keeferontheroad

2009-02-08 Sunday

The big trip day Five

Just Killing Time in Altoona Iowa at Prairie Meadows Casino

We woke up early at our starting point [Flying J, 111820 Hickman Rd., Clive, Iowa, 50325 (515) 276-3191] on Iowa Eastbound I-80 exit 125 in Clive Iowa and had the Sunday Early Breakfast Buffet. The food at this Flying J was really something special, both last night and at breakfast this morning. I included the address above so that anyone who reads this can give them a try if they happen to be in the Des Moines, Iowa area. We both had the buffet and 2 coffees and it came out to cost $18.19 plus tip.

We got back onto eastbound I-80 at about 9:20 AM (CST). We took our first engine break around 9:33 AM (CST) at I-80 eastbound exit 131. We left around 9:38 AM (CST). We got back on the road, but George was having some major problems. We couldn’t keep him going the minimum speed limit of 40 MPH. We had to get back off the highway at I-80 exit 142 A in the town of Altoona, Iowa at 9:56 AM (CST). We pulled into a Bosselmans/Pilot/Sinclair travel station to see if they could work on our engine. They said that they only service diesel and that there would be no shops open that would be able to take care of George until tomorrow. We had to kill time, so we went to the Prairie Meadows Casino located on the same exit as the truck stop only across the street. It was probably stupid of us to gamble when we know that our money is less than what we expected it to be, but we needed a day away from the RV and we only played penny slots anyway. I was able to play for over 2 hours on $1 because I kept on winning. In the end, we gave the state of Iowa some tourist money, and had a nice time even though we didn’t hit it big.

When we were done at the casino, we took the RV back over to the Bosselmans/Pilot/Sinclair travel station to park for the night at 5:00 PM (CST) We only made 20 miles today. That’s a little pathetic, but hopefully we will be able to make the miles up later. A couple of short trucks were taking up all the RV parking, so we had to park out by the big rigs tonight. We were able to connect to the free WI-FI at this location, but the speed was painfully slow. We went cheap for dinner this evening. Fred got a ½ pound hot pocket and I ate the leftover half of my Roadside Diner Dip. Fred’s dinner and cigarettes for us both came to a total of $8.25. We used the free WI-FI to try and find a shop to take a look at the RV but weren’t really having any luck. We are hoping and praying that we find an honest mechanic that will get us down the road.

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