Iowa 80

Greetings All! I'm writing my WIP and was curious if anyone has been to the Iowa 80 Truck Stop in the mid-1990s. I looked up the history of the place but was unsure if the truck stop was exactly the same now or if their were added additions that weren't there today.

Thank you so much, I just sent them a question. Also, infamous? Oh no, what have you heard about there?

Introversion said:

Ha ha, it's just that I used to roll my eyes every time I saw billboards for it on the highway. I used to satirize those in my head...

WORLD'S LARGEST THING YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT, ONLY A MILE AHEAD!
ONLY HALF A MILE AHEAD!
ONLY 500 FEET AHEAD!
HEY! YOU JUST DROVE PAST THE WORLD'S LARGEST TRUCK STOP! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, YOU MAD PERSON!? TURN AROUND!

I'm sure it's a fine place, if you need a truck stop, as many do.

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Oh, I see lol I thought there was going to be some wild story about it. I guess I can understand if you see it all the time.

Chris P said:

I was living in Iowa City in 1989 to 1991, then saw it again in 2014. It is much bigger and nicer now than it was then. Sorry, no good stories about it. I just recall it was kind of junky back then and you pretty much got your Cokes Snickers bars and hot dogs, paid for your gas and went on your merry way. Not being an OTR trucker or RV camper family I didn't have much reason to hang out there.

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Okay, that's what i was thinking. It probably wouldn't have looked the way it does now.

But on a side note, Iowa 80 responded back to my questions and said that they added a cabin style to their outside portion. They renovated the place 30-something times....and that if I'm writing fiction works about it not to use their name or anything so I just decided to put it somewhere else altogether.