Off to See the Eclipse - Part 2, Le Mars, Iowa

We spent our first night in the "Great Lakes" area of northwest Iowa near the shore of Lake Okoboji.  This happened to be the weekend of the "boji bike rally" so there was quite a crowd around the lake.



The next day required only a short drive through the fields of corn and soybeans to arrive at our home base of Sioux City, Iowa.  Had I planned a bit farther ahead, we might have located closer to the path of eclipse totality in Nebraska but hotel rooms were scarce a month ahead of the event.

The short distance traveled on this day gave us plenty of time for a stop at Le Mars, Iowa - proclaimed by the Iowa Legislature as the "Ice Cream Capital of the World."  This is the home of the Wells Dairy, a business once purchased for $250 and now the site of the Blue Bunny Ice Cream manufacturing operation.


This 900,000 square foot plant employs 1,000 people making ice cream and other treats such as the red white and blue Bomb Pop.

There are ice cream cone sculptures around town from the Post Office to churches.



We followed the signs to the Blue Bunny ice cream parlor and museum.  The museum was rather sparse - nothing like the Kool Aid Museum in Hastings, Nebraska.  But the ice cream parlor was outstanding and makes the visit worthwhile.


I posed for a picture with the Blue Bunny, of course.