Boondocks, USA (Williams, Iowa), October 19, 2018 — I had never eaten at the Boondocks.
Here it was, this famous truck stop, in the middle of Iowa at a once-major junction, a place I passed near many times on family trips to Goldfield or by myself, and the timing had never worked right to stop there.
But now I had to, because it was going away.
The owners of the Boondocks announced that the truck stop would cease operations that weekend. The Boondocks opened June 5, 1973, when I-35 came to an abrupt stop right here at old US 20. It was a truck stop built for the burgeoning interstate era, a restaurant combined with convenience store, gas pumps, and truckers’ rest space.
Forty-five years later, it was … a truck stop built for 1973. A Webster City Freeman-Journal article in 1988 said a larger restaurant was added in 1976, and the motel in 1978. The only standout indicators inside that wouldn’t have fit into 1978 — or 1993, or 2008 — were the widescreen flatscreen TVs, all tuned to an over-the-air channel, and the bumper sticker “Honk if you love Jesus, text if you want to meet him.”
Free Pie until all is gone, thank you, read the sign. “All we have left is pumpkin.” That’ll do.
But I still hadn’t planned to eat a meal. That was incredibly short-sighted for sure, considering that options between here and Holstein were minimal, but I worried it would take too much time. The Boondocks is on old 20, and there is nowhere to eat directly off present-day US 20 between IA 14 and IA 4 except the McDonald’s in Webster City.
But then another table didn’t want a freshly made bacon cheeseburger. I was the only other person in the cafe. Chalk one up for serendipity.
The Boondocks was a meeting place for state troopers and a haven for blizzard-stranded travelers. But the present and future of truck stops is on the other side of the interstate — a Flying J with a Subway, replacing a restaurant called (no joke) Trump’s. Chain travel plaza, chain fast food, expansive facilities. A place like the Boondocks — family run, with visual gags outside to make a traveler not glued to an entertainment device crack a smile — doesn’t fit anymore.
I bought a couple souvenir spoons that had been sitting on the shelf since who-knows-when — does anyone collect spoons anymore? Does anyone under 45 collect anything? — after paying the tab. But it was time to hustle. I had the longest-awaited highway ribbon-cutting in Iowa history to get to.
And so, during the 85 or so hours it was possible, I ate for the first and last time at the truck stop that once set the standard for all to follow, and then drove the completed four-lane US 20 in western Iowa.
The Boondocks has since been sold, and then sold again. The new owners are thinking of turning the cafe into an Indian restaurant. The truck stop portion reopened in July.