Year 7 Day 8

GPS is weird. The rain stuck around most of the night last night. We woke to wet windows and clouds. These were much happier than the ones last night. It was time to head north to start completing our giant circle. The only other stop we could find in Missouri was HaHa Tonka State Park. Its a a very cool place on Lake of the Ozarks. Back 100 plus years ago one man owned 5000 acres here and built a 3 story castle. The wood portion of  the castle burned down in  a fire and it was abandoned. The family eventually donated the acres and castle to the state. We took a couple of walks around. One took us to a spring that feeds into the lake. 58,000 gallons a day pump out from a cave. It was 316 vertical steps down to the spring, but well worth it.

After the GPS took us on a trip. Our destination was Des Moines about 5 hours away. There was absolutely nothing in between us and there. At some point our GPS took us off onto tiny backroads in the Missouri / Iowa countryside. Corn, corn and corn were all around. Tiny forgotten towns that had windows boarded up and no people anywhere around. Luckily we drove right through an Amish community and saw some traditional Amish people in buggies and such.

The road suddenly changed color, which I never understand, and we were in Iowa. 2 more hours and we entered Des Moines. There is nothing here, but its the largest city in Iowa at 200,000 people. I think the people here see corn too much and dont have much beauty in their lives. The rudest by far so far.

So, tomorrow we head to the Iowa state fair. Fingers crossed that its as good as everyone says it is. Im looking forward to the butter cow and some crappy food. But most of all I am once again looking forward to home.