A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 186 miles from Cascade, Iowa to Oakdale, Wisconsin.
Month: August 2024
Travel from Cascade, Iowa to Oakdale, Wisconsin
We drove our coach 186 miles, about three hours of driving, from Cascade, Iowa to Oakdale, Wisconsin.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading north:
An interactive map:
1873 building in Cascade:
Curve tightens:
Interesting bridge:
Bull Durham:
Shiny:
Dubuque bridge:
Wisconsin Welcomes You:
We lay Paladin’s tower on its side on the bed while traveling; he sat inside the box:
Barn:
Fun with zoom:
Mount Horeb:
Trolls:
Jet, tank, helicopter:
Paint testing:
Overpass artwork:
Interesting rocks:
Mouse standing on cheese:
Our destination, a KOA Journey:
Baseball: Field of Dreams Movie Site
We visited the Field of Dreams Movie Site in Dyersville, Iowa, location of the classic Field of Dreams baseball movie, starring Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones.
We were fortunate enough to be able to time our visit for one of the four annual Ghost Players shows.
Us in front of the house from the movie:
Corn by the numbers:
Field of Dreams swag shop:
The three messages from the movie:
Speech from the movie:
Snack shop:
The field, with the house in the background:
Ghost players emerging from the corn:
Plus some guests:
Ghost player antics:
Our seats and cart:
Selfie by the corn where the ghost players emerged:
Jenn amongst the corn:
We also signed up for a guided tour of the house from the movie (which people can actually stay at), with a bunch of memorabilia:
Switch for the field lights (in the movie):
View of the field from the house:
Sitting on the porch swing seat:
A special place for baseball movie fans.
Baseball: Cedar Rapids Kernels vs Wisconsin Timber Rattlers
We attended a game of the High-A minor league team Cedar Rapids Kernels, playing against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, at the Kernels’ Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
The concourse:
Menus:
Burger and fries:
Our seats were in the front row, right behind the net:
Selfie:
Stands:
Mascot:
Other angles:
Spiderman:
You can see where our seats were; look for Jenn with the teal hat and green shirt:
A run scores:
Another run scores:
Pizza race:
3,756 attendance:
Kernels Win:
Riverview Ridge Campground
We stayed at Riverview Ridge Campground in Cascade, Iowa. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A good base for visiting the Field of Dreams movie site.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-07-18
- Check out: 2024-07-22
- 4 nights
Weather:
- Mostly cloudy
- High temps 76-80°F, lows 56-62°F
- Negligible wind, gusts to 9 MPH
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train horn noise
- Some neighbor noise
Site:
- #39, back-in, grass
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
- Fairly level site; high on passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
- Grass driveway about 70 feet long by 8 feet wide
- 28 feet to neighbors on both sides
- Picnic table
- Fire pit
- No trees
- Mostly clean site
Utilities:
- 50 & 30 amp power, conveniently located
- 40 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
- When we arrived, the 50 amp power didn’t work, so we used 30 amp overnight, and got it fixed the next morning
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 60-70 Mbps down, 11-19 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
- AT&T: 64 Mbps down, 7 Mbps up, 50 ms ping
- Verizon: 1 Mbps down, 5-9 Mbps up, 50-120 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- River tubing etc
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Picture postcard Iowa
Close your eyes and picture “Iowa” based on what you know from popular media, and this campground is pretty much what you’d see. Rolling fields of corn, a meandering river, close to a cute little town, it was all very picturesque. The campground is a good size and sits along the North Fork Maquoketa River, and they offer various rentals to enjoy the river if that’s your thing. Our site was a very long back-in up a slope but was reasonably flat at the top. The 50A connection wasn’t working when we got there, but as soon as we alerted them to the issue, someone came out to fix it, and we had no further problems during our stay. We camped at Riverview Ridge Campground in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: The Field of Dreams Movie Site is everything we’d hoped it would be. I highly recommend going on one of the “Ghost Game” days during the summer; it made the whole thing even more special. We also drove to Cedar Rapids to see a Kernels (high-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins) game, which was also good fun….
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
When I plugged in the electrical Watchdog smart surge protector, it reported an error:
The app explained the error:
It was late, so we used the 30 amp socket overnight, then I went to the office to report it in the morning, and the owner came by minutes later to fix the electrical panel. It was more complex than expected, but he patched together a fix, so we were able to use the 50 amp socket:
Cornfields next to the campground:
Unusually, parallel parking sites:
Other sites:
Clubhouse:
Fire pit:
Steep road to the river:
People enjoying floating in the river:
A nice campground. We’d be happy to stay here again.
Video: Rochester, Illinois to Cascade, Iowa motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 250 miles from Rochester, Illinois to Cascade, Iowa.
Travel from Rochester, Illinois to Cascade, Iowa
We drove our coach 250 miles, about five hours of driving, from Rochester, Illinois to Cascade, Iowa.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading north:
An interactive map:
Peoria:
A weird trailer:
Roadworks:
A helicopter dusting corn:
Paladin in his dash bed on the freeway; very unusual for him, though he’s been getting more comfortable staying there for a few minutes before jumping down:
Flooded road:
Welcome to Iowa:
Paladin asleep:
Iowa 80 truck stop, the world’s largest truck stop:
A very Iowa fun with zoom:
Barn:
Wapsipinicon River:
Oxford Junction:
Corn:
Onslow:
We had to do a long detour due to a closed road:
Cascade:
RV tank cleaning
An RV maintenance item that is good to do every year or so: getting the black and gray waste tanks professionally cleaned out. They pump high pressure water into the tanks, manipulating the sprayer to blast off all of the surfaces within the tanks. That reduces smells, and makes the level sensors work better. We did this in while in Red Bay.
Iowa 80 truck stop
On our travel day we stopped at the world’s largest truck stop, Iowa 80 in Walcott, Iowa.
Iowa 80 Truckstop features eight restaurant choices, a convenience store, gift store, Super Truck Showroom, barber shop, chiropractor, dentist, movie theater, workout room, laundry facilities, gas islands, diesel fuel center, truck service center, Truckomat truck wash, Dogomat pet wash, CAT Scale, 24- private showers, trucking museum and more!
Lots of truck parking:
Diesel fuel:
It was indeed big, though not all that exciting.
Lincoln Home National Historic Site
We visited Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, Illinois, featuring the only house that Abraham Lincoln ever owned, and neighboring houses.
Gift store:
“The Lincolns Buy a Home”:
Floor plan:
Lincoln’s home:
Lincoln’s outhouse:
Neighboring homes:
Another look at Lincoln’s home:
