Livin' in the Midwest

Bare with me while I catch up on my blogging.

 

Back in September my neighbor invited me to her annual "Chick Ride on the Wabbash Trail" bike ride. 

The Wabbash is in Council Bluffs, IA and a group of women and I rode 10 miles on this beautiful trail:

to a city called Minneola and then the 10 miles back.

 

Minneola is...interesting.  This building was there - click on the photo to read the funny things written on the sideboards. 

 Then we ate lunch at the Steakhouse in town. 

I use the word Steak very loosely.  The smell of Lysol and cracked red vinyl booths is something I won't soon forget.  We sat outside (to the left of the shed restaurant in the photo) and as we were seated we noticed the tables hadn't been wiped off (maybe ever???) and asked the hostess if we could get them cleaned.  She had this mystified look on her face as she brought out a rag and handed it to us so we could wipe off the table ourselves!  The food was just as quality as the service.  Regardless, it was a fun afternoon on a beautiful fall day on a gorgeous trail.

A few weeks later it was Stake Conference at church.  And at the Neeley house, that means we get a Sunday off.  Yee Haw!  So we decided to go explore with the kids and drove about half an hour up to Fort Calhoun, NE.  We went to near by Fort Atkinson, which  "The reconstructed 1820's log fort is one of the premier historical sites in Nebraska and sits on 157 acres atop "Council Bluff," the site of the first meeting between the 1804 Lewis and Clark Expedition and the Oto-Missouria."  

A cabin

The Fort

Checkin' out the map.

Fighting over the water bottle.

The Fort is pretty cool and afterwards we stopped at the gas station for "big drinks", so everyone was happy.