Weather: Cold, Windy, Rainy, all around blah!
Lowest Gas Price: 3.58 (Montezuma, IA)
Johnny stops: Davenport, IA; Oskaloosa, IA; the state of Nebraska; Panama, NE
The alarm screams, its 4:30am. If you know me, you know I am NOT a morning person, at all. Not even a little bit. Not even if you tried to coax me with chocolate or Derek Jeter. Besides the fact, I do kinda alright. I wipe the drool off the corners of my mouth and nag Jerry to get up. We walk around like zombies for about a half hour while getting dressed and throwing the last minute essentials in the car. My goal was to be in the car and on the road by 5am. Guess what folks?! We made it by 4:59am. With one minute to spare(score!) It is cold, I have a headache and by this point managed to halfway come to life. We swing by the gas station and I pickup a Starbucks Vanilla Latte. This makes my morning so much better, thank you caffeine.
Surprisingly we fly through Chicago traffic on I-80, not even blinking an eye and head out West. About 9am we cross the state line and land in LeClaire, IA. History lesson for the day, this town is the home of Buffalo Bill Cody. We drive through this quaint little town looking for Antique Archeology, home of the History Networks show "American Pickers." This town is as big as a supermodels appetite. It was odd that we had trouble finding what I thought would be the highlight of the locals. Jerry finally spotted it, hiding behind a house. We were taken back to find it was a tiny garage, and that was about it. Nothing fancy, not even close. I give props to the cameramen for making it look like a big deal. I feel deceived. We were going to grab breakfast in town and hang around until the shop opened, but I figured there was nothing worth waiting for. So we jumped back on the highway and headed to our first Johnny town- Davenport, IA.
After Jerry tries to kill us by suggesting I turn left on a one-way street, going the wrong direction, we scope out a small restaurant inside the city limits. The Village Inn is a cute little diner filled with the elderly. Not gonna lie, I felt like I was visiting a nursing home. But the menus definitely grabbed my attention, they had a great selection of real food. Now I know this isn't much coming from a chubby person, but the food was rockin. I ordered "Farmers Market Potato Cakes." They were topped with scrambled eggs, spinach,artichokes, mushroom, hollandaise sauce and cheese. It was absolutely delectable. It would even
make Gordon Ramsey smile. We also ordered a Strawberry Crepe, with the freshest strawberries ever, to share. Is your mouth watering yet? It should be. After this lovely excursion we swing by the local police station for a quick honorary Johnny pic to prove our presence. If it weren't for the shitty weather we would be tourists. But its way to cold and windy, we move on.
Taking a little detour off of 80, we jump on 63S and head towards Oskalussa, Ia. Our second stop on the Johnny journey. The highway is mostly fields, cows and dilapidated homes. We swing through North Sharon and stop in the two block section of town deemed as downtown. We stop in D&K Collectibles and browse the overpriced merchandise consisting of beer memorabilia, cookie jars and ragged furniture. I find a Sammy Davis Jr. vinyl from 1962 for $2. Stoked about my find, we wander across the street to Crows Feet Antiques. This was more of an upscale craft boutique. But we find a killer brick stamped with Oskaloosa and an antique Pabst Blue Ribbon can, total of $12. Another great find! After that keep on to Oskaloosa and take our pics, by this point the wind had to be gusting up to 70mph and the temp had plummeted. We couldn't get back in the car fast enough. I wish it were nicer out, this was one of the cutest towns I've ever seen. The downtown area had a big antique gazebo and little shops everywhere. Very kitsch.
Also, a strange fact I must share with my friends, super unleaded gasoline is cheaper than regular unle
aded gasoline in Iowa. This is something very strange. According to Google it has something with the fuel including ethanol and the government subsidizing the addition. Weird, right?Another short out-of-route nears in as we head towards Panama, NE. This small community with a population of barely 200 was nothing more than a tiny dot on the map. We found the sign, took a pic and headed back towards 80. The land was full of hills, farms and gorgeous homes. After another couple hours in the car we veer off into the state capital of Lincoln into an Economy Inn. We check in just about 8pm, drop off the bags and head for some grub. We hit up a restaurant that is like a mall food
