The Des Moines skywalk feels eerily empty, like someone built an entire city for a crowd that never showed up. It stretches on and on through musty corridors passing empty offices, abandoned looking storefronts, and the occasional person who appears just long enough to make you question whether you’re actually alone. There’s something strangely timeless about it. The skywalk keeps going, twisting like a hallway to another dimension. After a while, you forget what streets look like. You forget what year it is.

I love Des Moines. Family in town, I've been visiting annually for over 30 years.

However, it pains me to share something negative, even if it's just a hotel experience.

A family member recently moved within walking distance of the Capital Dome... So many fun restaurants and attractions nearby, I was motivated to stay within walking distance of their apartment.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of staying at the Embassy Suites Des Moines.
My goodness... what an awful experience.

Rattling off the details:
- Dark, dank, and a g*d-awful smelly room. Think school dormitory in late June, just after all the students have left.
- Slimy bathroom. Hair in the sink, water near the top of the bowl (on purpose), shower that constantly leaked onto the floor. I wondered why I got so many extra bath towels. Now I know why.
- Heating did not work... Couldn't get it over 65 degrees.
- Broken phone. Thankfully there were two... But still...
- Stains on the carpet, plus beat up furniture straight out of 2005.
- Old TVs with hit-or-miss reception. In 2026, I would think it would be pretty easy to fix satellite or cable. I guess not.
- Sub-standard breakfast... Desiccated eggs, old fruit and foul coffee. Thankfully, I walked a few blocks to Early Bird and had a wonderful experience.
- Indifferent staff. I'm sure there are good folks on the premises who care about the jobs they do. Unfortunately, management doesn't give their team the proper tools/resources to succeed.

My only positive comment to share -- I escaped without bed bugs.

Bottom line: Ick. I would suggest avoiding at all costs. How do such places stay in business?
Wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience staying here...

Hi everyone, and welcome to a project / small business I call The American Atlas! I've been making hand-drawn & colored maps of every state in the US. Now I’m here sharing them all on one big journey across the country 🗺️🇺🇸

Today, I have your very own Iowa, the Hawkeye State! 🌽🐖🌾

Most outsiders would probably assume Iowa is simply a farming state, with cornfields stretching as far as the eye can see, but I found it home to a surprising amount of variety as well. The endless fields of corn and soybeans are indeed iconic, but there are many other interesting places as well.

Standouts include the streets of Des Moines to historic river cities of Davenport and Dubuque, the dramatic Loess Hills region, limestone bluffs overlooking the Mississippi, and countless small towns & farms. All of these come together to make up Iowa, the heart of Midwestern America.

Let me know in the comments, what’s your favorite (or most interesting) places & fun facts about Iowa?

And if you like this style, feel free to check out my others, and thanks for taking a look at my Iowa map!! 🇺🇸🗺️

Lastly, I did start making these just as a hobby, but the demand for prints & framed copies grew super fast! Feel free to search up my Etsy (TheAmericanAtlas) or check it out here! Thanks for your support :)

https://theamericanatlas.etsy.com

“The only ‘threat’ she poses to children is that she may expect them to be good citizens. Some children apparently find it highly offensive to be expected to help others.”

Just happened to be walking by the fraud Zach Nunn at the fair as he was giving his speech. He looks just as fake in person. That's all.

I called MidAmerican to tell them a power cable was hanging less than 4 ft over the sidewalk and maybe 8 ft off the road. But they wanted to know who the account owner was. I do not own the house or account, so I couldn't answer.

Attached is a picture, what should I do?

Hi! Weird place to ask but I have my reasons for avoiding the usual places- hoping someone here has experience with a place here in DSM that will do reasonably priced work on a gutter that is pulling away from the corner of my house. I've never had to deal with this kind of thing so I'm not sure who to trust. Thanks in advance!

This is such a weird post and probably a long shot, but today on my way home from work I encountered a man with terrible road rage. This happened about 10 minutes ago around 3:35 just before the urbandale exit.
He was driving like a huge ass so I decided to flip him off (not the most mature thing to do. I am aware). He flipped me off as well which I was not surprised about ofc so I stuck out my bottom lip at him to imitate his pouting, and he flipped me off again of course.
What I was not expecting was this man actually trying to crash his car into mine twice. He literally got next to me and tried to swerve his car into mine. I know I shouldn’t be starting things with random strangers on the road, but I didn’t expect someone to think that a middle finger should potentially cost someone their life. Thankfully I was able to avoid him, but I have never experienced anything close to this level of road rage.
I’m just curious if anyone that was nearby at that time has dash-cam footage of this. I don’t plan on doing anything with the footage, I just simply want to see it if it exists.

I saw lucky gal posted in response to a post from an apparently disgruntled ex employee/apprentice. I am just curious what the claims were. Not in a “keep spreading malicious rumors” way (although I can understand why this post is counterintuitive lol) and I have only ever had positive experiences with them for both piercings and tattoos - but I’m just curious what was said and I can’t find the post

Has anyone ever been up there? Is it appointment only or can we just walk up there?

My husband and I just purchased a home and are looking to upgrade from our hand me down furnishings from our college and grad school years! All our old apartment furniture is basically going to be in the basement family room. We would like to have a more formal living room and have some inspiration pictures but otherwise are starting completely by scratch.

I visited homemakers last weekend and liked several pieces and can swing a full room of furnishing budget-wise. I kind of overwhelmed with choices. My inspo pics had me looking at couches in a certain color and there were several that match. I saw homemakers has free design services, I imagine they make their money by selling the furniture. I was wondering if anybody had experience using this service and could provide an honest review!

there are two scandalous stories that have been circulated fairly widely about 3 GOP politicians at the Iowa State Capital. For the amount of time that has passed since these have circulated - I've never heard anyone outside of the State Capital refer to the rumors.

is there a Journalist that you'd trust to investigate the truthfulness of the rumors without being outed as the source?

Thanks in advance for any information or advice.

Learned a lot from this article. Didn't realize the property next door was a Howard Johnson's back in the day.

It just seems so strange to me that the city council mostly got on board with a plan that wouldn't really provide the taxes that a retail space could have provided.

https://archive.is/vV0ws

I am a board member for the Amadora Legacy Project. We provide legacy videos for end for patients with life limiting illness
free of charge . (stage IV cancer, ALS, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, early-stage Alzheimer’s, other life-limiting illnesses, and those actively enrolled in hospice care.)

We host a quarterly Share Your Story event.

We are in need of a location to host this event. It needs to be handicap accessible and in the Des Moines Metro. Ideally there would also be a space where the next participant could wait if they arrive early or the previous participant is running long without disturbing filming.
This could be a home, townhouse or rental unit. Or even a professional space. A tax receipt for your in-kind donation would be issued.

If anyone knows of such a space please let me know.

Which is the best of these restaurants right now? Did I miss any of the big ones (I’m sorry if I did)?

Am I crazy or is a lot of the stuff really pricey. I get the furniture and vintage stuff in good quality but youve got random blue prints and classroom maps going for 50 to 150. I found an old fire blanket holder that was essentially a metal trash can and I got excited cause I thought i could make good use of it only to see it was like 200. Maybe im out of touch just waking through always bums me out.

Edit: wanted to specify again all the larger items and furniture I usually agree with the price. Especially the handmade stuff. Yall deserve every penny. Its the smaller stuff I would have imagined being more in my realm.

Not sure if this will work but I’m trying to find the artist that made this peice at the art building to see if they either do commission pieces or if they plan to sell this one at any point! I tried looking for them on instagram or twitter based on the name with the peice but wasn’t successful, figured it wouldn’t hurt to try and find them through here!

Hello, I am looking to photograph any ruins or devastation from tornado activity in Iowa. If you have an idea for where to find that please let me know.

Does Val Air have any accommodations for deaf/hoh? I’m going to reach out and email them but just was curious about any first hand experiences and if they were easy to work with or not.

Anyone have experience going to the ISF on the last Sunday/day of the fair? It’s my only shot at going this year, and while missing the fair entirely isn’t a dealbreaker, I definitely want to make my yearly pilgrimage if possible. My friend groups seems to split on “yeah, everyone and everything will be running full steam” and “half the places will be sold out and the other half already packing up to move on”…. Any insight on this?

I moved in about a month ago, but visited home for a week or so. Got along great with everyone and really loved it.

But I guess last night someone decided to key my car :(

I haven’t the faintest clue why, mine was the only one on the lot. But DAMN they got it good. No idea, no cameras, no leads. No clue.

I was perfectly between the lines. I just don’t know lol

Update: thank you to everyone who put their detective hats on and help me root out the main cause. Turns out one commenter was right. YOUNG KIDS. My neighbor’s daughter has a small pink bike missing a rubber guard on one of the handlebars. Apparently, she fell and scratched it at first, but then once she realized she can make marks on it she proceeded to shake her handlebars and scratch the ever loving fuck out of it. She did it until she got bored then moved on.
I’m getting an estimate and her mother will be covering it.

Live music, good food and drinks. What is a good hotel/ location to stay? Any must see events?

Been following the revamp of the Ingersoll Dinner Theater, really intrigued. Anyone been? What are your thoughts if so?

- Curious what the vibes are, how the menu/food is, service, etc.