Is this heaven? It's, it's Iowa

I remember the first time I drove into Iowa from Chicago for a friend's wedding years ago. I didn't think there would be much to see, just farms and corn fields. I was wrong, Iowa is so much prettier than I expected.  Beautiful rolling hills with farms and fields of wild flowers, I was excited to drive through this time, especially after all the flat farm fields of Indiana and Illinois. I wasn't disappointed.

We crossed the Mississippi into Iowa in the afternoon.  First stop was the World's Largest Truckstop. It was a fun break with lots to see, including a cool truck museum. The kids loved sitting in one of the big rig cabs they had on display. After some ice cream we were back on the road, we still had to cross almost the whole state before we slept.

Bella on top of the world!

Kellen in the big rig

We stopped outside Des Moines for dinner and to pick up something we forgot from Kohls. I was pleasantly surprised to find they also had a Trader Joe's! We had dinner at Culvers, a local chain, where I got the signature butter burger.  It was yummy! 

We were headed for Neola, Iowa for our stop but it was getting late. We started looking for a closer campground. After a false start down a dirt road, we found a beautiful state park, Lake Anita.  We pulled in and found a spot. It was getting pretty late and everyone was on edge. Bella, who had been complaining of an ear ache, was the first to lose it. When I got back from registering us, there were tears and lots of them as she proceeded to refuse to sleep on any of the beds and pretty much pushed everyone's buttons.  We expected this would happen after two long days of driving.

Lake Anita State Park in Iowa

Once everyone settled down, it was a beautiful night, a full moon gazed down on us and it was perfectly quiet except for the noise of the bugs in the fields around us. We woke up this morning and took a quick walk down to the lake.  It is a very nice park and lake, it would have been fun to explore it a bit more, but we have 7 more hours of driving and a goal of seeing the evening ranger presentations at Badlands National Park, so we are off on day 3, South Dakota here we come!