From the road, it looks like your average rest stop - just bigger. But it's less Disneyland and more convenient place to stop on a road trip. Given its "world's biggest" title, I expected the truck stop would be colossal and buzzing. I do not recommend this method of getting there. So I bundle up in a long black coat, jeans, white T-shirt and leather boots (I'm going for an ambiguous look) and walk, then run across the freeway overpass, toward the giant "World's Largest Truckstop" signs with bright red arrows directing drivers (or runners) to the megacomplex. I can't call a taxi to the middle of nowhere for a three-minute drive. There are also no Ubers ride-sharing apps out here just Iowa fields. The problem is I don't have a car, and there's no sidewalks between the two. It's about a half mile from the truck stop, both just off I-80 but on opposite sides. There are tractors in the parking lot at my hotel, the Days Inn by Wyndham Walcott Davenport. A few weeks ago, I spent a marathon day at this "Trucker's Disneyland" exploring its many treasures. You'd never know what it was like to take a truck stop shower or get a truck stop haircut.īut I do. Unless you're one of America's 3.5 million truck drivers, you likely wouldn't spend enough time at Iowa 80 to enjoy all its spoils. Every July, the complex hosts its Walcott Truckers Jamboree with live music, a pork chop cookout and beauty contest for trucks. It has eight places to eat and meet all your standard truck-driver necessities like showers and fuel, plus a dazzling array of amenities like a museum, barber, dentist, dog wash, gift shop, chiropractor and movie theater. It's a 24-hour megacomplex that opened in 1964 and hasn't closed its doors since. Part-trucker base camp, part-wacky tourist attraction, Iowa 80 is so much more than a place to get gas.
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