Hi Friends.
Kansas City was a fun place to check out, but we were excited to keep moving along our journey. This week, we spread out our time between Nebraska and Iowa. I originally thought that we would breeze past both states fairly quickly, but turns out that there really is beauty everywhere.
We started off in Omaha, Nebraska. I didn’t know anything about Omaha, besides the fact that one of my friends briefly lived there after college, so there wasn’t really any expectations I had for it. I find when we have no expectations in general, things end up being greater than we could have imagined. On Sunday when we arrived, we decided to go to the zoo. After a quick google search on the best things to do in Omaha, we discovered that this zoo is one of the best in the country. Who knew? It’s been a while since we did something like this, and they had a kennel we could put PepperJack for the day while we explored. It was easy to see why it’s ranked so high. There was not only so much to see, but the way they did some of the exhibits really felt like you were in the right climate and atmosphere where certain animals thrive. It was really something cool to experience.
The next few days we spent hanging out in the city. We went to a dog park after the zoo so PepperJack could get his energy out, and we met someone there, Shelby, that was gave us some ideas for where we should check out. One of her suggestions was to walk around the Old Market neighborhood. As we have said time and time again, whenever we ask a local on what to do or where to check out, we have never been steered wrong. The Old Market neighborhood is the historic downtown section that is full of bars and restaurants. It was awesome to check out, small but interesting.
Shelby was from Iowa, where we knew we were heading to next. She suggested if it was on route, to check out Pella. She mentioned it was a small town that had a heavy dutch influence and all of the buildings in the town had keep with the dutch feel. Luckily for us, it wasn’t too far out of the way. Pella is exactly how she described – a beautiful small town. This entire trip I kept saying I want to find the real life “Stars Hollow” and well, Pella is pretty darn close. We grabbed some dutch food before walking around the town. Small boutique stores, a big center green area with an info center in a building designed as a windmill. You can walk through brick-lined streets as well as go through an area with no cars at all that has a small “canal” running through it. Additionally there was a stand that had a list of all the town events that would be coming up in the next few months including a holiday tour of homes. We also stumbled upon a farmers market they had in the center of town. Our favorite thing we randomly happened upon though was a bunch of watermelons growing in the front yard of a church. But instead of it being part of a garden, it was randomly done and closer towards the sidewalk. We couldn’t leave town without getting a dutch letter and other baked goods from one of the bakeries in town. It was all incredibly delicious.
We ended our week in Dubuque, Iowa at a Harvest Host stay. It was right on the Mississippi River and borders Wisconsin. This town was also pretty cute. We spent our time here having some wine at the harvest host before walking up and down the riverwalk with Pepper Jack.
One thing that has been on our minds a lot this week is the case of Gabby Petito. She was a young 20-something woman that was part of the van life community. She was traveling around the US visiting National Parks with her boyfriend. Unfortunately, she went missing and we have now learned that she was killed and her body was found in Wyoming. Her boyfriend had fled and went to Florida and as of this writing is hiding out somewhere. While he was only known to police as being a person of interest at the time, I think it’s safe to assume that he’s more than that. It’s been heartbreaking to watch all of this unfold, but unfortunately she’s just one of many people that go missing every year.
Thanks for reading.
Leece
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