We Heart Iowa

July 25th, 2009 | by kelly | Filed under: Uncategorized |

You may remember reading that someone told us Iowa was boring. Instead of heeding their warning and putting the peddle to the metal, we did the exact opposite. We took it slow, we met people, we took the back roads and were bound and determined to see the best that Iowa had to offer….in about 24 hours.

Our first stop was meeting with Thomas Ritchie, whose good natured attitude and advice convinced us that Iowa was not this boring place the rest of America likes to ignore. So, we set off into the land of cornfields and exited the maze with a newfound appreciation for the place.

We’d seen a lot of dramatic landscape on this trip and I had deemed myself the expert on when America got ugly. I won’t lie, I was poised and ready to announce this in Iowa. How exciting could it be to look at corn for miles and miles? Boy, was I wrong. The rows of corn formed formed weaving, textured patterns, enveloping everything around us. We were in the maze and we were happy to be there. It was green, it was alive, and you felt like you were in the midst of what was keeping America alive. (Albeit, through high fructose corn syrup, but I digress.)

I’ve also been enthralled with wind turbines this trip, there’s just something about those big white wings against a blue sky. I think they look their best in Iowa where they stretch across the horizon as far as the eye can see.

We also had some of the best camping we had on this trip. It was quiet, picturesque, and smack in the middle of a state park. We caught a beautiful sunset, an awesome lightening storm and watched the night fade into a sea of fireflies.

And we met super nice people in Iowa at both ends of the state. Thomas whetted our appetite and Bob of Jitterz Coffee sealed the deal. He taught Pam how to make her first latte, an important skill for a Seattlite to know. He also let us hang out in his shop in Dubuque for far too long, kept us caffeinated, fed, and connected to the outside world. As far as niceness goes, Iowa gets our vote for the nation’s nicest people.

And, we saw kittens. Who can’t love a place where kittens are just hanging out by the gas station?

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