Yesterday the Rockies - Today the Country's Best Rest Stop

First - for those of you who didn't believe we really stayed down the road from the state correction facility last night - I took a quick picture as we pulled out of the Comfort Inn on our way to a really great dinner.

But Honey Badger and her buddy George don't care!  We had a great night's sleep!

And today we traveled through Nebraska and part of Iowa and discovered the best rest stop in the country - so far.

Here it is - located just east of Council Bluffs, Iowa.  

And it features:

Beautiful flowers planted at the entrance....

Interesting sculptures

Lovely gardens and picnic tables in the back...

Cool designs on the floors...

Nice maps....

An entire row of vending machines that look like they work - don't laugh we don't carry any food with us and locating provisions, or at least a diet Coke when I'm sleepy and have to drive, is a big deal.

As well as really clean, nice bathrooms and murals on the walls AND

The State of Iowa Welcome Center!

I had really hoped to see some original Oregon Trail wagon ruts but the rest stop that advertised those was closed!  Bummer - but as we looked out at the landscape we consoled ourselves knowing that this is kind of what it looked like back in the day.  (you know, without the trucks and miles of corn)  And when we crossed the Platte River it looked exactly as the Oregon Trail diaries had described it - wide and shallow and muddy.

Tonight we are in Des Moines where it took forever to find our hotel and George agreed with me that he didn't much care for our navigator when it told us to take streets that weren't there, or streets that were alleys with mostly railroad tracks!

I wish I could say this is our hotel - but it's the State Capitol Building.  Pretty!  In fact Des Moines seems like a really nice town!