So we were really on the road again today after the excitement of finding an African tortoise in Gay and Rod's yard last night - what a great start to our adventure!  We drove from Battle Creek to Iowa City, Iowa.  The landscape changed subtly - very much more farm land as we traveled.  But, that was only after driving around Chicago.  I really dislike city driving, and it was definitely city driving even though it was Saturday.  There was, as always, that one super exciting sudden lane change when we realize that this is our exit!  Ugh!  At least people let us in so we could exit.  Once we entered Iowa, we were less than 50 miles from Iowa City.

When we reached our day's destination, we stopped at a hotel, Comfort Inn, to see if they had a room for us - they did not.  This was the same result at the next hotel we checked.  Then we drove to campus to see if the college hotel had vacancies.  We did not go in because there was no parking for guest cars!  Then we stopped at a hotel farther out from campus and walked in to see if they had rooms.  They had all kinds of boxes stacked in the lobby and it reeked of flooring adhesive because they are renovating.  We left.   The next hotel we stopped at had a "no rooms available" sign sitting on the check-in desk.  We left.  We drove to the Hampton Inn that we had seen from the highway and we agreed that this was it - if they didn't have a room, we would drive on to another town.  They had a room!  It is an older hotel in a calm part of the city.  It was clean, although worse for the wear, and it had a neighboring restaurant that turned out to be a good find. 

The restaurant, Twelve 01 Kitchen and Taps, served a nice selection of fresh food with an emphasis on local foods and Iowa craft brewed beers.  And Dennis found an app that gave us a free appetizer with our dinner.  We chose guacamole that was made at the table and served with freshly made chips - delicious!  Our drive tomorrow will be straight across Iowa and into Nebraska on I-80.  It should be pretty simple and calm.  I'll include some pictures.