship. It seems that Sgt. Floyd made naming things easy for the residents of Sioux City by dying near the city. At the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, we took the picture of the day which we took in front of a statue of Lewis and Clark and Lewis’ dog Seaman. The statue is called “Discovery Spirit”. The original is in Missouri, this is the third copy we’ve seen.

After leaving Sioux City and Iowa, we traveled to Vermillion, South Dakota where we hiked about a mile through restored grassland and climbed a hill that the Captains called “Spirit Mound”. The local Sioux Indians told Lewis and Clark that this hill had special mystical powers and that it was guarded by 18” tall devils with large head that would kill all that approached. We saw none of these, but maybe they missed us.

We then traveled through Yankton, where the Corps met the Yankton Sioux, Chamberlain and into Pierre. It was south of Pierre, in what is now Fort Pierre, that Lewis and Clark met the Teton Sioux. Their three day stay with the Teton was very tense and almost became violent several times.

Also in Pierre, we visited the State Capitol and the spot where Canadian explorers claimed the area for France in 1743.

Tomorrow we head Mobridge, Bismarck, Washburn and finally to Minot, North Dakota. Near Washburn is where the expedition spent the winter with the Mandan tribe.

Monday July 07, 2003

Summer ended on the Northern Plains today. We awoke to rain, cold win and basic non-Summer weather.

We left Pierre this morning and drove north to Mobridge, South Dakota. In Mobridge we visited a monument to Sacagawea. No one knows exactly where she was buried, most think 30 miles north of the monument location at the site of an old Army fort in 1812 at the age of 25. The monument was erected near the site of the grave of another Native American, Sitting Bull. Sitting Bull’s grave is on a hill overlooking the Missouri River and the town of Mobridge. From there we had a great view of the river and the surrounding plains.

We then drove to Bismarck where we went to the site of Fort Abraham Lincoln. The fort was the command post for General Custer from 1872 until his death in 1876. Custer’s house at the fort has been rebuilt on the exact location of the original. Several other fort buildings have also been rebuilt. We got a tour from a guide who gave the tour as if it were 1875. She acted as if we were arriving to stay at the house and attend a social that evening. We were both surprised at how opulent the house was for the 19th century prairie. Also in Bismarck, we went to the State Capitol. It is different from most capitol buildings as it lacks the usual dome and more resembles an office building.

We got back in the Lewis and Clark mode when we next traveled to Washburn, S.D. There we went to a re-creation of Fort Mandan, the fort that the Corps of Discovery built and lived in during the winter of 1803-04. Here we took the picture of the day with a volunteer dressed in period costume. We also went to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Washburn which offered the usual Lewis and Clark faire.

As today, when we saw the Custer and Sitting Bull related things, we have deviated from time to time to see attractions not related to Lewis and Clark. We thought it would be a shame to come all of this way and miss some great examples of United States history. There have been some things that we have passed up though. They include…

The Elvis is Alive Museum

The Agricultural Hall of Fame

The Strategic Air Command Museum

The Doll Museum

The Corn Palace

The Classic Car Museum

Several Stockyards

And other slices of Americana

We arrived tonight in Minot, North Dakota. This state is a first for me. Minot is the kind of town where people will come out of the Denny’s just to admire your Ford Fairmont.

Tomorrow we have a 500 mile day ending in Billings, Montana and another non-Lewis and Clark piece of history, the Little Bighorn Battlefield.

Tuesday July 8, 2003

OK, first of all, the guy from yesterday’s picture of the day has not joined our trip.  He worked at the fort…we hope. 

Today was almost void of Lewis and Clark related attractions.  The only thing close was the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers.  The Corps of Discovery camped there and William Clark surveyed there and recommended the location as a trading post.  John Jacob Astor heeded that suggestion and opened a trading post called Fort Union in 1829.  We visited a recreation of the trading post built on the original location. 

We also saw the location of Fort Buford, an Army Fort up river from Fort Union.  It was in the Fort Commander’s house that Sitting Bull surrendered to the Army. 

After seeing these two Forts, we traveled into Montana.  After Iowa, Nebraska and the Dakotas, we saw something in Montana that we hadn’t seen in awhile…a hill.  We moved from the plains to a more mountainous geography.  We also left Lewis and Clark’s outward route of the Missouri and moved along Clark’s homeward route of the Yellowstone River.  The main reason we did this is to visit the Little Bighorn Battlefield south of Billings, Montana. 

The Little Bighorn Battlefield was my favorite place we visited.  It was very well done and gave us a new understanding of Custer’s Last Stand.  We were surprised about the immenseness of the Battlefield, over five miles between the Custer battlefield and the Reno/Benteen battlefield.  Seeing the marble monuments placed where the US Soldiers fell also gave the “legend” of this battle more reality.  The newly dedicated Indian Memorial also brought to light the Native American point of view.  In front of the “Last Stand” memorial, where most of the 210 soldiers were buried in a mass grave, is where we took our picture of the day. 

Tomorrow, we are back on the Lewis and Clark trail.  We visit Pompey’s Pillar, named for Sacagawea’s child Jean-Baptiste and move on to Great Falls where the Corps of Discovery faced its most daunting Challenge.

Wednesday July 9, 2003

Montana has been a great state.  Great scenery, great food, interesting sites and very accessible laundry facilities have made these two days truly enjoyable. 

We started this morning driving to Pompey’s Pillar.  This is a rock formation about 28 miles east of Billings.  It was named after Sacagawea’s infant son who was born on the trip.  What makes this extra special is that Captain Clark “tagged” this place on the return trip on July 25, 1806.  He carved his name and the date in the side of the rock formation.  There are steps up to the signature site. The signature is encased in glass and there is video surveillance.  We took the picture of the day here. 

We then drove to Fort Benton through a mountain range and across some beautiful high plains.  Near Fort Benton is Decision Point, which is at the confluence of the Missouri and the Marias Rivers.  It was here that the Captains had to decide which of these two rivers was the true Missouri.  After nine days of exploring they went against the opinion of all of their men and chose the southwest river.  They chose wisely. 

While in Fort Benton, we saw the “Shep” memorial.  Shep was the dog of a sheepherder.  The sheepherder died in 1939 and his body was taken away by train.  Shep waited for his master to come back and met every arriving train for the next three years until his death.  After a good cry over this one, we moved on to Great Falls. 

The Great Falls of the Missouri River have been controlled by dams.  We did get a nice view of the remains of the Great Falls from an island below Ryan Dam and viewed a very nice interpretive center in Great Falls.  The corps had to portage around this series of falls.  They had figured it would take a half a day, it took two weeks. 

We then headed into the Rockies and to Helena.  We had seen the Missouri as a big, dark wide river in St. Louis and now we saw it running swift, clear and blue as a mountain river.  Helena is a pretty town with a nice downtown. 

Tomorrow we see the head waters of the Missouri, head further into the Rockies, across the Bitterroot Mountains, into Idaho and finally to Oregon.

Thursday July 10, 2003

Today we drove a lot.  We started in Helena, MT and headed south to Three Forks.  It is near Three Forks that we saw the Headwaters of the Missouri River.  Lewis and Clark came to this spot in August of 1805.  Here they found the three rivers whose confluence forms the Missouri. 

We first went to where the Jefferson and the Hamilton Rivers join.  The US Geological Survey calls this the Missouri’s start.  About a half mile downstream, we came to where the Gallatin joins in.  Lewis and Clark called this the Headwaters of the Missouri.  We, of course, think Lewis and Clark were right. 

We next drove through Butte, Missoula and up over Lolo Pass into Idaho.  The Lolo Pass and the river canyons on either side constitute over 100 miles of mountain driving.  This was a grind.  We ended up falling short of our goal of Hermiston, OR and ended up staying in Walla Walla, WA.  The heat returned today, well over 100 when we got into Washington. 

Friday July 11, 2003

"Ocian in view! Oh, the joy!" These were the words Captain Clark wrote in his journal on the moment the Pacific Ocean came into view.

 Well we could spell better, we pretty much felt the same. We started the morning in Walla Walla and drove down the Columbia River to Portland. There weren't many major Lewis and Clark faire along the way. This mainly due to the ease the Corps had traveling on the Columbia. There only main event was the portage at the cascades of the Columbia and getting sick on salmon the Native Americans gave them.

 From Portland we drove the final 90 miles to Astoria, OR. This is the site of Fort Clatsop, the Corps' winter quarters the winter of 1805-06. They had originally arrived at the Pacific on the Washington side of the Columbia. Because of storms, they decided to move across the river to Oregon and find a more sheltered place to winter. The location and recreation of the Fort were great. The staff at the Fort gave talks and demonstrations on daily life in the Fort.

After our stop at Fort Clatsop we moved on to view Cape Disappointment. This was the Corps' first attempt at winter quarters. Sadly, true to its name, we were disappointed in our stop there. The visitors' center was still under construction. The view of the ocean and the lighthouse were beautiful, but not great for Lewis and Clark seekers.

 We headed back to Portland to spend our final night on the trip. When we got there, we saw that we had put over 3,500 miles on the car (less than Clark's figure of 4,120). We wondered when the last time this car had an oil change.

Home tomorrow. See you then Carla.