Today we departed from Moline, IL in a fairly heavy rainstorm. Fortunately, with the help of modern radar applications, Beth was able to pick a lull in the storm to hook up the Tahoe and we hit the road. We experienced fairly heavy rain for the first hour or so as we headed West on I-80. We picked up I-380 just West of Iowa City and headed North through Cedar Rapids and Waterloo. When I-380 ended, we continued on with US-218 which tended to switch back and forth from limited access to general highway, but always remained 4 lane and very smooth. We experienced heavy North winds on a good portion of US-218 (probably a preview of our upcoming trip across I-90). In Northern Iowa we took US-18 West to I-35 North. The campground, Crystal Springs RV Resort, is adjacent to I-35 just 13 miles North of I-90.
The campground is excellent with large, level, gravel sites and grass and foliage separating you from your neighbors. There aren’t very many tall trees so picking up satellites isn’t an issue from any site. Verizon LTE coverage was excellent (30-40 Mb/s download speeds). Maybe it’s because our site was up front near the office, but this was one of the few campgrounds where I could honestly say that the WiFi coverage was excellent (20Mb/s down and 10Mb/s up). The bathhouse had extremely clean individual shower rooms containing a sink, shower, and toilet.
We will be spending three nights here resting up before we start the major touring portion of our summer trip. The local weatherman has provided a Chamber of Commerce weather forecast with clear skies, highs in the lower 70’s, and lows in the mid to low 50’s throughout our stay.
Crystal Springs RV Resort Site #47 
Crystal Springs RV Resort Site #47