Jun 14, 2011 - Playing Tourist in Iowa

We’ve been here at the Coralville, Iowa COE Park for a week. When we arrived, the temperature was 95 degrees with a heat index of 100. I was really feeling the effects of the heat and the humidity while we were getting settled in. Whew. Since then, we’ve had temperatures in the 70s and rain just about every day. One night it rained 6 hours straight. Not just a sprinkle or two but a non-stop hard driving rain. We finally saw the sun for most (not all) of the day on Sunday. The weather hasn’t been bad enough to stop us from sightseeing and...

Jun 2, 2010 - Iowa Breakdown Blues

Our adventures in Iowa did not start out as planned. The “check engine” light illuminated and our motorhome began belching black exhaust. We continued driving and called Freightliner repair shops, looking for someone who could see us sooner than “in a couple days.” We found a shop in Clear Lake – close to our original destination of Forest City. The repair took longer than expected. Originally, the mechanic thought it was the EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) valve and after having the part “overnighted” to the shop (night #1 sleeping in the...

Jul 9, 2008 - Muncie, IN to Coralville, IA

Start mileage: 37989; end mileage: 38427 We covered 438 miles today – a very long road day. Although we’re both road weary, we did manage to cross the Mississippi River and change time zones. We took a convoluted route around Indianapolis which seemed to be more direct than blindly following the interstates. Besides, I-465 on the westside has some heavy road construction in progress. From Summit Lake State Park, we took Indiana 36W to Pendleton to 38W to I - 69 South then picked up I465 W to 865W then I65 N to State Route 32W to connect...

Aug 21, 2007 - A Visit to Cedar Rapids, IA

(Ron Writing) The thunderstorms started again shortly after we went to bed early this morning (12:15 am). It rained a lot during the night but when we got up this morning, it was bright and sunny. We left Iowa Lake at about 11 AM and drove to Cedar Rapids, IA via H-149 north, I-80 west, and H-151 north. While attending Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI, I was on an engineering co-op program. During my junior and senior years I would work every other semester at Collins Radio Company in Cedar Rapids. Today we drove through Cedar Rapids...