Cake Boss to Create Masterpiece for Iowa 80 Truckstop 50th Anniversary
When you are the World’s Largest Truckstop, you have to find a bakery that is up to the challenge of making a truly amazing cake. Carlo’s Bake Shop of Hoboken, New Jersey accepted that challenge and is creating a masterpiece cake for Iowa 80 Truckstop’s 50th Anniversay. “Every great party always has cake. We wanted to make sure that the cake itself was great too!” says Delia Moon Meier, Iowa 80 Truckstop senior vice president.
Mauro Castano, a pastry chef on the TLC Show hit show Cake Boss, is excited to be creating a replica of the World’s Largest Truckstop out of cake, icing & fondant. “We’ve done life-sized cars, we’ve done transformers that weighed thousands of pounds, but replicating the World’s Largest Truckstop is a whole new ballgame. We’re very honored Iowa 80 trusts us to make the cake for such a momentous occasion,” says Castano.
The cake will be served on Friday, July 11th at 2:30 PM in the Iowa 80 Truckstop Super Truck Showroom as part of this year’s Walcott Truckers Jamboree. The public is welcome to come out to see the cake and have a slice. “I can’t wait to see the cake,” says Moon Meier. “Working on it and planning for it has been fun! I heard they make the best tasting cakes in the world! Nothing but the best for our customers.”
Delia Moon Meier tells some stories about the Iowa 80:
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Delia Moon Meier and Eric talk about the Iowa 80 50th anniversary:
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Iowa 80 Truckstop began serving truckers out of a small white enamel building in 1964 before Interstate 80 was completely built. Bill Moon, Iowa 80 founder, located the spot, at what is now Exit 284, for Standard Oil. They built and opened the truck stop with Bill taking over management a year later, in 1965. Years passed, Interstate 80 was completed and hundreds, then thousands of truckers and travelers stopped by Iowa 80 to fuel, grab a bite to eat and head on down the road. In 1984, Standard Oil (now Amoco) decided to sell the facility. Bill Moon, who had been managing the place for nearly 20 years, jumped at the chance. He and his wife Carolyn, leveraged everything they had, including borrowing money from friends, to purchase Iowa 80.
Once the Moon Family owned Iowa 80, they could expand the building and add services as needed. “Bill just loved everything about trucks and trucking,” says Carolyn Moon. “He loved to sit at the counter in the restaurant and talk to drivers about what would make their life easier if Iowa 80 had it. He truly enjoyed the truck stop business and all of the people he encountered.”
Today, after 28 expansions and remodels, Iowa 80 is overseen by the second generation of the Moon Family, and includes the Iowa 80 Kitchen, a 300-seat restaurant; gift store, the Super Truck Showroom, a dentist, a barber shop, a chiropractor, a workout room, laundry facilities, a 60-seat movie theatre, a trucker’s TV lounge, a Verizon store kiosk, 24 private showers, a Food Court featuring Wendy’s, Dairy Queen, Orange Julius, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Caribou Coffee; a convenience store, a custom embroidery and vinyl shop, 10 gas islands, 16 diesel lanes, a fuel center, a 7-bay truck service center, a 3-bay Truckomat truck wash, a CAT Scale, a Dogomat Pet Wash, and the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum. “It is really amazing to have reached this milestone,” says Delia Moon Meier, Senior Vice President. “We are so fortunate to have such wonderful, dedicated employees and loyal customers. They are such an integral part of our success.”
Iowa 80 currently serves 5,000 customers per day and has parking spaces for 900 tractor-trailers, 250 cars and 20 buses. Each year in July, the Iowa 80 hosts the Walcott Truckers Jamboree, a 3-day event dedicated to Celebrating America’s Truckers. Last year attendance hit a record 42,000 people. "Without truck drivers doing the job they do, our economy wouldn’t function. We appreciate their hard work and the Walcott Truckers Jamboree is our way of saying Thank You," says Meier.
A book celebrating Iowa 80’s 50 years in business is underway and will be available this spring. Visit Iowa 80 Truckstop.com for more information or find Iowa 80 on Facebook.