Driving across the country Day 2

The second day of driving took me through Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. All I state's geeze, I just realized that. weird. Anyways, tonight I was excited to learn that the terps basketball team was also in Indiana today. That has nothing to do with the drive though. While driving I discovered that Illinois has an Ottawa and a Peru, what an international state haha. We stopped in Ottawa, IL actually to get gas and some lunch from subway. While we were at the gas station I peered into the building there and just saw racks of alcohol lined up against the window. Very strange. Coming from PA where they can only sell alcohol in state stores I still find it weird to see beer and liquor in a gas station.
So while actually driving across Illinois and not looking at the alcohol in gas stations I saw signs for something called starved rock. ummm how can a rock be starved?? That's what I was wondering so I just googled this. Wikipedia offered this explanation to the name..."the rock derives its name from a story of Illiniwek history. A band of Illiniwek was reportedly trapped in the 1760s on the rock by a band of Potawatomi trying to avenge the death of the Ottawa Chief Pontiac. The Illiniwek scrambled to the top of the rock, where the Ottawa and allied Potawatomi laid siege until their enemies had starved to death." So yea the rock was never starved it was some people who were on it. Thanks for clearing that up wikipedia.
If you like Ronald Reagan or just want to see his hometown and where he was born then you better go to Illinois cuz I saw a lot of signs for that too. However, the signs won't tell you the names of the town they just tell you what exit to use to go see them.
Our next gas stop was in Iowa at a gas station named "Kum and Go" no lie. I personally think that is a poor choice in a name but hey whatever. You can form your own thoughts. It must be a chain though because I kept seeing signs for "Kum and Go" along the highway. They were advertised to be located at multiple exits. They must be doing something right to have expanded to more than one location. Their bathroom was bright purple, maybe that's it?
Random note, I'm going to be so sick of Christmas music by the time this drive is done. It is all over the radio right now.
Now the hotel that we are in for the 2nd night is not as nice as the first night. There are no popcorn and cookies and milk but that I expected. The major problem is that they have about 10 parking spots. We are in a u-haul with my rav 4 behind it, where are we supposed to park?! Dad called the front desk to ask and the person who answered directed us to a business office complex next door. We parked there but then had to carry all our crap (suitcases, laptops, backpack) up the hill to the hotel. Not fun. Then when we got inside there was more carrying upwards to be done when we discovered there was no elevator. Granted there are only two floors but it's still not fun to carry a ton of luggage up steps. Especially not for me who hasn't worked out her arms in forever and struggles with things over 20 pounds. Neither Dad nor I were very happy. My dad even said a certain word starting with an F twice tonight that I think I've only heard come out of his mouth once before in my life, so you know he was angry. I just hope the pillows are fluffy. Day three starts bright and early tomorrow.