Exploring a new State

Day 28 - Monday - A New State

Today is Memorial Day.  We discovered two things about the Midwest:
(1)  Most attractions including state and federal park visitor centers are closed on Monday;

(2) The fact that it's Memorial Day maks no difference to this closing.

So this means that most of the things we want to see won't be open.  However, we're close to Sioux City Iowa which has a riverboat museum that will be open, and neither of us has been to Iowa, so that's our destination.   We travel along country roads so we can see a bit of the rural part of the new state.  I'm expecting nothing different from South Dakota - prairies - but as soon as we cross the Missouri river, everything changes.  The farmland reminds me of rural New England - smaller farms and little villages.  It's a pleasant drive and eventually we arrive in Sioux City and find the MV Sgt. Floyd.

Sgt. Charles Floyd was the only member of the Lewis and Clark team to die during the journey.  He succumbed to a disease they couldn't cure (it's now believed to be appendicitis) and was buried with full military honors on a site near the Missouri and an unnamed river that's now called the Floyd.  His grave is marked by an obelisk that looks like a small version of the Washington Monument.  The riverboat named in his honor is not in the river, but close to it, and contains a museum with more info on the L&C expedition as well as the history of riverboats on the Missouri, and relations with the native inhabitants.

We spend several hours there, learning few new things about the Corps of Discovery but a lot about riverboats and the fur trading industry.  The Missouri is shallow and riverboats were redesigned for safety on it.  The original boats had wheels on each side, but these could be fouled by floating wood or other debris.  The Missouri boats had a single paddlewheel at the stern, giving the whole boat the chance to clear out the debris before it hit the wheel.  They had a very shallow draft.  They were also prone to fire, apparently over 400 of the 700 known to ply the Missouri ended up burning down.

We had a good meal in a family restaurant, and then drove home via I-29.  The cats celebrated Memorial day by sleeping!