St. Joseph Missouri to Des Moines, Iowa

St. Joseph, Missouri - Des Moines, Iowa

         

July 26 - I stop in the morning for a coffee at McDonalds to use the internet, there are several old farmers there talking farm, the weather, the crops and other local gossip.  In rural areas I’ve seen this quite often, funny how McDonalds is the place these.

I take the more rural highway Rt 35 which has many small towns along the route.  I target the ones close to the road to make stops.

My first stop is Cameron :

He was everywhere

The Railroad was huge in Cameron 

They love Ozzie here

Beautiful fire truck

Nice Mural

Next stop is Bethany:

Miles and miles of cornfields 

A former baseball star

Impressive mural

Mural in the post office

The Court House

Monument to the last WWI soldier

Love those hat rolls

Next stop is Lanoni :

I am now on the Jefferson Highway

Next Stop is Davis City:

Skeleton on the upper floor caught my eye

As did the old steam tractor

A man was cleaning out this building, hope it wasn't going in trash

Next stop is Leon:

Another Jefferson Highway sign 

Another

Another post office mural

A very tall water tower

Another beautiful Court House

Next Stop is Osceola :  

Another post office mural

Big improvements on the horizon

Nice mural

Quite remarkable that I went into three post offices today with old murals from WPA times.

I arrive in Indianola, Iowa, kind of thinking that this might be my stop for the day, it has a vibrant downtown square and as I’m walking around I see a signs for the 2025 National Balloon Classic that happening right now.  I do have time to make the evening event if I leave quickly and it is only a few miles away, so off I go.  It turn out to be easy to get there, mainly just follow the crowd and I can buy a ticket on line when I get there.  It’s a huge event here, there are about a hundred balloons participating, it’s a huge show field with lots of food vendors, a country band of course and thousands of excited customers.  The balloons take off from another area and then come over the show field where they descend and toss their bag aiming for the target.

Many nice buildings

I do have time to make the evening event if I leave quickly and it is only a few miles away, so off I go.   It’s a huge event here, there are about a hundred balloons participating, it’s a huge show field with lots of food vendors, a country band of course and thousands of excited customers.  The balloons take off from another area and then come over the show field where they descend and toss their bag aiming for the target.

It was pretty interesting to see them descend practically over your head as they aim for the target.  I left after the grand event finished, had no interest in the country band playing.

Everyone loves festival food

The crowd is excited

Balloon taking off 

Balloon descending over my head

Dozens of Balloons drifting towards the target area

I then left to beat the rush out of the parking lot. I didn't care to hear the country band. I then decided to drive straight to Des Moines  

for the night.

July 27 - It’s being a Sunday, I am wondering what to do, but the top priority is getting a hotel for the night, I’m ready for one.  I find one, My Place Hotel, a few miles away which is very convenient to the Prairie Meadows Casino and Racetrack (not sure that is a good thing), and also a entertainment place with huge roller coaster rides.  There are also several restaurants, including a Texas Roadhouse in the vicinity.  

I go check out the Casino, it’s huge and I donate a few dollars to their cause.  This area of Des Moines is called Altoona, like the town in Pennsylvania and I find out why when I ride down the road and find the old downtown area.  Like so many big cities, they are usually made up of several small towns that eventually grow into one another to become the current huge metropolitan area.

The rase track

I can walk to the Texas Roadhouse from the My Place Hotel and I know it will be crowded so I go early, I still am lucky to get a seat at the bar.  The overly exeberant waitress was a hoot, very goofy but nice.  I order a 6 oz steak with baked potato, my old favorite.  The meal was perfect although the Texas Roadhouse giant TV screens featuring nothing but sports and country music in your face along with the loud Ya-Hoo and clapping for everyone celebrating anything was annoying. 

July 28 - I leave the hotel at noon, got to get the most for my money !  It’s then a ride to downtown where first stop is the Iowa Capital building which I have seen on a previous trip. I have lots of photos of the interior, which is great, but I don’t need to do it again. On the last visit however, part of the exterior was hidden by scaffolding in place for exterior work, so I just walked around the building exterior taking photos.

 I then drove to the downtown area stopping at a Missouri Riverside park area where I walked over river on the pedestrian bridge. The river due to much recent rain was pretty wild and interesting. 

The river is high

I then went looking for the downtown area where most of the restaurants and bars are located for a little excitement but it being mid afternoon most places were closed and it was more boring than excited.

I was looking forward to Annie's but it was closed

Super hero

   

I then checked on the internet for live music on a Tuesday, not expecting anything great and I didn't,  but there was one possibility at Lefty's.  It's was a couple of miles away and as I walk in I see the wall painted with portraits of music legends.  I now remember being here in the past, but it seems a little more trashy now.  There were a few punk rock type bands playing short sets to a weird crowd who at times were pretending to be in a mosh pit, it was pathetic.  I don’t really like this type of music, it's mostly just crap, but I do actually like the passion and spirit of it.

Those are the murals I remembered from the past

I slip out after an hour and have one of best turkey sandwiches I’ve ever eaten at a nearby Dough, CO restaurant.   I then headed for a Walmart a couple of miles away for the night.

I received the bad but not unexpected news from Sue that out most loved car Alice died over the night. She had a tumor and has been slowly fading away for a few months now, not in much obvious pain, but the time came, she is now in Cat Heaven.  She was a great one! 

July 29 - I do laundry in the morning at a super clean place, actually called the Clean Laundry with like new machines then head back downtown to the State Historical Museum of Iowa which is enormous.  It was free and you could spend days there if you read everything.  I had less than two hours on the Parking meter which limited my time, so I rushed through.

 

Did I mention the parking situation in Des Moines ?  It is horrible, they have number tags on every parking spot, then you go to the nearest meter and have the option of pay by the app or credit card.  I find that most don’t work with a credit card and it tells you to try another meter. You then try another meter and another and it gets extremely annoying as they rarely work.  Parking garages usually don't work for me either as the van is too tall. Possibly, the app works but I don’t like to give my information to this unknown business. I think I might be doing something wrong so at the History museum I ask the attendant at the desk and he said everybody has problems, the system is horrible. 

I then see streams of people on the way to the baseball game, it’s huge here of course which reminds me of back in St. Joseph the Kansas City Chiefs were coming there for a training camp and there were signs for it all over town.  Then I saw a practice session being shown on a local TV news channel with all the spectators wearing their red jerseys. 

It’s been very hot, humid and rainy here, the rivers are all flowing at the tops of their banks and last night the thunder storm was scary, the rain, wind, thunder and lightning were as bad as anything I’ve seen.  I’m deciding where to go next and if I should avoid river areas ?  

As a result, I’m leaving Des Moines in the morning before it floats away, heading to parts unknown.