There’s a lot I never knew about Iowa. First off, it’s not famous for its potatoes – that’s Idaho. Second, it’s not as flat as everyone thinks.

You wouldn’t know it if I didn’t tell ya (okay maybe you might) but that famous painting of the farmer and his less than enthused wife called American Gothic was by Grant Wood, of Iowa. After learning this, I looked up more Grant Wood artwork which consists of simple landscapes that are uniquely American in charm.

Grant Wood

Driving north from Missouri I got to experience the scenery of Central and Eastern Iowa. By sunset the entire sky was pink until it met the rolling hills that were all shades of green and brown. Little white houses sat at higher elevations like lookouts over the fields, and they were always surrounded by groves of trees who have already lost their leaves for the season.

Grant Wood

We rolled into John’s hometown under cover for pea-soup fog and headed right over to the youth centre to watch his nephews play a basketball game. Today we’re going into Iowa City, where John lived before moving out to Vancouver. Hopefully we’ll have time to stop by his old radio station, do some shopping, and see some friends who may still be a bit bitter that he left for “Canada, and a girl”.

Photos from the trip can be viewed in my Flickr set.