VAN – CHAPTER V – IOWA, MISSOURI & ARKANSAS

October 13, 2024 from Austin, TX

Driving from Minneapolis to Des Moines was a straight shot south through miles and miles of corn, soybean and hay fields. As we drove farther south, the terrain had a few rolling hills to vary the beauty, and the drive was relatively easy. We didn’t do any touring in Des Moines as we were eager to get to Kansas City, our campground and the Chiefs vs. Saints Monday Night Football Game. When we describe our campground as the “Stadium RV Park,” do you picture a lot of RV’s and campers parked by the stadium having their version of a tailgate party? Well, we did. Turns out the RV Park was over 3 miles away from the Stadium and probably the seediest one we’ve ever seen, with permanent, broken-down trailers (some held together with duct tape) and trash all around them. It was “lovely!” I won’t describe the men’s room (with no sink!) and am glad the code to the ladies room didn’t work—I don’t think I wanted to see it. The “office” was the white jail-like cube in the photo below left. Need I say more?

At any rate, the good news is that it only took about 20 minutes to get to the Stadium and maybe 30 minutes to get back afterwards. We won’t go into the frustrations that occurred trying to find parking because the van is 10.5′ high (which we finally did, in the oversized vehicle lot) or the 3 hours it took to get our tickets downloaded, but we finally got to the game a few minutes after it started and from then on it was lots and lots of fun. Arrowhead Stadium is absolutely beautiful and it was easy to see every play. We were sitting toward the top and that turned out to be much quieter than if we’d been seated lower (like at Michigan). We’d heard this was “the loudest crowd in the NFL,” and I’d even taken earplugs, but they weren’t needed. Whew! It was fun to see Travis Kelce (87) and Patrick Mahomes (15) in person and cheer on the Chiefs. We sat across from the premium boxes, couldn’t see inside, but we’re told that Taylor Swift was captured on camera by the TV crew. Once again, the people all around us couldn’t have been nicer and the Chiefs won! We had a really fun time and enjoyed the celebratory fireworks. Attendance was around 72,000.

We slept well and found a really good breakfast place nearby. That’s when we decided to “recalculate” and cancel the second night at our lovely RV Park. When we couldn’t find any kind of a bus tour of Kansas City (including its many fountains), Gary discovered that Unity Village and Unity World Headquarters were only 20 miles away. We know several people who have enjoyed ceremonies, conferences and workshops there and were thrilled to immerse ourselves in 1200 acres of serenity, with beautiful Mediterranean-style buildings, extensive lawns, a beautiful rose garden, the “largest fountain display in the Kansas City metro area,” and an amazing 90’ diameter labyrinth! We also discovered there is a hotel on site with a wonderful cafe and bookstore, so that’s where we stayed that second night. The wondrous energy and beauty was quite different from our Stadium RV Park and we enjoyed every minute we were there. We love the t-shirt Gary bought there. It says, “Heavily Meditated!” Mmmmm…very nourishing!

           

Our next stop was Joplin, MO (another easy, straight drive south on a less-travelled divided highway). It was a good half-way point between Kansas City and our next National Park, in Hot Springs, Arkansas. We stayed at a very rustic but quiet campground along a small creek that was very peaceful and pretty (below). We started listening to a biography of President Harry S Truman that we wished we’d started sooner (before we drove from KC to Joplin). The author, David McCullough, is the same man who wrote the biography of Theodore Roosevelt that we listened to before we got to North Dakota. We really like the details he provides that give the reader special insights into how each subject’s character and career develops. In the case of Truman, we not only became more aware of how his leadership skills developed (as a well-liked and admired commander of a battalion of fellow Missourians he led to victory in WWI and as a civic leader), but also learned much more about how the Civil War affected this state, the ups and downs of Truman’s life and the role his whole family played in settling this frontier. Had we given it more thought sooner, we probably would have spent more time in Truman country.

From Joplin, we took a bit of a jog to the southeast, to visit Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, about 50 miles southwest of Little Rock. I don’t think either of us had been to Arkansas before, so now we can both say that we have been in all 50 states!!! The driving continued to be fairly easy, although it was quite hilly and winding the last 50 miles, through the dense forests of the Ouachita Mountains to another KOA campground (we’ve enjoyed several this trip and really like them). The next morning we had breakfast near the Visitor Center and only after our visit there did we wish we’d done some advance research and spent more than a morning here. It turns out that people have been coming to these Hot Springs for centuries. Hot Springs became quite popular when promises of improved health drew Civil War veterans and others with disabling conditions to crowded camps near the open springs, seeking to ease their pain in the thermal waters. By the 1900’s, Hot Springs was among the most visited health and wellness resorts in the United States. It became the 18th National Park in 1921. Its ornate and historic row of bathhouses are quite fascinating, some of them still in use, and the town itself is a fun experience.

 

On the Central Coast of California (where we live), we don’t hear much about hot springs in the course of our daily lives, but after experiencing them in Iceland last spring and visiting these thermal waters in Arkansas, maybe we’ll seek out some others in our future travels to relax a bit and enhance our well-being. 

We started to include our time in Texas in this blog, but realized that there is way more to share during our time there, so this posting is a short one! On to Texas we go!