Bruguier Cabin

Today I have pictures of the oldest structure in Sioux City, Iowa, Bruguier Cabin. The sign says it was the home of Theophile Bruguier, but after reading some of the information about it I'm not quite sure that he actually lived in this exact cabin. It at least was a cabin on his land though.

I'm not going to give you the whole history lesson on this famous man or the cabin because you may not want it here, but if you want to find out more you can visit these two links: Bruguier's Cabin and Théophile Bruguier

What I'm going to talk about is my story of taking these pictures, and maybe a few other things. First you may notice that my first picture has some problems. The Sun was shining right into my view so I was lucky to get it even that good. I had to fix it a little bit as well.

The sign says it's the home of Sioux City's first white settler. I'm assuming the reason it specifically says that is because the area is home to a significant Native American population and they were here for a little while before Theophile Bruguier.

When I took this above picture I thought I did a pretty good job. But you can see that the house is kind of off center. I don't know exactly why, but it bothers me a little bit. I'm not the best photographer but I still try to get the best pictures I can, even though some are almost intentionally bad at times.

I took pictures of this place last year sometime, but I completely forgot to post them for some reason. I still have them somewhere on my computer but it would be like finding a needle in a haystack. I have lots of pictures saved. I save all of my pictures I take for this blog, even the terrible ones.

Speaking of pictures, I've been putting some of my best on Twitter from time to time. Some are posted here on the blog and some are not. You can see my Twitter feed with the pictures in my sidebar if you'd like. The feed is scrollable with your mouse wheel. A few of the pictures have gotten kind of popular.

I plan on going back to the nature parks on my next few adventures. I'm going to have to start a little earlier than I did this time. I hope it all turns out well. I may not see very many animals at first, but maybe they'll come out more on future trips.

I just recently tried to get some pictures of the huge herds of deer I see in the fields beside the highway. I had no luck at all. The deer were there but I wasn't able to slow down enough to get any non-blurry pictures, and there's not really anywhere I can stop. It's too dangerous to keep trying. Oh well.

I guess there wasn't much of a story I could tell about my experience with this house. Houses don't do very many exciting things. They just sit there and let you look at them.Looking is good, but it can only last so long. So after I got a good look I went on my way. And that's the end of this story. I'll talk to you later.

Welcome To The Wasteland

What is this vast field of frozen rubble you see here? You may be surprised by the answer. You may also be surprised that the temperature was 71° Fahrenheit that day. This was this last Saturday. The spring warm up has started, but not quite completely. We'll still have some slightly cooler days left.

But I still haven't answered the question yet, have I? The other two pictures won't help, so don't look at them yet. You'll have to read my story to find out the answer, and I really am going to get to it. Really. So read on.

I was expecting this warm day for awhile, so I had big plans for it. Then when the day finally came I woke up kind of late. I also ended up with lots to do at home. When I finally got out it was already mid-afternoon. That's not really a very good start, is it?

So when I finally got to my favorite nature park it was only half an hour till closing time. That place closes really early for some odd reason. I knew I wasn't going to have time for anything, so I just took a quick look around to see how much snow was left. Not much. I didn't bother with any pictures because there just wasn't enough time. I'll be back soon enough though.

As I was leaving I had the idea to go to downtown Sioux City and take a look at the Missouri River. I could get some good pictures there, and the day wouldn't be wasted after all. It's when I got down there that it all went wrong. I will tell you now that I was kind of shocked by what I found.

You may have already guessed. Maybe not. There is a parking lot down there from where you can sit and look out at the river. You can also walk down to the edge of the river. Nope. None of that. The frozen wasteland you see in my pictures is that very parking lot. The last two pictures show the wall of snow and ice that is blocking the view of the river.

They must have plowed all of the snow in the city down to this very spot. If you look to the top left of the first picture you can see a little bit of the river there in the distance. That's all I saw too. Everything else was these pictures. Welcome to the wasteland.

Most people like to blog about the beautiful things they find in their travels. I do some of that, but mostly what I have always done is try to show reality, good and bad. This may be considered bad, but it's really very interesting, at least to me. And I had a good time with the adventure, and with the story. That's what's important.

But wait, there's more! Not really in this post. But this wasn't all I saw that day. I visited more stuff that I think was a little more productive. I'll show that to you in my next post, which will come halfway soon. I think it'll be kind of interesting in a historical sense. You'll see. I'll talk to you later.