[Bill]

My wife and I enjoyed Pennsylvania Dutch country when we were there several years ago. This year we decided to explore another Amish area, this one in Amana, Iowa. Amana is a group of Amish villages just north of I-80. These are not plastic Disneyland villages with costumed tour guides. These are real people living real lives. If you visit, you will want to spend time strolling the villages, visiting the shops and museums, eating wonderful German food, and talking with the people. Like the Pennsylvania Dutch, these Iowa colonies were fun.

The village maintains a big campground for visitors. As you would expect of the Amish, this is not resort camping, but it is big and well-grassed, and interior roads and campsites are level and well-graveled. The sites are all pull-throughs, and each site is big enough to accommodate 2 or even 3 giant 5th wheels. “Friends and family group camping” is popular here.

If you decide to visit, you should know that you MUST NOT try to follow your GPS to the campground. The web site gives an address on “C Street”, but it turns out there are two “C Streets”. Your GPS will lead you through town, and dump you on a narrow dead end street in a residential area. Hope you are good at backing up!

The correct way? From I-80, your GPS will lead you north on US-151. At the edge of the village, you will come to a stop sign at a Casey’s (gas and snacks). Immediately beyond this, your GPS will tell you to turn right, through the center of the village. DON’T DO IT! Instead, keep going straight, and you’ll find the campground on your left, well-signed, after a mile or so.

One other thing. For whatever reason, all the campground power posts have 50-amp outlets, but there seem to be none with 30-amp outlets. The campground provides a bushel basket of adapters at the check-in, but apparently a lot of campers “mistakenly” drive off with them. Bring your own, just in case.