Hop, Skip and a Jump to Chicago…..

The middle of the country – flat and boring right?  Well that’s only true when you are driving through the country on the highway. For this road trip we didn’t plan on spending too much time in the flat lands as our intention was to get to the eastern time zone sooner than later.  Although it was flat and we saw miles and miles and rows and rows of corn, we did experience some cool things which we will highlight below:

Fort Collins:

Where we stayed – Fort Collins KOA

Highlights

• Large campground with several activities and a fun fishing pond.
• This stop served two purposes. Neither of us had been to Fort Collins before and we needed to be close to an airport as I had to catch a flight to Chicago for my annual guys trip.
• We saw a beautiful sunset and lightning storm on our first night.
• Downtown has a fun college town vibe with lots of shopping, bars, and restaurants.
• We also got to spend some time quality time with family on this stop. I got to see my cousins who live in Colorado and Kandace’s mom came to spend a few days with her while I was in Chicago.

Sunset over the lake at the Fort Collins KOA:

North Platte, NE:

Where we stayed – I80 Lakeside Campground

Highlights

• Caught a few good-sized fish in the catch and release pond.
• The campground isn’t nice at all, but we are thankful for these experiences as it gives us perspective and helps us appreciate the better things in life even more.
• For some reason I always feel compelled to talk about the bathrooms, partly because we try to use the campsite facilities vs ours whenever we can. Let’s just say that we used our shower / bathroom here…..  😉
• Saw our first water snake.
• Chased a lightning storm and realized that we both really love Midwest summer storms!
• Saw thousands of fireflies / lightning bugs! Neat little critters.

West Omaha, NE:

Where we stayed – West Omaha / NE Lincoln KOA

Highlights

• Can’t say enough about the KOA franchise system. It’s almost a guarantee that you will have a good experience when staying at a KOA – from the friendly staff to the well-manicured campsites to the competitive prices.  They are especially great for families as they typically have a pool and activities to keep everyone entertained.
• Omaha has a lively old town neighborhood that reminded us of New Orleans.
• We found an awesome hike at Platte River State Park, a lush green and shaded area with tall trees, a small waterfall and epic mountain biking trails.  We are not mountain bikers, but we could appreciate how cool this track was.
• Visited a colorful pedestrian bridge called “Bob” that crosses over the Missouri river with Nebraska on one side and Iowa on the other.
• We were in town when the college baseball world series was being played – Ole Miss won and we met a couple at a bar who drove 11 hours each way two weekends in a row to see their alma mater win! – that’s impressive.

Platte River State Park

Bob the bridge:

Smithville, MO:

Where we stayed – Crow’s Creek Campground

Highlights

• Our original plan was another stop in Nebraska but after two stops we felt we saw enough of the state ;-). So, we decided to modify our route and head into Missouri, add another state to our list and explore Kansas City.
• We spent some time on the lake – fishing, kayaking, soaking up the sun and Kandace’s newest obsession – avoiding water snakes.
• We met another cool vintage airstream couple.
• Explored Kansas City, went beer tasting and scarfed down some amazing BBQ at Q39!

Dinner at Q39:

Appetizers and beers at Brewery Emperial:

Hay bales everywhere….. so……

Soaking up the sun on the lake!

Vintage Airstream neighbors at camp:

Des Moines, IA

Where we stayed – Yellow Banks Park

Highlights

• We were here for 4^th of July and it was very hot and muggy the entire time.
• The campground was green and beautiful.
• The mosquitos and humidity were relentless.
• We got to spend some time with family who live in Des Moines.
• Visited the capitol building that has an awesome golden dome coated with real gold.
• We loved the houses and the huge green golf course quality lawns.
• On the way to Illinois we made a pit stop at Iowa 80, the largest truck stop in the world.  Randomly saw a BART train on a semi truck and also had Tiny Trailer Trips hats made! (they literally have everything there!)

Olive at the campsite:

Iowa 80:

Marengo, IL

Where we stayed – Lehman’s Lakeside Resort

Highlights

• We stayed at Lehman’s for one night and got caught in an intense thunderstorm. Pouring rain and awesome lightning.  We woke up to puddles everywhere and some unlucky sites were completely under water.
• Parents of one of Kandace’s best friends live in Marengo and they offered to let us park the Airstream on their property while we took a break from sleeping in the Airstream and spent two nights in Chicago!
• We had an awesome time exploring Chicago, went on a river cruise, had some amazing deep-dish pizza and did some touristy things like take a selfie at Clouds Gate aka the Chicago Bean.

Storm front coming…..

Chicago didn’t disappoint…..

River Cruise:

Deep Dish at Pequod’s!

Selfie at Cloud Gate:

Chicago Skyline:

Any questions about our road trip so far? – please let us know!!

-Tiny Trailer Trips Crew