Made the trip from KC to Des Moines, IA with a fueling up stop at Cracker Barrel. DM was .. a less than thrilling stop. We hit the only bookstore we could find and grabbed some lunch at a really lousy mexican place in the capital district. We stopped at the busiest place we could find, but the food had almost no taste at all. I had a minor panic attack while walking around the area. The town felt miserable and lifeless. We were planning on catching the Iowa Cubs game that night, but the 90%+ change of rain plus the onset of my full-on panic and depression and the thought of trying to occupy another 4.5 hrs in DM before the game (that was likely to be rained out) we bailed on the town and headed home.
Almost immediately I felt better, the idea of spending 5.5 hrs driving after a previous 3 hrs of driving was better than staying in town. The trip home was an easy drive with an Anthony Bourdain audiobook keeping us occupied.