From Topeka to Illinois via Iowa....

Before we arrived a couple of days early at the Capital City KOA in Topeka, we had planned on one stop over in Des Moines, IA at their Elks Lodge for a couple of nights.

Once we shifted our stay in Topeka back a couple of days, we decided to stop two different places on the way to our 3 month summer home in Sycamore, IL.

The first was Terrible's Lakeside Casino in Osceola, IA.  Only $20/night for full hook ups, we decided to stay two nights.  We're not gamblers by any stretch, but we do enjoy a Casino's buffet.  The park was only 12 years old, but looks like it was built for rigs of the 60's.  There was no support for the big Class A's it needed to hold and many of the pads had either been re poured, or in real need of help.  Nevertheless, it was perfect for us until we found out storms had knocked out data towers and our Verizon Mi-Fi wouldn't work.

Terrible's had a Nifty Fifty day on Monday where the lunch buffet was two for one (we were pigs) and every hour on the hour they would give away $1,000 in slot play for anyone who was registered and there.  Was only a 5 minute walk to the casino, so about 10 till every hour, Bob walked down, waited for the name to be called, walked back. During the 6 o'clock drawing we both went, Connie using her free play for signing up for their card.  "Attention, Lakeside Casino Customers.  The winner of this hours Nifty Fifty drawing is Robert" <long pause> "Anderson".  We could have died.  During that long pause, we both were ready to jump up and scream.  Nope.  Might as well have said "Robert NotYou".  Funny story, but both of our hearts skipped a beat.

It was still hot as we travelled the on the 3rd to Buffalo Shores, Iowa.  We had been there before, it's really a great place for those with boats to pull up along the shore and stay in their trailers.  Water of the Mississippi was great as it was still well into the 100's both days we were there.  They had changed their alcohol policy to where you could have beer in the water, you could have beer at your trailer -- you just couldn't have beer on the sand.  Really bizarre.  Was exactly what we wanted, a place to stop, get in the water, cool down, and it was only $18/night.

The 5th, we took off early to avoid the heat and made it to our new home for 3 months, Sycamore RV Resort.