June 25 - Cedar Rapids

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Cedar Rapids is Iowa’s 2^nd largest city and the largest corn-processing city in the world.  Some parts of the town smell like popcorn.  In June of 2008, Cedar Rapids experienced a devastating flood. Downtown businesses, public buildings, and more than 5,000 homes were inundated by floodwaters.

Our 5K walk today was neither a loop nor an out-and-back.  I guess you’d call it a point-to-point.  We started at Veterans Memorial Stadium (home of the Cedar Rapids Kernels) in a fairly nice sports complex.  

 We began by walking through a dilapidated neighborhood, then crossed railroad tracks that did not have crossing gates (twice), walked under the interstate, walked past a construction area, and then walked through an industrial area that smelled terrible.  (The dilapidated neighborhood had been flooded by water up to 8 feet deep in 2008.  A number of derelict buildings could still be seen.  The flood also impacted the sidewalk, making it uneven and difficult to walk on.)

Kolaches

At the 3K mark, we entered Czech Village.  This used to be the shopping district for many Czech, Moravian, and Slovak immigrants.  This area was interesting and picturesque.  A polka band was playing at a bandstand.  We stopped at the Sykora Bakery to try out the kolaches  Mmmmmm!  

Moving a museum

We also passed the temporary quarters of the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library and stopped in to see the Museum Store.  The original building was next to the river and had been damaged by the flood.  A monumental project is underway to move the enormous museum building to a new foundation on higher ground.  The building is up on blocks and is being moved very slowly towards the new foundation.  This move started two months ago.  You can observe the move via webcam at www.ncsml.org. 

We crossed the Cedar River and entered the downtown area.  There was a lot of construction to replace public buildings damaged in the flood.  The new US District Court building was quite striking.   

After passing the African-American Museum of Iowa we came to the site of the Freedom Festival BBQ Roundup.  It smelled wonderful, but it was a little early for lunch and we had gorged ourselves at the Sykora Bakery.   

The Tree of Five Seasons, logo of Cedar Rapids

We followed the bike trail a little bit longer and came to the business part of downtown.  A parade was going on as part of the Freedom Festival.  We checked in at the checkpoint at the Visitor’s Bureau and then went to wait by the Tree of Five Seasons sculpture for the shuttle bus back to the stadium.

Rating:

Walk Route: C (1^st 3K: D, next 2K: B+)

Walk Documentation: B+