Day 61 Council Bluffs, Iowa

I am sitting in a nice modern library in Council Bluffs. It is a beautiful cool fall day out with wispy clouds in the sky. Went for a walk around the park and enjoyed the huge fountain they have there while waiting for the library to open. One of the nice perks of school being in session is that the libraries are now open on Sunday afternoons.

Night before last I tried to find the Pawnee Lake Recreation area but when the GPS said I was there, I saw nothing of that nature. So I pulled into an access to a cornfield off a dirt road and stayed there that night. I have discovered if I bundle my feet up good so they stay warm, I will sleep comfortably, so I applied several layers to my feet and zipped up my sleeping bag and was soon drowzy. I did not expect the temperature to go too low as the sky was overcast. The wind was still gusting so strongly that it rocked the car sometimes though. During the night the wind finally died out.

Yesterday I spent in Omaha and for an hour of that time I tramped around the Forest Lawn cemetery looking for the graves of Wilfred, Josephine and Robert Douglass. In spite of having a map from the internet I did not find them. I don't know how the cemetery staff draws their maps, but once in the car and searching, nothing looks like what they have drawn. I was disappointed, but it was Saturday so the office was not open.

This morning, I woke in the residential area of Council Bluffs to the chattering of birds overhead. I had unknowingly parked directly under a tree whose branches were loaded with a berry that the birds were rapidly devouring. They even landed on the roof of my car (and I am sure left various deposits there). I was so warm and cozy in my cocoon, with no reason or inclination to get out, that I drifted off to sleep again and woke at 9:45!! Since it was Sunday I treated myself to a waffle combo at the Village Inn and then read in my car for an hour and a half while the sun warmed it up nicely. (I could find no UU church in the area)

Tomorrow I will visit a few small towns in SW Iowa, then on to Des Moines and Iowa City. Those will be my last research stops of my trip.