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Iowa/Illinois/Missouri Suggestions
Posted on 6/10/16 at 12:17 pm
Posted on 6/10/16 at 12:17 pm
I not so recently relocated to a small town in Southeast Iowa for work. I'm about a mile from Illinois, and 45 minutes-ish from Missouri.
Does anyone have suggestions for things to do around here? I've been working so much I haven't really had time to do anything. I'd like to take some weekend trips and am open to literally anything. Camping, hiking, something in some of the cities (Des Moines, Iowa City, Kansas City. Already been to
Chicago enough, and no desire to do St Louis), places or things that I have to check out while I'm here. I've been to Des Moines once, and loved it, actually going back tomorrow, but other than that I cant seem to find a lot to do.
Thanks in advance!
Does anyone have suggestions for things to do around here? I've been working so much I haven't really had time to do anything. I'd like to take some weekend trips and am open to literally anything. Camping, hiking, something in some of the cities (Des Moines, Iowa City, Kansas City. Already been to
Chicago enough, and no desire to do St Louis), places or things that I have to check out while I'm here. I've been to Des Moines once, and loved it, actually going back tomorrow, but other than that I cant seem to find a lot to do.
Thanks in advance!
6
Posted on 6/10/16 at 1:29 pm to darnol91
quote:
and no desire to do St Louis
May I ask why?
Posted on 6/10/16 at 2:01 pm to darnol91
I used to live in Des Moines. It's turned into a pretty decent town.
A few Iowa things off the top of my head:
Dyersville, IA - Field of Dreams
Eldon, IA - House from the American Gothic painting
Winterset, IA - John Wayne Birthplace
Bridges of Madison County
Amana Colonies - Amish-like villages
Iowa State Fair in Des Moines is a huge deal annually (Aug)
Iowa City, IA - Univ of Iowa
Ames, IA - Iowa State University
Pheasant hunting in the fall/winter
Lake Okoboji, Grays Lake, Clear Lake...
A few Iowa things off the top of my head:
Dyersville, IA - Field of Dreams
Eldon, IA - House from the American Gothic painting
Winterset, IA - John Wayne Birthplace
Bridges of Madison County
Amana Colonies - Amish-like villages
Iowa State Fair in Des Moines is a huge deal annually (Aug)
Iowa City, IA - Univ of Iowa
Ames, IA - Iowa State University
Pheasant hunting in the fall/winter
Lake Okoboji, Grays Lake, Clear Lake...
This post was edited on 6/10/16 at 2:03 pm
Posted on 6/10/16 at 2:04 pm to mizslu314
I've been a couple of times. I like it, but for some reason I just don't get excited when I'm there as opposed to other cities. I honestly cant narrow it down to one thing. The town itself is nice.
When I first moved to Iowa I was driving up and through St Louis. By pure chance, bad luck, or poor planning this happened to be on the exact day of the one year Anniversary of Michael Brown's death. I was stuck in the city for 5 hours, and ended up getting an exorbitantly priced hotel. Sometimes I think this is probable subconsciously the reason I don't care for it, as terrible as that is. I'm sure there a great things there. I don't hate it, like I do NOLA, but I just don't really care for it when I'm there. Maybe I'm doing the wrong things, with the wrong people, who knows.
When I first moved to Iowa I was driving up and through St Louis. By pure chance, bad luck, or poor planning this happened to be on the exact day of the one year Anniversary of Michael Brown's death. I was stuck in the city for 5 hours, and ended up getting an exorbitantly priced hotel. Sometimes I think this is probable subconsciously the reason I don't care for it, as terrible as that is. I'm sure there a great things there. I don't hate it, like I do NOLA, but I just don't really care for it when I'm there. Maybe I'm doing the wrong things, with the wrong people, who knows.
Posted on 6/10/16 at 3:43 pm to darnol91
Ah, thought you meant you've never been nor did you ever want to go . jw 
Louisville is my favorite city in this area. INDY has really turned itself as well.
Louisville is my favorite city in this area. INDY has really turned itself as well. Posted on 6/10/16 at 7:32 pm to darnol91
quote:
Dyersville, IA - Field of Dreams
Overrated.
quote:
Eldon, IA - House from the American Gothic painting
I don't know exactly what town you're in, but this won't be too far. It's just southeast of Ottumwa, which is no more than an hour from you.
Driftless area. Anything NE of Manchester including SE MN, NE Illinois, and SW Wisconsin. No glaciers in the last ice age means hilly, scenic topography with clear limestone spring-fed creeks offering trout fishing, camping, hiking.
80/35 music festival in Des Moines.
Geode hunting @ geode state park or around Keokuk. There's a geode mine across the river in Illinois.
Quad cities have lots of things to do. Figge art museum, food, river culture.
Minor league baseball- Burlington bees, QC river bandits, I-Cubs in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids Kernels.
Beer- Toppling Goliath in Decorah, several up-and comers in the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids corridor, Exile brewing in Des Moines, and New Glarus from Wisconsin (try their scream IIPA).
There's a lot of Frank Lloyd Wright/Prairie school architecture in SE Iowa as well.
Wildcat Den State Park south of Davenport.
Van Buren County has a lot of good fishing/hunting spots and has some great drives. Great fall festival.
Good fishing if you know where to go.
OLD THRESHERS in Mount Pleasant is a gathering of working antique farm equipment (and cars!) that happens around labor day each year. Working Steam locomotives and electric trolleys you can ride. I highly recommend.
There's a lot more I can add if you give me more info on what you like to do and where you are. I've spent the last 20+ years in SE Iowa including my teen years and know a lot of really cool spots.
Posted on 6/10/16 at 11:13 pm to darnol91
Are you traveling with someone or alone? Do you have kids? I'm guessing not if 91 is your birth year. Even if you don't, the Wisconsin Dells is a nice resort town with tons of water parks and other various attractions. There's a bunch of nature trails and stuff like that in the area too. Also has active nightlife and a casino if you're into that stuff. I highly recommend it.
Posted on 6/11/16 at 10:01 am to TheWalrus
Google starved rock state park in Illinois. It's off i80 near Oglesby, IL and is probably one of the best state parks in Illinois for hiking and scenery.
Posted on 6/11/16 at 11:01 am to mechatiger
Also Effigy Mounds on the Iowa side across from Prairie Du Chien. Old native american mounds, with lots of hiking, birdwatching, camping options.
Posted on 6/12/16 at 6:08 pm to mizslu314
We used to do St. Louis when I was a kid. Stayed a few days on the Merrimack, then few days doing zoo, Busch gardens, arch and Cardinal games. Always had a good time.
Posted on 6/12/16 at 11:15 pm to darnol91
Welcome to Ieauxwa!
Shoot us a line if you want to hang out with some relocated Tigers.
LSU Des Moines
Facebook
Shoot us a line if you want to hang out with some relocated Tigers.
LSU Des Moines
This post was edited on 6/12/16 at 11:16 pm
Posted on 6/13/16 at 9:52 am to mechatiger
Thanks so much for the all tips, everyone!
Mecha, thanks for the detail. I'm in Burlington. Nice little town, surprisingly. Seems the younger age group/young professionals are quite under represented, and don't take too well to outsiders. That's just what I've seen, though. Not passing judgement. It is a small town, and most people immediately think I'm associated with the construction workers at the fertilizer plant in Wever. Understandable, it's a small town that has been turned upside down because of it.
I enjoy hiking, fishing, beer, sight seeing, going out. I do love the Iowa City Area, but haven't gone to the QC much, other than to catch a flight. I actually had planned to go hiking/camping this weekend, but it fell through, so went to Des Moines instead. I'll definitely take a look into all of the things you mentioned. I caught Old Thrashers last year and it was awesome! Look forward to a good bit of hiking/camping/fishing this summer. The weather has been amazing recently!
I also liked the des moines LSU facebook page. If I'm ever in town I'll definitely see what is going on. Will yall be attending the LSU wisco game?
Mecha, thanks for the detail. I'm in Burlington. Nice little town, surprisingly. Seems the younger age group/young professionals are quite under represented, and don't take too well to outsiders. That's just what I've seen, though. Not passing judgement. It is a small town, and most people immediately think I'm associated with the construction workers at the fertilizer plant in Wever. Understandable, it's a small town that has been turned upside down because of it.
I enjoy hiking, fishing, beer, sight seeing, going out. I do love the Iowa City Area, but haven't gone to the QC much, other than to catch a flight. I actually had planned to go hiking/camping this weekend, but it fell through, so went to Des Moines instead. I'll definitely take a look into all of the things you mentioned. I caught Old Thrashers last year and it was awesome! Look forward to a good bit of hiking/camping/fishing this summer. The weather has been amazing recently!
I also liked the des moines LSU facebook page. If I'm ever in town I'll definitely see what is going on. Will yall be attending the LSU wisco game?
Posted on 6/13/16 at 11:09 am to darnol91
quote:
Will yall be attending the LSU wisco game?
Yep! And would've been in Omaha this weekend, too
We'll have a watch party at someone's house for every football game (usually 20-30 people total) with a big day-long event for the Bama game.
We also hold a couple crawfish boils each Spring
If you shoot us an email on the website we'll add you to the email list
This post was edited on 6/13/16 at 11:11 am
Posted on 6/13/16 at 11:19 am to darnol91
As far as Des Moines: best restaurants are Zombie Burger, Fong's Pizza (get the Crab Rangoon Pizza and do a kamikaze shot), and Buzzard Billy's or Flying Mango are your best shots at food from back home (but neither are great). Jethro's is a BBQ place that was featured on Man vs. Food because they have this huge sandwich challenge.
There are a bunch of local breweries in town: Confluence, 515, Firetrucker, Madhouse, Exile, Court Avenue. But if you want to try them all and a bunch of others, look up El Bait Shop...they have 185+ beers on tap.
Almost all of these breweries are off of a bike trail. One thing that Iowans and especially Des Moines love is biking...the whole city and surrounding areas are all connected with paved bike trails. Have you heard of RAGBRAI? It's a week-long bike ride across the entire state of Iowa with big parties at every stop. The host cities of every stop change each year so the cities go all out.
There's also a yearly Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival which is a lot of fun...a day long event with all you can eat bacon, drink beer, they have live music and contests, etc.
As far as outdoors stuff, the Maqueoketa Caves state park is supposed to be really pretty. There's also LeClaire, a cool small town on the Mississippi that does riverboat tours and has a brewery, etc. They actually have one of the original Baton Rouge ferry boats there and had a celebration for it a few weeks back LINK
There are a bunch of local breweries in town: Confluence, 515, Firetrucker, Madhouse, Exile, Court Avenue. But if you want to try them all and a bunch of others, look up El Bait Shop...they have 185+ beers on tap.
Almost all of these breweries are off of a bike trail. One thing that Iowans and especially Des Moines love is biking...the whole city and surrounding areas are all connected with paved bike trails. Have you heard of RAGBRAI? It's a week-long bike ride across the entire state of Iowa with big parties at every stop. The host cities of every stop change each year so the cities go all out.
There's also a yearly Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival which is a lot of fun...a day long event with all you can eat bacon, drink beer, they have live music and contests, etc.
As far as outdoors stuff, the Maqueoketa Caves state park is supposed to be really pretty. There's also LeClaire, a cool small town on the Mississippi that does riverboat tours and has a brewery, etc. They actually have one of the original Baton Rouge ferry boats there and had a celebration for it a few weeks back LINK
This post was edited on 6/13/16 at 11:36 am
Posted on 6/13/16 at 12:59 pm to Eighteen
Near Carbondale Ill. are many wineries. Its a great way to spend a fall day.
Posted on 6/13/16 at 3:27 pm to darnol91
Ottumwa?
Posted on 6/13/16 at 3:29 pm to mechatiger
quote:is your pic from Indian Mounds College disc golf course?
mechatiger
Posted on 6/13/16 at 9:36 pm to meauxjeaux2
Possibly? I just grabbed a stock disc golf photo for my avi.
Posted on 6/14/16 at 9:29 am to mechatiger
just curious. i've played that course many times when visiting Iowa
Posted on 6/14/16 at 2:55 pm to meauxjeaux2
Are you thinking of Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa? If so, definitely not from there. But it's a great course.
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