Caves Iowa

I journey’d north to a place I had chosen in Iowa. Maquokita Caves. It looked kinda interesting and it was situated within my six hr drive limitation. The drive was essentially non eventful cornfields, cornfields and more cornfields. I was pleasantly surprised to see an abundance of windmills dotted throughout fields in many areas. Not sure why I chose this place just basically through my dart at the map and want to make sure I cut right through the heart of America! My first night I took my chances and tried to grab a “walk-in” site at the state campground but to no avail. The ranger I spoke with referred me to a place about 20 Miles “down the road” but about 3 miles away I passed a sign that said camping and lo and behold yet another vanishing dirt road! Cue the banjos! This place named 6 B’s (don’t ask) was more than accommodating, was right on a river and the owner let me camp for 10 bucks a night, Score! Very quaint little town close by, not much going on but I will say there was a Walmart one exit up, And this was unlike any Walmart I had ever seen! A choir of angels were harmonizing as I passed through the polished automatic glass and chrome doors. It is not often I go into a Walmart (this adventure will become more frequent on the road) but the ones I have entered I am usually on high alert. The ones close to Philly look like a store that was ravaged during a blackout or hurricane or some state of emergency. Shit pulled off shelves people arguing, folks wearing clothes they should not be caught dead in! There have been times that people’s demeanor felt very threatening and they were only the employees! In any case people were courteous everything was aligned perfectly on the shelves and when I yelled “excuse me” the employees actually turned around! Could this have been the original master vision the Waltons had for its Chinese import business? Not sure but boy was I in the Walmart zone!

I spent time hiking and kinda exploring the caves, though my claustrophobia combined with the fact that the majority of the “caves” at this location were more like rock overhangs kept that leg short, but it was still a beautiful place and everyone I met was cool