Day 3.21: Coralville, IA to Chicago, IL

Our lovely stay at the Heartland Inn continued to be great as we had a wonderful breakfast complete with a fresh batch of pancakes for anyone who wanted! This is a great place to stay for anyone driving through this part of the country – highly recommended!

We got on the road and drove about fifteen minutes for our third consecutive presidential library, that of Herbert Hoover. This one particularly impressed Abe because he had a negative perception of the president who was in office during the Great Depression, but it turns out that he had been highly involved in charitable and food-related work before his presidency, tried to warn his predecessors of the crash before it happened, and lived for more than thirty years after he lost reelection to FDR, outliving JFK! It was cool to learn so much and to have his opinion changed. Hoover is also the oldest president to have a presidential library, having constructed his after FDR inaugurated the model while in office.

On the road, Arielle ate her grilled cheese and Abe had a sandwich he had made that morning. We crossed into Illinois and started hitting some traffic en route to Chicago.

We made it into the city before out hosts, who were still working, so went to Whole Foods, where we were able to park for free for a few hours. We went in to shop and have a light dinner, and enjoyed a surprise trivia night, in which we over-performed in sports and did exceedingly poorly in other subjects. We came in last place, and didn’t even get recognized for our team name! After our loss, we drove in circles to get back to the apartment building to drop Abe off with all the stuff because it was raining, and Arielle drove to park the car in a garage for the night. We hadn’t realized that Whole Foods was directly below the building the whole time. We spent some time visiting with our friends Jennifer and Ezra. We loved seeing their new place and celebrating their very recent engagement. Jennifer made us some delicious avocado toast and we toured their roof with an amazing view before heading to bed.

Approximate number of miles covered: 235

Day 3.20: Overland Park, KS to Coraville, IA

We got up and were surprised to discover that our room had no full-size towels! The timing of this news couldn’t have been worse, as Arielle had just gotten out of the shower, and it took twenty-five minutes for them to be brought up. Fortunately, it didn’t delay us too much, and we ate some of the food we had with us for breakfast before heading a short distance over the border into Independence, Missouri.

We arrived at the Truman Presidential Library, which took us back in time one president from Eisenhower the day before. This museum was just as informative, and it was interesting to learn about the Missouri native who unexpectedly won a second term after replacing FDR just a few months into the vice-presidency.

We got on the road and found a random Chinese restaurant for Abe to get frighteningly fast take-out – chicken with cashew nuts – while Arielle microwaved leftover Domino’s Pizza from two days earlier at a gas station and tried to get a coffee from a nearby hotel (ask if you want more details). We crossed the border into Iowa and arrived at our amazing hotel, the Heartland Inn.

They asked if we wanted to upgrade to a whirlpool king suite for only $6 more, and we enthusiastically said yes. They also had food available for dinner (grilled cheese), which Arielle packed up for lunch for the next day. We drove about two minutes to Monica’s, an Italian restaurant, and tried sitting outside briefly before going inside because it was too buggy. Arielle ordered a salad with salmon and Abe got fettucine alfredo, and we both enjoyed our meals. We returned to the hotel and enjoyed watching TV in our own personal hot tub, which was a lovely experience.

Approximate number of miles covered: 342

Day 5: Wisconsin Dells, WI to Sioux Falls, SD

We repacked our car - hopefully for the last time before we get to Denver - before setting out on our big drive. Arielle set up a very efficient clothesline in the backseat to dry the bathing suits and water shoes that were still wet as we drove. We drove three hours straight to Albert Lea, Minnesota (state #33 for Arielle), where we filled up gas and tried two vegetarian soups - broccoli cheddar and tomato basil Parmesan - at local chain Erbert’s and Gerbert’s Sandwich Shop.

We looked at our directions and decided to do something crazy - reroute slightly to make it to both Iowa and Nebraska (states #34 and #35 for Arielle) on our way to South Dakota (state #44 for Abe and #36 for Arielle).

We went south into Iowa to visit Sioux City, passing by the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor, a must-visit for our next trip here, to go to the Jolly Time Koated Kernels Store, which is half popcorn museum and half very functional shop with many, many popcorn flavors to sample. While a slow-moving freight train threatened to make us miss the store experience, we were delighted to find that Robbie Rohlena, the great-granddaughter of Jolly Time founder Cloid H. Smith, was more than happy to stay past the 5:30pm closing time to tell us all about the history of the family business, including a tour of the kitchen with unbelievable quantities of popcorn made daily. We tried many flavors, and ended up purchasing small bags of the Root Beer Float (for Abe), the Salted Caramel (for Arielle), and the Cinnamon Roll (to share). This is absolutely one of those very worthwhile roadside stops on any cross-country tour.

We drove less than fifteen minutes over a bridge to South Sioux City, Nebraska to visit Freedom Park, a half-scale replica of the Vietnam War memorial in Washington, DC that includes the names of 99 soldiers from Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota. A quote entering the park read “All gave some, some gave all.”

Our directions took us straight over the bridge back into Iowa, where we drove the hour and twenty minutes or so to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We were shocked to see the speed limit rise to 80 mph, which meant a quick trip the rest of the way. We went for dinner to Roll’n Pin Cafe and Grille, where Arielle had fried haddock with steamed broccoli and a garden salad to start, and Abe finally tried the regional walleye fish with Cajun seasoning and baby red potatoes and green beans. It was a great meal! We checked in to the massive and beautiful Sheraton Sioux Falls and Convention Center, the first official USY on Wheels hotel that we stayed in on this trip. We took a quick drive to Parlour Ice Cream House, a fancy place that smartly shows pictures of each of its flavors on a screen. Arielle got the Teddy, which is caramel ice cream with chocolate fudge and chocolate pecans, and Abe opted for the simpler Frozen Chocolate Mousse, which is dark chocolate gelato.

We returned to our hotel wishing we were staying longer because of how big and nice it was, but alas, further adventures in South Dakota and beyond await.

Approximate number of miles covered: 513