Go West Old Man – First Few Days – 2012

After a hard week of getting ready, we got the house sitter settled in and departed home around 8 am on Aug.30 headed for Benton, IL.  What’s there you asked – I have no clue except for a KOA campground on-route and the right distance from home.  I prefer to keep our drives to around 300 miles a day, but with no sightseeing planned the first few days, I kicked us up to 375-400 MPD to get us into the West sooner. 

Our first day was an eight hour drive thru Nashville, TN and Paducah, KY to get to our first stop.  This is a shot of our campsite and since it was 95*, I only spent about five minutes in the chair before moving it inside for the evening.

 Day two was another eight hour trip from Benton, IL to Iowa City, Iowa where we stayed in an Army Corps Of Engineers campground at Coralville Lake.  The dam was completed in 1958 as part of a flood control project on the Iowa River for this area and the Mississippi River.  I can imagine the importance of this as it flows right thru the center of Coralville/Iowa City. 

There are several campgrounds on site and they are all pretty nice.  This is our campsite which is one of many lined up in a row - it was pretty full for the Labor Day weekend. 

As you might expect, due to the drought in this area, the lake level was at least 10 feet low.  These are shots of the lake and dam from the swimming area and the dam top.

Unlike the TVA dams at home, which have adjustable spill gates, this one has a fixed overflow.  These shots are of the overflow on the upstream and downstream sides and an overflowing shot I imported from the web.

This is the dam, from downstream side. 

This is from a campground below the dam.

The next day we crossed the Iowa River to the northwest and it was little more than a ditch – about five feet wide and a couple of feet deep.

Our only meal in the area was at the Blue Bird Café in North Liberty, IA, which we found via the Urbanspoon website, where it got 4.5/5 stars.  I forgot my camera so no photos, but our meals were very good. 

After breakfast, we drove around Iowa City, which is home to the University of Iowa and both of us were HIGHLY impressed with both the town and campus.  The Iowa River runs thru town with lots of green on both sides and as with most college towns, there is a vibrant downtown and the whole area seems quite prosperous.  About 10% of the students were from around the world, which might explain the surprising number of ethnic restaurants we saw.  I know nothing about the school, but it seems like a great place for their 30,000 students to spend four years - assuming they enjoy the average 27" of snow..

We finished off the evening sipping wine and dancing on our concrete pad to some country music on the super sound system installed by the previous owner.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

8/30-9/1/1/12 event date