Road trip 2014 Oklahoma to Iowa

After driving over 1000 miles we stayed the night in Oklahoma City. We were exhausted. We easily found our hotel that we were staying in, right off the Interstate. The Hotel was nice and clean, we had two rooms, one for the boys and one for my Mom and I. We ate dinner and then went to sleep. Derrick fell asleep early, he was tired from sitting in the back seat the whole trip. 

We woke early, the weather was nice, compared to the heat from Arizona. The hotel had free breakfast and so we took advantage of it and ate well. After we ate we left, found a gas station, then we were off for Fort Madison, Iowa, where we were staying the night. 

The drive from Oklahoma City to Fort Madison, Iowa is 600 miles. So easy compared to the day before.
 The first thing I noticed when we left was that we will have toll roads all the way through Oklahoma, something that we don't have in Arizona. The roads were nice, the view was beautiful, nice easy drive through Oklahoma. 

Once we got into Missouri, the first stop was for first rest area we saw, it was a nice place. I took a picture of it, the sign anyways:

The picture below is of my son, the whole wall is decorated with licenses plates from different states so cool.

So green so different than Arizona.  We went through Springfield, and then went through Jefferson City, which I advised everyone that Jefferson City is the capitol of Missouri. Everyone was surprised and I am sure the only reason I knew this was from going over states and capitols with my boys as they were growing up.

I love bridges and love taking pictures of them, so you will see them through out this series. The first picture below, you can barely see the Jefferson State Capitol. I wanted to stop but we didn't so I did the best I could on getting a picture of it.  

Of course here is a picture of my GPS, it did a great job, between using the GPS on my iphone and the GPS on the window we got every where we needed to go. 

The picture right above is the Mississippi River. My first sight of the magnificent river. We made it into Fort Madison by dinner time, we checked into the Hotel and found a place to eat. I thought my food was good, but others didn't like it. 

Here is a view of the sunset in Fort Madison, Iowa:

I thought it was beautiful, just thinking how Heavenly Father made this for us, and all the beauty. 

The Town of Fort Madison is really cool, I didnt take to many pictures, I wish I had. They have some awesome old buildings, beautiful old churches. They also have an incredible history. 

Here is what Wikipedia has to say:

The city of Fort Madison was established around the site of the historic Fort Madison (1808–1813), which was the first permanent U.S. military fortification on the Upper Mississippi. Fort Madison was the site of Black Hawk's first battle against U.S. troops, the only real War of 1812 battle fought west of the Mississippi. It was also the location of the first U.S. military cemetery in the upper Midwest.^[8] The fort was named for James Madison, fourth President of the United States.^{[9] you can read more click the link}

There were many cemeteries there, I had commented to my Mom about that fact before I knew the history of the town. The also have the Army Fort there from the War of 1812, but it is flood at this time, as a levy has broke and flooded parts of the area. But I would love to go back to that town again and see everything. 

Well tomorrow I will be talking a little more about Fort Madison, and then we went to Nauvoo, Ill. Hope you enjoyed these pictures and more and better pictures tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Diana