Snortin' "66" Norton

Snortin' "66" Norton
"Humpin' to Please!"

Monday, May 21

Day 14: Iowa is corny and what about Bob?











Okay, confession time. We're back! Yep, we've made it home and I've neglected my blogging duties for the past few days. Rather than leave you hanging, here's the rest of the story. Enjoy!

In Sioux Falls, SD, Thursday morning dawned bright and beautiful - not that we were awake to see the dawn. We had a date with Bob this morning - the "Road Food" famous Bob's Cafe was where we would be having breakfast. The Sterns were right on target with this one! Bob's is a tiny place and when we found it, we were afraid it was closed since there weren't many cars in the lot, but we were in luck! We entered to find a counter with maybe nine or ten stools, a couple of which were occupied. That was it! We were lucky to be able to order breakfast even though it was 11:00, although they were out of the Thursday-only special of caramel rolls. I ended up with the most delicious cheese omelet and hash browns that I've had in a long time, and Kim had her usual, only with REAL ham that looked yummy and she said it was! We talked to BenBob (Bob's is now owned by Ben, as best we could tell) and with some of the locals who came in for take out. Ben had us sign his guest book, and after reading the comments in it, we decided we could not leave without ordering some of "the best broasted chicken I've ever eaten" (a quote from at least a dozen people), so we got some for take out. Ben autographed our Road Food book and gave us directions to the falls (we were in Sioux Falls, after all!) and off we went. At least now we can say we've been to Sioux Falls because we've been to Bob's!

The falls were beautiful! Ben had warned us not to expect Niagara, but we were pleasantly surprised by what we found. The city has done an excellent job of showcasing its namesake! There was an observation tower so that we could see the full glory of the falls and the remains of the old Queen Bee mill that once stood seven stories high next to the Big Sioux River. There were lots of school kids on field trips, and we got a big kick out of watching one group roll down the grassy hill. It was that kind of day! From the falls, we did a drive by of the USS South Dakota Memorial, which was sort of neat. It was like they had buried the battleship until just its bow, stern, bridge, crow's nest, and guns were left above ground. Peppy was enthralled.

Once again we changed our route and instead of taking Highway 20 across Iowa, we opted for the more rural/less traveled State Rt. 3. First we drove south toward Sioux City, IA, which we originally had planned to visit, but since it was well past noon (okay, it was past one!) and we had read about ANOTHER Bob's that we just had to visit, we detoured again. This time our Bob's stop was in Le Mars, IA, Ice Cream Capital of the World. Who knew? Bob's Drive Inn is famous for its malted milkshakes and its 'loose meat' sandwiches. Guess which one we were there for! We both ordered and slurped down the best chocolate malts we've had since our daddy died. He made the best, no offense to Bob. Now it was time to get serious if we were going to make it to our Hampton (this time we had reservations!) in Dubuque, clear on the other side of Iowa.

We pretty much just drove for the rest of the day, enjoying the pleasant scenes of working farms, old and new barns and silos, cows, fields, farm machinery, and windmills. We stopped for gas, a giant Pocahontas, and a Kool-Aid stand manned by two cute kids. We were wanting to get to Dyersville in time to see the real Field of Dreams (at least it was real in the movie) but it was almost dark thirty when we got there. We went anyway, but since there was no corn growing yet, Shoeless Joe did not come out to play with us.

You may be thinking I totally left off the part where we stopped for dinner, but you'd be wrong. Remember that broasted chicken? After smelling it all day, we devoured it (and our pasta and potato salad) after we got checked into our home away from home in Dubuque. A couple of chilly ones were all we needed to complete the meal and we literally fell into bed. It was a great day, and it was my 27th anniversary, too. Thanks, Rex, for being okay with me galavanting all over the country!

Jan (the belated blogger)



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good post.