<droooooool> Owwwww… Whiteys… how could I forget?!
There was a Whitey’s store about a block from my apartment… right across the road from the supermarket which also sold it… Garrrrrrgggggghhhhh…
Whitey’s Icecream and the local Iowan delicacy of deep-fried cheese accounted for most of the weight I managed to put on. Mmmmmm… poppers… jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and deep fried…
However, I do draw the line at the Monte Cristo sandwich. Club sandwich (turkey and 2 kinds of cheese), battered, deep fried, dusted with icing sugar and served with a raspberry dipping sauce. Deep fried cholesterol death! :eek: Never again.
Do you live in St. Louis? Know any mound builders?
I love the Lake Michigan shoreline, sand dunes, rolling farmland, pine forests, lakes and streams, and clear blue sky.
I miss London. (Loved that place.)
I miss Washington DC. (Ah, the museums, galleries, subway, bookstores, softball parks…don’t miss the weather, though - too muggy.)
Lakes do indeed freeze over. When the ice gets 2 inches to 3 inches thick, it is safe for a person to walk on. When it gets 6 inches thick, you can drive snowmobiles on it and put up ice fishing shanties. (No, you don’t fish for ice.)
When the ice gets to be a foot thick, you can drive cars on it.
Honest!
Oh, yeah, I love ice fishing. I also love a soft downey snowfall that blankets everything in white - until I have to shovel the snow from my walk, of course.
Oh, I can well believe that now. I didn’t stay for full winter in Iowa, but late autumn was enough to convince me. When it got to the point that it never got above freezing by 1pm it was time to head for warmer climes. 
In the part of NZ I live in a cold day in Winter is 50-odd F. 'Course it doesn’t get above 90F in Summer either. My first trip to the US was in August; Milwaukee was baking and Lake Geneva was so pretty… then I saw the Winter postcards with snow piled up around the houses. :eek: