Walking across the bridge, I crossed the border without incident. No border checkpoint, no border guard looking for contraband corn or potatoes. All quiet on the riverfront.
The 8:00 a.m. sun was bright but not yet hot. Fortunate, for I was dressed for a business conference, not a morning walk. The walk took longer than expected. I stopped to read the plagues and take pictures north and south of the Big Muddy - I did not see Shenandoah, but the wide Missouri stretched far in both directions.
Halfway across bridge, I spotted a sports field, not the “Field of Dreams” field but a field nonetheless. Once across the bridge I touched the green grass, took a picture of my shoes (on my feet) in the green grass to prove arrival on the distant shore. I had entered Iowa.
The Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge is a cable-stayed foot bridge stretching 3,000 feet (.56 miles) in a gentle arch and supported by two 200-foot towers. The bridge crosses 52-feet above the Big Muddy to connect Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa. The bridge was completed in 2008 at a cost of $22 million.
To get to the bridge I walked through history and had much to reflect upon. From my hotel I walked across the Martin Luther King, Jr. Pedestrian Bridge, past the Sioux Warrior sculpture and Monument to Labor sculptures, through Lewis and Clark Landing – a 23-acre park located at the original landing site or the expedition on the west bank of the Missouri river in 1804, and past the National Park Service Regional Headquarters.
I left Big Red, Little Red, and the Lean Green Driving Machine back in Maryland. My shoes (Penny Loafers at that) were my transportation. Sometimes two wheels or four wheels cannot do what two feet can do - walk across a river, touch the soil, and touch your soul.
How about you? Where did you walk? Share a story!
2nd Helping:
Sioux Warrior by John David Brcin.
John: "Is this heaven?"
Ray: "It's... Iowa."
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