5 Jul, Monday
Walnut Woods State Park
We left home around 9:15 am. As we traveled up I-35 to Des Moines, I called every RV repair facility I could find on the internet but it seemed that everyone was taking the day off.
We stopped in Eagleville, Missouri for gas because gas was more expensive in Iowa. Unfortunately, the gas stations were small and crowded so we decided to stop at a Pilot a little farther down the road in Iowa instead.
We arrived at Walnut Woods State Park around 1:15. The campground was small but nicely wooded. We had to wait on a camper that was blocking the road before we could get to our site because they were waiting for the dump, We had site #21 which was a full hookup site with a wide concrete pad that extended under the picnic table. While setting up, my voltage regulator indicated the power panel was short, so I had to go to the campground office to find someone. Luckily, I found a staff member who could contact a repairman, and they could fix the corroded power plug in about an hour. Though the trees were beautiful and provided a lot of shade, we found that they dropped a lot of large walnuts on our camper roof throughout the day and night. Though we were not very far from the river, the vegetation along the river banks was so thick and high that we could not see it or even access it.
I was lucky I had full hookups because the dump station was is a nightmare. It is at the beginning of the campground, and it can accommodate only one camper at a time. Campers usually go the wrong way on the one-way loop to get to it.
After setting up, we relaxed for a moment and enjoyed a beer with each other.
Des Moines
Our first stop was Exile Brewing Company, but we found it closed. As we desperately searched the internet for something to do, we discovered that almost everything was closed for the day. We found that Van Dees Ice Cream Shoppe was open just north of us in Johnston, IA, so we decided to take a road trip there. We saw a restaurant open called GoodSons Food and Spirit on our way, so we stopped there and had dinner. They had velvet paintings covering the walls of everything from Elvis to animals. Their menu mostly consisted of paninis, so I ordered “The Goodsons Burger” for fun, a cheeseburger panini topped with chili and mozzarella, which was pretty good.
Johnston, IA
After dinner, we continued to Van Dees, a small stand-alone ice cream shop that was pretty busy. Though they seemed known for various ice cream sandwiches, we just ordered two scoops of flavored ice cream in a cup. Because of COVID, they only accepted cash.
We got back to the trailer at about 7 pm.
6 Jul, Tuesday
Vaughn RV and Custom Interiors
We were relaxing and drinking our coffee outside when we got a phone call from Vaughns RV and Custom Interiors that they could look at our slide-out problem. We quickly packed up and made it to them by 8:30. They worked on it until about 1:00 while we waited in their office. They discovered a slide motor frozen from rust, which, fortunately, they could fix without replacing it. We got the trailer back to the campground around 1:30 pm.
Barn Town Brewing
About 3 pm we headed out to explore Des Moines some more. First, we went to Barn Town Brewing for dinner.
515 Brewing Company
Then, we went to 515 Brewing Company to try their beers.
Twisted Vine Brewery
Next, we went to Twisted Vine Brewery for another brewery experience.
Black Cat Ice Cream
Around 7 pm, we went to Black Cat Ice Cream, a new ice cream shop famous for its unique flavors.
Veterans Parkway
A road near our campground was called Veterans Parkway. It had several monuments along the route that were very interesting.
We made it back to the trailer around 8:30 pm.
7 Jul, Wednesday
We went to the local UPS store in the morning to mail some important paperwork back home before taking off to our next destination around 11:30.