Our plan for today was to spend some time at the Sergeant Floyd Riverboat Museum in Sioux City before continuing on our way. The museum is located on the deactivated M V Sergeant Floyd Riverboat. There were exhibits about the Lewis and Clark expedition, early life on the Missouri River, and the riverboat and its role with the US Army Corps of Engineers.
The Riverboat was named after Sergeant Charles Floyd who died near current day Sioux City. He was the only man to die on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The riverboat was important “in Missouri River work improvement from 1933 – 1975 moving men, equipment and supplies and setting navigation buoys along the Missouri.” Before being decommissioned, she took part in the 1976 Bicentennial celebrations as a “floating Bicentennial exhibit for the Army Corps of Engineers” after which she was decommissioned. In 1983, the Floyd was bought by Sioux City. It serves as a Welcome Center and a museum on an inlet of Missouri River. From the top deck, where the pilot house is located, we could look out over boat slips and see the the river. Because of the threat of severe thunderstorms in our path later this afternoon, we shortened our visit.
After 2 hours of traveling east on US 20, we detoured onto Business US 20 in search of sustenance. The road eventually became Historic Route 20. It took us through Ft. Dodge and eventually Webster City where it joined US 20. Peggy was entranced with Webster City which is an interesting mix of old and new with a fairly vibrant downtown. It has a population of approximately 7,800.
US 20 between Sioux City and Dubuque is a four lane divided highway almost the entire distance. It is straight as a taught string and flat as a pancake (at least compared to the hills and mountains we experienced before. Driving that road in the heat is very hypnotizing and one gets drowsy real fast.
After traveling through a few mild showers, we were quite glad to reach our destination. We checked into our hotel and went in search of dinner. The sky was looking dark and ominous. We closed up the Miata and got inside the restaurant just as the sky opened up with some heavy rain. The rain didn’t last long and when we returned to the car, the air was cool and fresh. We returned to the hotel, did some trouble shooting with our web host (seems the SSL certificate had expired or otherwise malfunctioned), worked on the blog, and got ready for a good night’s sleep.