It’s hard to miss the Mississippi River and The World’s Largest Truckstop!

Mississippi River; image from flickr by Mike Willis

Travel is often focused on getting from A to B, especially if the trip is repeated on some frequency. Such is the case for our travel between Denver and Michigan/Ohio. But the familiarity doesn’t have to be without interest and excitement – or does it? 

What we did: 

She said: 

Bill and I must have traveled I-80 between Michigan and Denver at least 10 times since we met.  We see my mother, my sisters and their husbands, and his daughters in Kalamazoo.  We then make a trek to Cleveland to see his 94 year old mother.  I swear we could put the cars on auto-pilot and they would get there by themselves.  Our favorite and ONLY places of interest on these trips are the Mississippi River, the Iowa 80 Truckstop, purported to be the world’s largest, the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument in Kearney, Nebraska, and the ribs at the Holiday Inn in Grand Island, Nebraska. 

The Mississippi River is just so majestic, and the interstate bridge that crosses the river is beautiful. 

The World's Largest Truck Stop in Iowa

The world’s largest truck stop in Iowa is not a bad place to stop.  It’s clean and the food (we’ve eaten there several times for lunch) is inexpensive and pretty good.  The gift area is interesting with some fun items, that are not just souvenirs. 

He said: 

The 16 hour car trip on I-80 that separates us from our families in Michigan and Ohio has its pluses and minuses. The speed limit in between Denver and Lincoln/Omaha is 75 mph. That’s the good news. The bad news is, the speed limit is 75 mph because the road is flat, straight and seldom passes through, or by, anything that would cause one to slow down! Between Omaha and the western suburbs of Chicago, its the fields of corn and wind farms that provide the optical entertainment. But then again, this makes the drive easier, so dull is not all that bad! 

Since we make this trip 3-5 times a year, in addition to developing our “big four” that Marla mentioned, we are able to recite some of the verbage from the signs along the road! Its pretty bad when you notice which billboards are new and which ones have been there all along. Depending on weather conditions and the time of day we begin our trip, we now know what restaurants and motels we’ll end up eating and staying at. And, to be fair to Nebraska, we do try stay in Grand Island for the ribs at the Holiday Inn. 

And, just to show we aren’t bored only by our sister states, the turnpike in western Ohio, from Toledo to the Indiana border provides a scenic backdrop that rivals eastern Colorado and Nebraska!

Category: Midwest, United States, what we didTags: Great Platte River Archway, Holiday Inn, I-80 Tuck-stop, Mississippi River |