Traveling across Midwest - Illinois & Iowa

Wednesday to Sunday (Oct 14-18):

We continued our travels across the Midwest through the states of Illinois and Iowa. Lots and Lots of farmland in these two states. Some of the crops have already been harvested but there is still a lot of crops left in the fields.

On Wednesday night we stopped for the night at the Galesburg East Campground near Galesburg, Illinois. We only spent one night in the campground so we did not have time to visit Galesburg. Galesburg is the home town of Carl Sandburg, the poet and biographer of Abraham Lincoln. The campground had a nice walking trail that started at the campground and wound through some woods and prairie land nearby.

Our site in the Galesburg East Campground.

We left the next morning headed towards Des Moines, Iowa. We stopped for diesel along the interstate and our credit card was denied. When Connie called Citibank about the card, they told her that there was a "fraud alert" on the card and they were going to cancel it. We later found out that the "fraud alert" was the attempt by us to purchase fuel rather than an actual "fraud attempt". So Citibank is issuing us a new card that we are having sent to Nebraska so that we can pick it up next week when we are there. Very frustrating day for Connie since she was the one on the phone for a long time with Citibank.

We stopped at a rest stop in Iowa to have lunch and walk around a bit. The rest stops in Iowa are some of the nicest we have run across in our travels.

Artwork in an Iowa rest stop on I-80.

As we entered Des Moines we stopped by a state park that was near town to see if there were any drive-up sites available (there were not). So we ended up driving to the Cherry Glen Campground which is a COE facility located on Lake Saylorville a few miles from town.

Nice site with a view of the lake.

We are spending three nights here at the campground. On Friday we took it easy since we had been doing a lot of driving earlier in the week.

The boat launch near the campground has a life jacket loaner program.

Mike reading information about the lake.

On Saturday we took the Jeep into Des Moines to do some shopping (COSTCO and Trader Joe's). In the afternoon we took a 1.5 hour hike along one of the trails near the campground. It was a nice paved hiking/biking trail that winds through some prairie land near the lake.

Signs along the trail. You can get information on your cellphone
about the area.

Connie with Lake Saylorville behind her.

This campground is closing on Sunday, so we will pack up early and head out towards Lincoln, Nebraska today to visit our friends there.