A good day to leave Branson as it was raining quite heavily. The whole day was cloudy and rainy. As we approached the Iowa border the rain let up but it was a dull and dreary day. We headed straight north from Branson. Branson is just north of Arkansas by a few miles and it took us most of the day to get to the northern border of the state. We were driving on I 29, a freeway that is on the east side of the Missouri River. At the town of Rockport, Miss. we had to start a detour because of flooding. It turns out that the flooding started in June and has not subsided as of today. The pictures you see below are of the many farms we saw along the way that are totally underwater. It is really strange to see farmhouses and barns and silos sitting on islands in the middle of what looks like large lakes. The other amazing thing is that the farms in these pictures are 5 miles from the Missouri River. We probably put on at least 120 miles of detours because the freeway has been flooded and impassable at different points. The Highways Dept of Iowa wanted everyone to go east to Des Moines Iowa and then north to I 90 and then west. This would have added at least 200-300 extra miles of driving to our trip. Luckily we headed back towards Council Bluffs, Iowa and decided to try to find a shorter route. I went into a service station and the young lady showed us a 45 minute detour that would bring us to I 29 and there were no further detours. She said she thought the Highways Dept. of Iowa was just trying to keep all the big trucks off the smaller rural roads. Fortunately her advice was correct and we ended up staying in Sioux City, Iowa. We had wanted to end today in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We will make that destination in about an hour tomorrow and then head west on I90.
The pictures below hopefully show some of the immense devastation to farmland in this area.
The picture below shows an example of all the roads that normally go from Missouri and Iowa to Nebraska. They have all been closed. If you want to get to Nebraska you had better own a boat!!!!!!
The best part of this kind of trip is the unexpected.
Ah, Missouri. One of the many states that appears the same in the rearview mirror as it does through the windshield! Take me home, country roads.
ReplyDeleteHasn't anyone in Nebraska thought about unclogging the drain. Sometimes the solution is right in front of you and you can't see it because your wipers aren't working.
Hope you get home soon so that you too can experience the cold, wet, miserable weather that you have grown to know and love in Alberta.