A Great 47th Anniversary

Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018

Today was our 47th anniversary, and I say a day which starts with a hot shower and includes a stop at the World's Largest Truck Stop just HAS to be great! And that describes our day.

We started the morning in our beautiful park--after rain during the night, the temperature was down in the low 70s and the humidity was all gone. The park's shower house actually had HOT water.  And I was thrilled, because Joe gave me a beautiful bracelet--he bought it in the gift shop at the Elephant Museum in Lincoln a couple of days ago, and surprised me! So we started the day feeling just great.

We knew we were basically "just driving" today, but a look at the map showed us that we were going to go right past the Amana Colonies, which we had visited back in 2007. We bought a really cute lawn thingie which we still love. So we decided to stop there and go back to the same shop. We drove about 45 minutes to Amana, then parked and walked to the shop--which was exactly where I remembered it, even after 11 years! And we bought another lawn thingie this time too.

Then we had some lunch and got back on the road again. As I drove, I saw a billboard which reminded me that we were going to pass the World's Largest Truck Stop, the I-80 Truck Stop at exit 284 in Iowa. It was about 4pm when we got there, and of course we had to stop. We were not in the mood for the truck museum adjacent to the truck stop, but we loved the enormous building with its vintage filling station just outside the door, and it's unashamed celebration of the truck driving life.

The I-80 Truck Stop has been described as "Disneyland for truckers." It has all the things a regular truck stop has, but much more of it-- food (8 restaurants), souvenirs, gifts, CDs, DVDs, and books on tape, etc. It also has a huge department for aftermarket upgrades on everything from horns to lights to hubcaps and tire nut covers. There is also a chiropractor, a dentist, a laundromat, a barber, a movie theater, and a library, as well as the usual TV lounge, showers, and of course restrooms. Outside there's a truck wash and a dog wash too . 

Joe found windshield wipers, which we still needed to replace, and we both had something to drink before we went back to our RV (we did not wash the dog!) And after that, it was back to driving. Soon after that stop, we crossed the Mississippi into Illinois. We stopped at the Visitor's Center and overlook just on the Illinois side, but it was closed "indefinitely", the sign said. So we used our wifi and apps, and determined that about an hour down the road was a likely-sounding campground.

And that is where we are tonight-- at Condit's Ranch. It appears to be a multi-purpose kind of place-- it is HUGE, and has a lot of "seasonal" RVs parked here, as well as people like us passing through. There seem to be several houses on the property, and I suspect that these barns near us are not unique. We are adjacent to a cornfield which is also owned by the same people (and the corn, by the way, is taller than Joe and I! There is a LOT of corn being grown in this country, that is for SURE.)  The grounds are very spread out, though, so it seems quite uncrowded, and the trees make it seem like a gigantic park. Definitely a good choice for a stopover for tonight.

And that was our day!

Our Last Night of Vacation

Aug. 27 and 28, 2010

A double blog tonight--we spent last night sleeping at the Walmart Campground chain, which has no wifi. It's always fun staying at Walmart, however. First of all, the price is right. Second, once we pull our curtains, we have no idea where we are, and third, when we wake up in the morning, we never know who our neighbors will be. The photos below are both from this trip; the first was from a few days ago at the Walmart in Kearney, NE, and the second was this morning.
Of course, the Amish family at the K-Mart just arrived in the morning to shop; they didn't spend the night :)

For those who wonder, Walmart is only one of the standby places for people who need to sleep and don't care too much about the amenities. Cracker Barrel and Cabela's are among the chains which invite RVers to stop overnight. Interstate rest areas are of course always available; even when they say "no overnight stopping" or other such warnings, no one is going to bother you if you are there. Since we have everything we need--water, heat, electricity, etc--and sometimes all we want is to just stop driving and SLEEP, it seems crazy to spend $30-40 just to pull in, go to sleep, and leave in the morning. The advantages of campgrounds include showers and wifi; but not all campgrounds have those either (state parks may not have much in the way of showers, and of course not even all private campgrounds have wifi; none of the state or national parks do.) So we use all the available options and are quite happy pretty much anyplace.

Anyway, back to yesterday morning: we spent the morning and early afternoon in Amana, Iowa. The Amana Colonies were settled by a group of German immigrants who were known as the Communityof True Inspiration. They lived and worked communally, and built 7 villages in Iowa just west of Iowa City. They are known for the excellence of their handiwork--they began with all the rural skills of weaving, woodworking, etc. In 1932 they gave up their communal lifestyle and formed the Amana Society, a profit-sharing corporation, to manage the farms and other businesses which were formerly owned by the entire group.

It turned out that many of the Amana Heritage Sites were closed on Friday, but all the little shops in Amana were open, as was the Amana Museum. So we walked around the village, which was very quiet and peaceful. We went to the Museum, but spent more time in the shops. We especially liked the Amana Furniture and Clock Shop. They had exquisite furniture and wonderful clocks (although the clocks were mostly not made at this shop.) There was also a visitors gallery so we could see the actual workshop and watch the men working. Another place we stopped was a small place with a large, wonderful garden filled not just with flowers but with wire trellises and other garden decorations.

At about 2pm we quickly ate some lunch, realizing it was getting late and we had to move along. There was a lot more there to see; as usual, we will have to come back! Anyway, at that point we started driving and made it through the rest of Iowa, crossed the Mississippi into Illinois, and went halfway through Indiana before we finally had to stop.

Mississippi River

As I said, we got off the Indiana Toll Road (as I-90/I-80 are known there) and went to the town of Sturgis, as indicated by our Next Exit book, to find the Walmart. It was not until this morning, when we got back on the Interstate, that we discovered that Sturgis was actually in Michigan! I-80/90 runs right at the state line and although we only drove about a mile or so from our exit, it was enough to take us over the line. So it seems we inadvertently added a 12th state to this year's adventure.

We had no plans for today--our intention was to drive all day and arrive in Bellefonte, PA in the evening, and take our nephew Ben, who is at Penn State, out to dinner. We did have a brief stop on the way, however, to pick up a couple of replacement headlights. One of ours had been flickering last night, and this morning seemed dead. Joe checked it out today and bought replacements, but it seems it was the connector and not the headlight. It is all fixed again; he did the job in 30 minutes while I browsed in the Goodwill Store next door to the Advance Auto Parts. Then we returned to the highway.

We arrived at the Fort Bellefonte Campground tonight just at 7 pm. It is lovely, with gardens galore, animals (chickens, rabbits and goats), and wonderful grass. Roxy was ecstatic to run in the grass--I think she is heartily sick of this RV! Ben came up and met us (we are only about 15 minutes from State College), and we went out to a lovely dinner. And now it is about 11 pm and time for bed again. Tomorrow is our 39th anniversary, and we have to go home. But next year, for our 40th, I am hoping that we will be taking a one-month-long trip to celebrate. Meanwhile, I am planning to spend a few more weekends this month RV-ing. It is just too much enjoyment not to do it more often!