I’m reading Bill Brysons The Lost Continent and he’s less than impressed with Iowa.
According to him there is bugger all there worth a sausage and I find this a bit hard to believe. Surely there must be some redeeming features, if there are let me know and if possible post pics.
I lived there for two years.
That’s where I got sober. Iowa is the ideal place to get clear that my alternatives were sobriety or death.
It’s flat, brown, and nearly treeless, making it almost indistinguishable from any number of other corn-wheat-soy producing Midwestern states. I frequently get it confused with Ohio even though they’re separated by two other states. Positives? I once worked with a pretty good engineer who got his undergrad at Iowa State. And singer Eleni Mandell seems pretty taken with Iowa City in her song of the same name (even though she admits that “there’s nothing to do” and "nowhere to go).
Having said that, some resident will pipe up and object that I clearly don’t know what I’m talking about because Iowa is a rocking place for downhill snow skiing, scuba diving, and dune running.
Stranger
I have always found the Iowa Writer’s Workshop impressive. http://www.uiowa.edu/~iww/about.htm
The have some giant farms in Iowa. The earliest presidential caucus is held there once every 4 years. The movie, Field of Dreams is set in Iowa. I saw on the Travel Channel how they have these Sloppy Joe sandwiches in diners in Iowa except you absolutely cannot call them Sloppy Joe’s because of some technicality that I forget and you will be corrected right away.
Ummm, that;s about it.
My brother’s involved in putting a gigantic wind farm somewhere near Clear Lake so they’re big on renewable energy there. That’s all I got tho’…
Oh, and my sister-in-law mentioned that they all eat something called “snicker salad” which is a side like cole slaw but made of Snickers. That’s kinda freaky…
Ooh, I’ve got one – pig racing at the State Fair!
It’s all relative. I grew up in Iowa, lived in Seattle for 25 years and then moved back to Iowa.
I didn’t think much about the topography when I was growing up, but I noticed it when I returned. The truly flat parts are so rare as to be remarkable. Much of central Iowa is gently rolling hills. To the east and west the land gets hillier – nothing mountainous, of course, but the scenery is spectacular in some parts.
It’s not brown except in the spring and fall for short periods before planting and after harvest. There are lots of rivers, lined with banks of trees, and we have our share of lakes and ponds and parks.
We have the Iowa Writer’s Workshop in Iowa City. Broadway shows make their way to Des Moines. Any town of decent size will have a community theater. Everyone’s into sports, watching or playing. Bike trails are more common, and every summer the state hosts RAGBRAI, a river to river week-long ride that draws bikers from all over the world. We have the best State Fair, lots of good county fairs and other summer events (Corn Days, Watermelon Days, Strawberry Festival) and everybody gets in their camper on weekends and heads for the nearest lake.
If you break down by the side of the road, you’ll get so many offers of help that you’ll be annoyed.
Iowans are interested in visitors from other states and will ask who you are and try to figure out if you have friends or relatives in common, no matter what your name is.
That old guy in overalls with pig shit on his boots driving a 20-year-old pickup is likely to be a millionaire, but he’ll never brag on it.
We can call them Sloppy Joes. “Maid-Rite” is the name that’s trademarked. There used to be Maid-Rite stores everywhere but I haven’t seen one in awhile.
You reminded me of Iowa’s other great attraction – the breaded pork tenderloin sandwich. Not to be confused with a pork “fritter” – those are abominations. There’s nothing better than a hand-cut pork tenderloin sandwich.
Bryson goes into more detail on Iowa in his most recent book (I think) The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid.
I think he feels about Iowa like a lot of people feel about the place they grew up; you may be critical of it and hate some aspects of it, but still feel love for it because it’s where you grew up.
The east coast is definitely NOT flat. the NE part is in the driftless area.
An idependant group sets congessional boundaries so no Gerrymandering.
Iowa students place high in the ACT and/or SAT
Brian
(never lived there, but has lived within 30 miles for quite a while)
Take away Chicago, and I’d think you’d be hard pressed to distinguish much of Iowa from downstate Illinois or Indiana.
If he doesn’t think Iowa has much to offer, I wonder what he thinks about Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas.
Gerrymandering?
Well Dinsdale even I know you have the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore in one of the Dakotas
Incidentally: Any famous people from Iowa?
Besides Bill Bryson?
John Wayne.
Mamie Eisenhower
Jebus! Bryson says in his book that Iowa is 1000 miles from the sea in any direction.
To me, an Englishman, this is amazing as there is nowhere in the UK that is over 55 miles from the sea.
Yeah, I guess - which one of the Dakotas would that be again? 
But if you are coming from the east you sure drive thru a hell of a lotta nothing to get there!
They get some freakin’ fantastic lightning storms!
My dad grew up in Holstein IA - I have memories of being little in Oregon, and every time we’d have a storm with even a bit of lightning, he’d be outside standing in the rain looking up at the sky, remembering home.
Johnny Carson was born in Corning, but I think he thinks of Nebraska as home.
George Reeves was born here in Woolstock but was raised in California.
Herbert Hoover! Also Buffalo Bill, Dear Abby, Billy Sunday, Donna Reed. A Miss Universe from the 50’s was born in Ottumwa, and I’m pretty sure Jean Seberg was born in Iowa.
Glenn Buxton from Alice Cooper is buried about 20 miles from here, in Clarion. I don’t know the connection though.
NailBunny, my kids (from Seattle) try to time their trips to Iowa so they’ll have the best chance for thunderstorms. One of them got really lucky in 2005 when we had a small tornado. A son who’s visiting now was tickled just to see stars.
Having reached page 30 I am determined never to visit Iowa. The place seems like death warmed up.
I’ll stick to the places I like and have been to before in the USA, Chicago,Boston and best of all- the whole of Rhode Island.
I was in Alabama one time but man it was so bloody hot and clammy even my socks were sweating