Day Trips and Convenience Store Wars

You've gotta wonder how the children of the world are going to remember 2020...

I'm hoping Lilly and Warren remember it as the "Year of the Road Trips"...

Last week, I picked up the kids on Friday -- and suggested we hang around the house and work on some projects.

Lilly lamented, "Grandma, Warren and I have been in the house for seven days...we haven't seen anybody, we haven't done anything, we haven't gone anywhere..."

Check.  I hear you....Okay....Roadtrip. Again. AND I'M FINE WITH THAT...

So, we got out our Iowa Map -- and reviewed our options...

The colored line represents a 90-mile radius...and the town we picked this week was Muscatine

Our first stop was Casey's Convenience Store in Princeton, Iowa. Gas was $1.88...LET'S GO...

To quote Warren, "We are Kwik Star people"...so we went to a SECOND convenience store to pick up our road trip breakfast.

Kwik-Star is AMAZING...so many wonderful choices...

Their baked goods are delicious, and reasonably priced.

EVERY DAY -- they have bananas, potatoes and onions for 39 cents a pound!!

And -- are you ready? FREE ATMS....I haven't been to my bank for over a year...

They have fresh hamburger...taco meat, bacon...

They have their own dairy farms in Wisconsin -- so their dairy case is ALWAYS FULL...get this -- a gallon of milk is $1.69

AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ABOUT THEIR COFFEE..

Fresh fruit, cheese curds, yogurt

But, really -- the kids are ALL ABOUT THE DONUTS...

Perhaps the VERY BEST THING about Kwik-Star is their fabulous, big, sparkling restrooms!! Honestly...I cannot say enough about their beautiful, State-of-the-ART restrooms...They have four stalls, a baby-changing area, and a full-length mirror...

There is a light switch on the wall that says, "if this bathroom needs attention, please notify us by flipping this switch..."

Go, Kwik-Star!  Its a great way to start any Road Trip...

My intention was to stop at beautiful West Lake, just outside of Davenport, where we'd eat our breakfast overlooking the water. Turns out, they drained the lake last year...so this was our "view"

The kids called it "Weed Lake"...

But we didn't care. It was a beautiful day, and we had the place all to ourselves...

BACON PIZZA...seriously...

Sitting in that gazebo, I said something to the kids that I say all the time...

"There's no place I'd rather be...and there's nobody I'd rather be with..." And you will not believe what we found in Muscatine, Iowa...!!