Trek Americana

Much of our journey through America's heartland has followed the Lewis and Clark trail. Meriweather Lewis and William Clark were commissioned by Thomas Jefferson to find a route through the newly acquired Louisiana Territory in 1804. They set out from St. Louis and followed the Missouri River northwest through what is now Kansas City, Omaha, Sioux City and Chamberlain, South Dakota, before heading into North Dakota and across Montana. We picked up the trail in Independence/Kansas City on July 4.

The Missouri River

In Omaha, we stopped at a monument to Sergeant Charles Floyd (Serjt. Floyd), who was the only one of Lewis and Clark's 40-man expedition to die during the trip. After dying from what appears to be appendicitis, he was buried on a bluff overlooking the Missouri. Lewis and Clark named the area Floyd River and Floyd Bluff in his honor. The cedar post which marked his grave was replaced in 1901 by an imposing 100 ft. sandstone obelisk, but the view remains spectacular.

Down the road from Floyd Bluff is a minor league baseball park, where we spent the evening watching the Wichita Wingnuts defeat the Sioux City Explorers, 2-0.

The weather was hot and muggy, but the beer was cold (note the teardrop trailer on the packaging of Single-Wide IPA), and the air-conditioned Walmart across the street turned out to be a good place to cool off after the game.

Walmart has proven to be a bright beacon of respite on this trip, as the company's policy is to allow weary truckers and travelers to spend the night in their parking lots. Many Walmarts are open 24 hours, and the bathrooms are clean and the clerks friendly. It's almost hard to believe that only 210 years after Lewis and Clark first traversed the continent, Walmart may, in fact, be their legacy -- the new true blue heart of America.