Day #5248 – (Sun., May 19, 2024) – Indiana –> Iowa
I had a great night’s sleep on the bed last night. It didn’t look like much, but it was comfortable. In addition I didn’t have to go to bed as much as I didn’t have to drink a lot of water to counteract the beer I had the night before! All in all, a good night, and I’m ready for another long day of driving!
We hit the road just before 9 am this morning. Earlier than yesterday, which was nice. We started the day by going through the drive thru at the McDonald’s across the street. My wife got the chance to try their oatmeal, which she loved, and their black coffee with cream, which she raved about. The kids and I each had a bacon, egg, and cheese combo. Bobby had a strawberry smoothie which he loved, and Katie had a blue “Fanta Slushee” which she hated. She thought she would be getting an orange flavor and instead got this “cotton candy” sort of a thing.
I started to listen to the audio of a video about “Maya Alper” on my Galaxy Smartphone. She is the young girl who was able to hide from the Hamas terrorists on October 7th by hiding “on top of” and “in” a bush by using visualization techniques and meditating. Amazing video!
Today was about 7 hours of driving, but we didn’t have to go through any major cities, which was nice. We stopped off at the little town of Knoxville, Illinois where I purchased some ice cream for everyone at the “Quickstop” (see photo to the right).
I started to listen to the audio of Carrie Fisher’s autobiography on my Galaxy Smartphone. Good, but not as good as I initially thought it would be.
As we drove into Iowa we could see the land getting less hilly and more flat. The sky and the enveloping clouds overhead seemed larger. We decided that we would eat at the Panera Bread in Cedar Rapids. We each loaded up on food and being a “sip club” member I got a “free coffee”. I picked up some “green tea with gensing and honey” tea bags for my wife. My wife got the chance to try their chicken and wild rice soup and learned the hard way that trying to juggle soup and a cat is not a good idea.
This evening we stayed at an Air B&B at 7845 Twin Lakes Road, Manson, IA. As we were driving to this location we noticed that there were few dining options for the evening, so we decided to pick up some food at what turned out to be a little truck stop on the way. They advertised a Godfather’s pizza inside, but instead of making a pizza for you they had these tiny little pizzas being warmed in a warmer along with some boxed chicken tenders and calzones. So, we picked up a couple of these tiny pizzas, some chips and salsa (which the first cashier said that they did not sell), some lemonade, cupcakes, and other supplies. This combo of goodies would be our evening meal.
The Air B&B was quite nice, situated right on a lake. Bobby enjoyed making little sand creations in the water. My wife sat on a deck chair at the end of the dock. Katie and I thought that we might play some board games with the rest of the family but time flew and it was not to be. We watched a bit of television. The kids got to see a bit of the “Simpson’s” for the first time. We learned that a helicopter with the Iranian PM went down.