Gf Wabash Trace



Connie leans on a Silver City sign attached to an
exquisite mural along the WT. The next town is

Malvern, Shenandoah, Coin and Blanchard

Although the Wabash Trace (WT); located  in southwestern Iowa, did not add a bunch of latitude to my overall goal of cycling border to border; it has been a trail I have ridden the most often, except for Iowa City area trails. If memory serves me, at this age maybe it doesn't, I believe I can account for nine rides on the WT.  The WT resides on the Iowa side of Missouri River across from the Steamboat Trace on the Nebraska side. The WT is a nice sixty-five mile Iowa trail that diagonals from Council Bluffs southeast to Blanchard, Iowa. This trail was built on an abandoned Wabash Railroad rail bed, a rail line that connected Omaha to St. Louis. This railroad was active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Those who have heard the 1828 American Folksong, the Wabash Cannonball, may find it interesting that the Wabash Railroad actually named its train from St. Louis to Detroit the Wabash Cannonball after the song. Years ago, the Wabash Railroad carried mainly freight from Kansas City to Omaha.  When the railroad went “belly up”, trail enthusiasts struck a deal to convert the rail bed to a recreational trail.

The white line is the Wabash Trace. Southwest
is the Steamboat Trace (red). Most of WT cuts
down through the Loess Hills National Natural
 Landmark---thousands of square miles of fine
windblown soil known only of this magnitude
here in Iowa and a region in China.
 

In the future, trail riders should be able to ride on from Blanchard, Iowa to Marysville, Missouri; eventually connecting to one of the nicest trails in the country, the two hundred thirty mile Katy Trail (KT). I will blog more about my experiences on the KT in the future.  Like most trails, the conversion of the Wabash rail line to a recreational trail was done in sections. Several times Connie and I rode the first section from the Iowa School for the Death to the tiny town of Mineola. The beauty of rolling into Mineola, especially late Saturday afternoons, was the tantalizing aromas from the Mineola Steakhouse. It has been a hot spot for wonderful grilled rib eyes and prime rib. My taste buds would hallucinate and still do just thinking about those times. Among all the trails fifty miles or longer I have ridden, the Wabash Trace is the rail-trail I have ridden the most. Often I rode sections where Connie would drop me off to go antiquing and I would ride thirty miles or more and then she would pick me up.

One of our more memorable WT rides was a group ride that included Rick and Pam, Boris and Maxine and Connie and me.  Rick was my officemate and teaching colleague at the University Of Nebraska College Of Dentistry. Boris and Maxine were exchange professors from Brisbane, Australia. We had visited Boris and Maxine in Brisbane when Connie and I were part of the same exchange program between the University of Queensland and the University of Nebraska. I doubt if our Australian guests were as impressed with their Nebraska visit compared to our visit to Down Under, especially when we able to see the Sidney Opera House, Canberra, Great Barrier Reef, O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat and hold a Koala or pet kangaroos.

These guys are soft!! Connie feeds the Kangaroos     

Boris and Maxine

feeding the Scarlet

Rosellas at O'Reilly's

I thought it would be fun to take our guests’ bike riding on the WT. I don’t remember any concern about the weather, yet about twenty miles down the trail, a thunderstorm blew in and “nailed” us. We were all sopping wet even though we were able to seek refuge under a bridge. So much for me being an entertainment director. When I find the photo of the drenched look, I will insert it.


Before the storm, all smiles from the Maze's and Reinhardt's. After the storm we were looking like drown rats and freezing cold from the 35 degree tempature drop. Note this is the younger slimmer version of the Maze's in '95.

 



A Funny Thing Happened On My Way Out of Town

What a nice surprise and relief
from the cold. A hug from Miss
India!

This blog post is not bike related but I thought the story was humorous. Maybe the reader will chuckle too.

The young lady with the Hollywood smile is Ranjitha, my friend and former perio department colleague at Georgia. The funny part of this chance January meeting on Forest Edge Drive, Coralville, Iowa, is that, back in August, I thought I saw her look-alike on the putting green at Brown Deer Golf Course.  Because I knew that her husband Raj had a brother living in Coralville, I went up to the couple and sheepishly asked, “Any chance you know of a Raj and Ranjitha?” They gave me the blankest stare known to man and then an emphatic, “no”. When I emailed Jitha this story, she replied and said, “Glenn, there are only about four billion people from India! LOL.”

Ok, this sets the stage for the most serendipitous happenstance sightings I have ever had. It was a very cold Sunday afternoon in late January, snow falling with blizzard like blasts---muito vento. I was heading out of town to do some grandpa sitting for the grandiose grand kids, Ian and Alex. As I was driving up our street, I saw a couple, all bundled up, walking down our street. I thought, Goodness, those folks are tougher than me, taking a stroll on such a cold day! The minute I drove by them I noticed they looked familiar. Good gravy, that looks like that Ranjitha Clone, I talked to back in August!!!”  The lady waved and I waved back. As I shot on by, I thought, “Damn that looks like the real Ranjitha”.  As I waited for a car so I could turn out of the neighborhood, my cell phone rang. It WAS Raj and Ranjitha! “Ranjitha are you here in Coralville?” There was a big laughing YES as I did a U-turn. I felt badly I needed to get going to Des Moines ahead of serious snow and darkness and Connie was too sick with a norvovirus to have visitors. So we had a very short visit in a neighbor’s driveway, exchanging hugs and laughs.


What a nice surprise, a Krishna Scarf for
Connie and a Jones Creek golf shirt for
me --- now Old Man winter go away!

A nice outcome of the by chance meeting of Raj and Ranjitha on Forest Edge Drive, was receiving a limited edition handmade Krishna  Scarf and a golf shirt. Thank you Raj and Ranjitha!


 

Steamboat Trace (Gf)

As I write these Grandfather (Gf) blogs about traversing the country on Rail Trails; rides that preceded the official start April, 2012(see prevoius Segment #1 post), I will try to slip in some interesting or entertaining tid-bits to spark some interest for the readers. I rode the Steamboat Trace at least twice back when I worked at the University of Nebraska College of Dentistry in Lincoln. It is a true Rail to Trail, built in the late 1980's using the abandoned rail line of the Burlington Northern Railroad---a railroad company that now belongs to the second or third richest person in the world, OmahanWarren Buffet. One of my rides was a forty-two mile round tripper from just south of Nebraska City, Nebraska (Headquarters of the Arbor Day Foundation---we have all heard John Denver singing about saving trees and joining the ADF) twenty-one miles down to Brownsville and the twenty-one miles back. Another time, Connie dropped me off and I rode to Brownsville while she visited a few antique shops there. Both rides were perfect, with cool fall temperatures(jacket weather!) and a carousel of color from changing leaves. About half way down the trail I was able to divert off to Peru, Nebraska. Peru is the home of the first (1865) and oldest state institution in Nebraska---Peru State College. Over the years Peru State dodged attempts to close its doors. The college now enrolls nearly two thousand students, including over three hundred fifty postgraduate students. Peru State was a early player with internet education. Their on-line credits boasted the school to new levels of respect, sparing its demise. 



The Steamboat Trace in a thirty mile trail that

runs almost straight north and south, a good thing
for me and my passion to gobble up latitudes.

The trail was in great shape every time I rode it
but there were years when the Missouri River
flooded and messed up the trail bed. Peru State
is about midpoint on the west side of the trail.

One Steamboat Trace ride was on a football Saturday. A home game for the Cornhuskers. A football Saturday where Memorial Stadium (Husker Town) swelled to the third largest populated spot in Nebraska. I remember that I had become "fed-up" with Nebraska football.  Too much illegal junk went on during the years we lived in Lincoln including the Scott Baldwin travesty and Coach Osborne's obstruction of justice. So much crap that I was at the end of my rope with Huskermania. So here I was riding on the Steamboat Trace while fifty miles away  the Cornshuckers were trouncing some lesser team in Husker Town.  So when I heard a band playing and the roar of a crowd, I was in a quandary. "That can't be from Lincoln." "Its too far away," I thought. As I diverted toward the sounds of a fall afternoon, I saw a sign for the Oak Bowl, the home field of Peru State football squad and its legendary coach Lou Sabin. Sabin coached at every level and likely a record number teams compared to most coaches. Lou's nickname was "Two point two", meaning his average stint per coaching job, was 2.2 years. The fact that he was a successful coach for the Buffalo Bills, made the one year stop at Peru State a special deal for the tiny school. After my discovery of the Oak Bowl, I headed on down the trail towards Brownsville.

Like the Katy Trail, the Steamboat Trace parallels the Missouri River exposing beautiful soaring bluffs with hawks, buzzards and eagles floating on the updrafts. It's said that Lewis & Clark noted these very cliffs and bird nesting holes in their journals. Like all trails there are great historical flashbacks to stimulate you as pedal on!

I met Connie at Brownsville where she had done some antiquing and discovered the renovated opera house. We liked Brownsville so well, we went back to spend a night in a quaint bed and breakfast cabin. I hope we can get back there someday and enjoy a musical at the Brownsville Opera House.