9/7/26: Road Trip — Chicago to Amana, Iowa

We left the Knickerbocker Hotel and walked to Adrienne’s apartment which was just about 2 blocks away. Rand and Adrienne served a great bagel and lox breakfast with a really special souffle. Then we headed to Midway Airport to pick up a rental car to begin our road trip. We could only reserve cars at the airport (O’Hare or Midway) today, because of the labor Day holiday. I forgot to menion in my previous notes about Chicago—The streets are amazingly clean.. no litter, we didn’t see anhy graffiti and while we did see a few tent communities, they were quite contained. The clean streets and lack of graffiti was both downtown and also in the lower-middle income neighborhoods. It was impressive. And given that the weather was truly wonderful, people were out everywhere with many on the beach at the lake.

Then we were on the road. Adrienne and I shared the driving (about 4.5 hours0 and Carol navigated. Mostly it was a straight shot on 80.. .flat.. flat.. flat. We stopped for 20 minutes or so at the river to see the division between Iowa and Illinois.. and drove through a little strip of quiet houses that edge the lake.

From here we headed to Walcott, location of the Iowa 80 Truck Stop — the largest truck stop in the world. It’s like a little city that opened in 1964. It was opened before the interstate system was completed. It spans 220 acres and has a 67,000 sq ft main building and a parking lot for close to 1,000 trucks, a few hundred cars, and buses. Supposedly it serves about 5,000 people each day. The rows and rows of semis is amazing to see. Professional drivers can find everything they need here at this stop, including showers, a barber shop, a chiropractor, a church, shopping, food, and even a “dogomat” pet wash and a Truckomat truck wash. There is an annual Truck Jamboree, but we missed that as it is in July–a three day event with exhibits and music. And… there is a truck museum.. which we got totally wrapped up in. They have about 125 trucks (full size, originals) dating from 1915 to present and they have more trucks in storage that are not displayed. The “museum” is 125,000 sq ft.

We were pretty mesmerized by our walk through the museum, and then we headed to the main shopping and food zone.

And maybe best of all…. they had soft-serve—-what Adrienne and Carol were craving in Bentonville but we never got to the place when it was open! I’m not a big fan, but I did have a small swirl.

And then we were back on the road… flat, flat flat… to Amana, a small town where we are spending the night at Millwright Hotel. Amana (or the Amana Colonies as they are called) is comprised of 7 separate “villages.” I’m not great at religion topics, but as I understand it… The villages were built and settled by German Radical Pietists (these churches broke with other Lutheran sects to emphasize certain teachings regarding holy living). The radical pietists were persecuted by the German government and also by more traditional Lutherans. When they fled Germany, they first settled in Buffalo, NY and later moved to Iowa because they wanted more isolated surroundings… And they got it!!

For 80 years, the Amana Colonies maintained a fairly self-sufficient economy. They developed craft skills and a farming culture. They passed their skills and techniques to subsequent generations, using hand, horse, wind, and water power, and made their own furniture and clothes. Today, the villages are known for their restaurants and craft shops and is a national historic trust. We will check it all out in the morning before we head to Des Moines.

We opted to find a different restaurant from the one in the hotel because tonight was “all you can eat pasta” and it didn’t look too appetizing. Several restaurants were closed because of the holidays so we went to the Brauhaus where, in addition to many many different burgers we managed to share two salads, shrimp-in-a-basket and fish-in-a-basket. I opted for one of the local brews which was quite good and Carol tried the non alcoholic local brew. We also shared a slice of homemade fresh berry pie.

Now I’m back in my room which is simple, large, and fine. Tomorrow we stroll the town and head to Des Moines after a quick stop in Iowa City.

Hope you had a good Labor Day.