The Freedom Rock and Sidney, NE
Our stay at the Cracker Barrel in Clive, IA was quiet and uneventful, we slept a little later, had a tasty Cracker Barrel breakfast then hit the road. While in the restaurant I struck up a conversation with one of the clerks, she suggested we stop at the Freedom Rock. Located just off of I80 south of Greenfield, IA it was convenient and had ample parking for the big rig so we decided to take a look. The Rock is just that a very large hunk of grant sitting by the side of the road. In 1999 Ray “Bubba" Sorensen II a 19-year-old Iowa State University student asked if he could paint the rock in honor of the US Military. Inspired by the movie Saving Private Ryan to dedicate this rock, that had been a target for graffiti, into a memorial. People soon began to travel to see his work and honor the men & women depicted. When a couple asked to scatter the ashes of their son around the rock, he offered to incorporate them into the paint and so now all of the green paint contains the ashes of fallen heroes.
Beginning each year in May, he paints new symbols honoring all the branches of the military. Iowa now has a Freedom Rock in many counties with the ambition of having one in each county and one in every State of the US.
Tom and I were fortunate to stop just after a group of Iowa National Guard arrived. They explained the origins of the Rock and allow me to take their picture with it. One soldier told us they were on the Freedom Rock Tour, visiting each of the county rocks. She was very knowledgable and interesting story teller. So if you are traveling across Iowa and see the sign for the Freedom Rock on I80, please take the time to visit and honor our military heroes. If you cannot visit the Rock you may like to look at the past murals and read more at http://www.thefreedomrock.com
Western Iowa proved to be quite hilly, with huge farms spread across them. As in a previous visit, we observed the terracing of the hills to prevent erosion. The contrast of the deep green of the shrubs and grasses on the terraces with the brighter greens of the new grown was striking. Soon we passed through Council Bluffs and were crossing the “Wide Missouri" a beautiful sight.
Skirting Omaha, (I could not get Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins out of my head) we passed through hills similar to the Iowa side of the river until we came on the edge of the Platte River Valley. Stretching across western Nebraska the Platte is a tributary of the Missouri River and drains the Northern Great Plains. Its valley provided the roadway for the great western migrations to Oregon, California and Utah. The trail along the Platte was based on an old American Indian trail, then developed by the Mountain Men and the fur trading companies, used by the western migrations, the first transcontinental railroads, US 30 the first transcontinental auto route now I80. This area was considered to be the "Great American Desert", that the good land was on the West coast. It seems strange to me that they fail to recognize that millions of Buffalo and thousands of Indians thrived in this desert. This great plain of the United States stretches for miles in either direction of the interstate, the farms are huge, the visible trees line the cause of the Platte as it twisted from one side of the highway to the other. To the North we could see a line of ridges paralleling the valley to the South for many miles only fields of grass, and corn. Eventually the cultivated fields gave way to all grasslands dotted with large herds of black cattle. The flatland began to rise up into rolling hills as we turn north towards a destination for today at Sidney, NE.
Tonight we are in Sidney, NE at the Cabela’s RV Park. Sidney is the home of the Cabela’s stores. From an elevation of about 1000’ in Omaha we are now at about 4000’.
Tomorrow we are going a bit north to Scott’s Bluff, NE to visit Scott’s Bluff National Landmark, Chimney Rock National Landmark and Fort Laramie, WY.
June 9th, 2016