Iowa-80 Truck stop a city in itself

In 35 hears since its inception, the Iowa 80 truck stop has grown to a virtual city in itself. And now theres talk of opening a second Iowa 80 site near Council Bluffs.

In the early 1960s, Bill Moon worked for Standard Oil.

``As they were building I-80, he was responsible for finding land and building truck stops for Standard,'' said Mr. Moon's daughter, Delia Meier.

But Mr. Moon always wanted to work for himself, and he convinced Standard Oil to let him run the truck stop at the Walcott interchange. This is the 35th anniversary of the Iowa-80 Truck Stop. The Moon family, Ms. Meier her older brother Will and their mother Carolyn, still control the site, but it's hardly recognizable as the offspring of that original truck stop.

A small city has grown on the 65 acres now called ``The Truck Stop Capital of the World.''

``Amoco gave us the designation of the world's largest truck stop," said Ms. Meier. ``And we made sure it was bigger than the others before we built the new building in 1994. We wanted to build something so incredible, drivers couldn't pass it up.''

The ''new'' 52,000-square-foot building is only part of the businesses already developed on the site.

It contains the Iowa-80 Kitchen, a full-service restaurant, a Wendy's, a Dairy Queen, a warehouse truckers' store and gift and convenience stores. Upstairs is a business center where drivers can make copies or send faxes, and a trucker's movie theater with 80 seats that runs films around the clock.

``We have a barber shop -- even a dentist here,'' Ms. Meier said. ``He has a clinic at NorthPark, and he comes here at about 2 p.m. and stays until 8 or 9. Lots of Walcott people and people who live locally come to see him.''

Sometimes, Mother Nature seems to steer drivers to the truck stop, as on a recent icy Wednesday.

``Traffic on the interstate was going 25 miles an hour,'' said Ms. Meier. ``We were jammed with people just trying to wait out the ice. By 9 or 10 a.m., most of them were back on the road.''

Whatever reason brings travelers to the door, she said, the goal behind the services and comforts available at Iowa-80 is and always has been to meet the needs of the truckers and other customers who visit.

It seems that goal has been achieved: the folks at Iowa-80 have served nearly 20 million drivers over 35 years.

``We're looking at a location in Council Bluffs now,'' Ms. Meier said. ``We haven't looked far enough ahead to be sure, but it'll probably be another Iowa-80 Truck Stop.''

-- By Catherine Guy