Day 8 – Tuesday – Council Bluffs

September 1, 2026

We successfully said “Rabbit, rabbit!” first thing when we woke up, so September is going to be a lucky month! Outstanding…

Today’s theme is “Earth (CORN), Wind, and Fire.” The picture above captures one stop along the way where all three elements were present. What could have been just a nice uneventful drive to Council Bluffs (in Iowa, just across the Missouri River from Omaha NE) became history and science lessons of the best kind. We have our own curiosity and Go0gle to thank for a “who knew?” kind of day.

We drove past mile after mile of well-manicured, beautiful CORN fields. Did you know that Iowa is the world’s largest corn producer – actually harvests more corn than some countries (such as Mexico)? That would be 2.4 billion bushels and 12.9 million acres annually. (A bushel is about the size of a laundry basket.) Of that, 99% is “field corn”, not the “sweet corn” that we love to eat slathered in butter, salt and pepper. Field corn is known for large ears (one per stalk) with dented kernels that are dry/mature before the harvest. Most of the harvest goes to feeding livestock: cattle, hogs, chickens. The rest goes to about 4,000 products including corn meal, corn oil, corn cereal, corn starch, corn syrup. There are 86,900 farms in Iowa and about 97% are family-owned. In addition to being #1 in US corn production, Iowa is first in hogs, eggs and ethanol, and in the top three of soybeans and beef cattle. GO IOWA!

Now on to WIND! Wind turbines have to be some of the most graceful, mesmerizing, synchronous gadgets out there. They are poetic, ballet-dancer like. The kind I’m describing are horizontal-axis turbines. There are about 6400-6500 in Iowa, second only to Texas in the US; they are scattered across 124 utility-scale wind farms. Wind is the largest energy source in Iowa, contributing 64% of the state’s electricity.

If you know me, you know I am not much for understanding the intricacies of science, physics, etc. To me, it’s all magic and I am AOK with that: I do believe in magic!. But, I was curious about how my graceful turbines actually make and get electricity to the grid. Here’s a summary; apologies for any errors. Blades go to rotors that go to a shaft that goes to a gearbox that goes to a high speed shaft that goes to a generator that uses electromagnets to create AC electricity that goes down the inside of the tower via heavy cables that go to a transformer that turns it into high voltage so it can travel efficiently to the grid. Ta Dah! See – I told you it was magic! Here are some photos so that you can imagine that all happening before your very eyes. (You’re welcome!)

Now for FIRE! Our history lesson. And we’re not talking a campFIRE, a forest FIRE, “you’re FIREd,” great balls of FIRE, getting FIREd up for the game, being on FIRE with love…etc. etc. etc.

Nope! We are talking gunFIRE! Today we stopped at the sites of two major historical gun fights. The first was near Adair IA, where Bonnie & Clyde and the Barrows Gang were part of the largest gunfight in Dallas County history! Yes, you read that right — can you believe it!?!?! Actually, more unbelievable is how many times they eluded death in just a few days. Here’s what went down.

In July 1933, The Barrows Gang (Clyde Barrows, his brother Buck, Buck’s wife Blanche, Bonnie and a teenager named WD Jones), had a major gunfight with a police posse in Platte City MO. Somehow they escaped, but all were wounded. They fled to just outside Adair IA and camped off the road in an abandoned amusement park (Dexfield Park) near the South Raccoon River to heal and rest. Clyde would go into town and actually stole a 1932 Ford Model A. (He loved Fords and wrote to Henry Ford, who ended up using the Bonnie & Clyde fame in advertising!) But I digress. Their camp was discovered by a farmer searching for blackberries and he alerted the law. At 6 am on July 24, a 50-man posse of law enforcement and citizens (including a dentist who brought his own submachine gun) ambushed the Gang. Major gunfight ensued, with the Gang using pistols and automatic rifles they stole from the National Guard Armory. They tried to escape in the Ford Clyde had stolen, but he was shot in the shoulder and lost control and they wrecked on a stump. They ran from that car back to another car they had (which was already shot up from the Platte City shootout), but the posse shot out the windows and tires and destroyed the engine.

So! Buck, who was critically injured, and Blanche, who suffered eye injuries from flying glass, were unable to flee and were captured. (Buck died 5 days later in a hospital and Blanche went to jail.) The other three (all injured) fled along the river (Note: Bonnie was somewhat crippled from an earlier car crash in which she sustained severe leg burns, so it was slow-going). Clyde went back to the road, where he encountered two men from the posse — they exchanged gunfire and Clyde ran back to the other two and they all crossed the river. They made it to the nearby farm of Vallie Feller, who was going to milk the cows with his son and farmhand. Clyde held them at gunpoint with his .45 pistol while WD brought Bonnie – the farm guys helped her over the fence (dropped her!). But they got her up and the three got into a 1929 Plymouth – the only car on the property that had gas. Clyde didn’t know how to work the gears, so Vallie showed him – as they stole the car and drove away, Clyde thanked them and told them he would repay them someday. He never did. And, actually, his pistol had no ammo – but it did the trick anyway. They drove about 38 miles, wrecked that car, stole another one and drove back another 40 miles to Guthrie Center. A posse of 200 awaited them there. Somehow they managed to escape again! They made their way to Texas, where WD was caught and jailed. In April of 1934 they returned to Iowa to rob banks – their last successful robbery was in Stuart, IA at the First National Bank (we stopped for fuel and lunch at Casey’s in Stuart today!). In May of 1934 they were killed in Bienville Parish LA. Absolutely amazing. What a run they had!

The sad part of this tale today is that there is just a little marker of the Adair gunfight — not nearly fine enough to mark the magnificent shootout and escape that happened there. But we can envision it!

Our second FIRE event has two names: “The First Moving Train Robbery in the West” and “The Jesse James Historical Site.” (Please don’t confuse these with “The First Moving Train Robbery” which was carried out by the Reno Gang in Indiana in 1866 or “Jesse James’ Burial Site”, which is in Missouri — but of course, you knew that.) This Jesse James Gang robbery happened in 1873 in Adair County IA, not too far from the Bonnie & Clyde shootout site. Jesse’s Gang wrecked the train tracks to set up their gunfight ambush of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, aiming to steal $75,000 in gold. Sadly, a delay in the shipment meant they only got about $2,000 in gold and $1,000 from passengers. Oh well. Some robberies are more successful than others, I suppose.

Much like the Bonnie & Clyde site, the monument is hardly a fitting acknowledgement of the magnitude of the train robbery! But, it does have a railroad piece and a large steam engine wheel donated by the railroad. Good enough for us on a hot day, in the middle of corn and turbine fields (see top photo).

So there you have our Earth (CORN), WIND and FIRE events of the day. We sure had fun on our mini-scavenger hunt and learning a bit about the shoot’em-up history and the farming in Iowa!

After all this excitement, we drove on to Council Bluffs and Lake Manawa State Park. What a beautiful park – John finds us the best places to stay! Our site is right by the lake, with plenty of grass for Max to run around. We arrived about 2:30, John set up camp, then we hunkered down inside to avoid the 96 degree (feels like 104) temps.