2 RV's to Draper UT (delivered)

... spending the night at Ames IA

Breakfast - sausage and yogurt. They had more but I was still full from last night.

Oh, no alarm clock this AM so we slept in.

Walk - Before we headed out of town we went for a walk. At a grave yard. No one here we knew up it was a green spot on the map with paved trails/roads. We did a half hour walk. The temps were already up in the 80's.

We did see that there were trails along the river, but they were not all paved and the paved ones didn't show up on the areal photo. There also was a history area but not big enough to do much walking, just a half dozen buildings close together.

Heading east, before we get to Ogallala there used to be a rest area. Today we finally see that the new building is going to be a rest area. But I haven't been able to find where the old one was. Today I saw why. It has been completely removed, building, pavement and trees and re-seeded into pasture and the fence moved. ... without a trace.

1st stop is Walmart in Ogallala for fuel. Cheapest fuel so far, we knew there were fuel stops between the hotel and here so we didn't worry when the low fuel light came on before we got there.

2nd stop is Lexington BK (because I missed Cozad)

BB can stop anywhere she wants today and she choose Burger King. I eat the other 3/4ths of my sandwich from last night. Last night I must have still been stuffed from noon as it didn't seem like that much food today. Still good.

It is almost sickening to see all the corn across CO and NE that is just knee high and fried. Even noticed one place where the open pasture on one side of the road was green and on the other side of the highway was burnt brown.

3rd stop was ShoeMakers in Lincoln for rest room and snack, I got some juice and BB got a candy bar.

There was an RV in the lot when we drove in but we hadn't parked by it and it drove out just ahead of us.

4th stop was Cenex in Underwood for cheap fuel. Not sure why we hadn't fueled at Shoemakers. I'm guessing because we still had over 100 miles range and it wasn't until we crossed the NE-IA border that I did the math. We were not going to make it to Des Moines. We originally had a range of 500+ which would have got us well north of Des Moines.

There is cheap gas right when I mention it, but by then we are in the express lanes and can't exit for the next five miles. By then BB is able to find this place online. Gas is $.60 cheaper here than the exit on either side.

5th stop was Adair RA to call ... long call.

Another branch of our family is having a 're-union' in a few weeks. The hotel's we usually stay at are $200-300 a night for the weekend of the reunion. So we found one place we could use rewards points, IF we had enough. If we stay at that chain tonight, we will have enough. So that is how we picked tonight's hotel.

But their online reservation system is still down, it was also down two weeks ago when we stay at this chain. So I had to call and I got a person with a huge accent and an attitude. I came very close to hanging up on them a few times. What could have been done with one more key stroke on the computer took a 15+ minute phone call. That would not have been a good time to take my blood pressure.

6th stop was B'Bop for food in Ankeny. It is right next to the Culvers in Ankeny. It was the first thing I thought of that was 'different,' something we haven't eaten in the last week and can't get near our house. I didn't even remember the name of it.

I had a burger, BB had a chicken sandwich. Both were good, but not too unique.

7th and final stop was AmericInn in Ames. We did look at a lot of the Choice hotels first and they were all about this price, a little less for the ones we no longer stay at. This parking lot is almost full when we get there. One down side is that this chain is mostly two stories so a hotel is rare. We get a suite so plenty of room for the short time we are there. After 8 PM again when we shut down.

Next door is an old Happy Chef, then it was a Mexican place for a while, then a Copper (something,) that name still showed up on our WiFi at the hotel. Now it is a Flip'N Jacks Pancake House & Eatery. Sounds good.

Load board

US - 151

IA - 35/33

MN - 3