Day 10 The Completed Quest

We worked out that the Labor Day holiday is on Monday 5 September. This is good for us as it gives us three days to get to Duluth, Minnesota. For the long weekend we will be in Canada.

This morning was an early-ish start we were on the road just after sunrise. This was our first crossing of the Missouri River for the day. The first 100+ miles were on super slab. Boring but not a bad thing when wanting to get some distance down the road. That's ok as we will have some minor roads to finish the day with.

By our fourth crossing we were having breakfast in the Riverbend Cafe at Boonville. We had been discussing how much the river looked swollen, especially so for this time of year.

After Boonville we made our way through some small country towns making a diagonal line for Highway 24. We passed through Slater which had named it's road the Steve McQueen Memorial Highway. Apparently this is where he was raised by his grandparents.

Our path was a zigzag affair but not so many of the minor roads as first thought. We connected with Hwy 65N and then onto Hwy 36W to bypass Kansas City.

At St Joseph it was onto I29. There was a lot of water up close to the road in the lower lying areas. By the time we reached Corning there was evidence of significant flooding. Barns, silos and houses with water through them. We turned downed a road that was closed to get out of the way of the traffic and take some pictures. There was another vehicle here, too. It looked like he might be thinking about crossing the flooded road. He didnt, he turned around and told us that we were welcome to take as much water as we like away with us. We suggested Texas might like to have it. Taking the opportunity to ask a local, we found out that since the first week in June the flooding had started, thousands of acres of crops have been destroyed as well as all the damage to property. It would seem that there had been a delay in releasing the water from the dams and a very heavy snow melt. There's most of the detail in the news story here.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2011/2011-08-22-091.html

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-08-19-montana-governor-flood-meeting_n.htm

I29 was closed to all traffic, we needed to find our way to Rockport and then Hwy 275. At the intersection for Hwy 275 we saw road closed to through traffic signs. What now?! Best thing to do is find another set of roads slightly to the east of this and work our was around where Hwy 275 went very close to I29 and the flooding. With the technology on board and between us we found our way over a rough farm road and eventually back on track. It was reassuring to see semi trailers moving along the roads. If they were still travelling, then so were we.

About 32 miles south east Council Bluffs, we rejoined I29. We discussed whether we could continue on with our planned destinaton of Lincoln, Nebraska. There was still one more crossing of the Missouri for that and we would have to track through Omaha. The road messages were not encouraging us, there were highway closures in our general direction.

Executive decision - stop in Omaha for the night. After all it was getting to the time when we should be stopping. This will give us time to rethink our planned route for Minnesota.

Jack and Linda have been north of us and will be making their way south. We phoned them to let them know about the road closures and alternative routes. They have plans of staying in Omaha as well. Hopefully we can see them and show them our track log to set up their GPS.

Entering Omaha across the Missouri from Iowa, we also entered the state of Nebraska. This completes our quest, began over two years ago, of visiting every mainland state of the USA. We managed 41 states in 2009 over three months and the final seven in 10 days on this trip. We know from speaking to people here that only a small percentage of USA citizens have achieved this goal so we are proud of what we've done.

Sure enough, we saw Jack and Linda's SPOT track come quite close to ours so a phonecall and we all ended up in the one motel.

It was a nice evening sharing stories of the different ways we traveled for the last few days.

Tomorrow morning we part ways for sure with them heading south towards home and us heading north....

This one for Trev

We love the back roads

He grew up near here

Just when we get used to numbers....

Named after a couple of friends

Missouri flooding

The towns are cut off - for three months so far

Our alternative highway

Approaching Omaha. Not sure.

Thus completes our Quest