We don't live in Iowa. We don't have plans to live in Iowa. I once considered taking a programming job (building radio station automation software on Linux and then installing it in radio stations) in Emmetsburg, Iowa, but that was a long time ago. It wasn't the fact that it was Iowa that prevented me from taking that gig.
Today we drove halfway across Iowa from Appleton, Wis. Most of our day was spent driving, though we did have lunch and supper at locally owned eateries as we passed through little towns. I checked on Earl a few times to make sure he was still awake as we made our way across US Routes 20 and 65. I'm kind of happy that we avoided the interstates on this leg of the route as it gave us the opportunity to see some small towns and to do a little bit of exploring here and there.
We did discover that Frank Lloyd Wright's "Walter House" and "River Pavilion" in Quasqueton are both closed at 4:00 p.m. on a Monday afternoon. This was disappointing as we are both big fans of his architecture. When we win the lottery we are going to have one of his institute graduates design us a nifty place to live.
Driving across Iowa in August one will notice that there are four main sights to see: corn on the left/soybeans on the right, soybeans on the left/corn on the right, corn all over, soybeans all over. I still love every moment and every mile. Everything has that wide open feeling. I dream of having a house in the middle of a few trees, surrounded by 10-20 acres of farmland that we'd let someone else farm. We'd stock up on groceries so that we didn't have to run to town everyday and we'd have a quiet, peaceful existence.
The Philly boy in my husband shudders at the thought. Green Acres isn't his place to be.
Nevertheless, I find the countryside to be beautiful here, and it has been a wonderful day.
