It all started – not surprisingly – with corn. Then The Butter Cow came along, and things got a bit tricky. By the time the baseball field entered the picture, things were seriously complicated, and the future of our marriage was on the line. Who knew that Iowa could cause such trouble?

Iowa just seems synonymous with corn, so we figured we had to visit in the summertime to see the fields in their glory. One member of our family (the one who pays attention to our finances) suggested we fly out about four weeks in the future, which was far enough to get us a good airline fare. That was just fine, until we learned about The Butter Cow.

The Butter Cow has been an attraction at the Iowa State Fair for over 100 years. For reasons I don’t really understand, each summer, intrepid (and probably rather greasy) sculptors carve a life-sized cow out of pure butter. The prized cow is on display for all to see. And, this being a State Fair, hundreds of ridiculously unhealthy food items are available for sale, including over 50 different “-on-a-stick” items. How could we possibly miss this much excitement? We simply had to go to the Fair.

Well, the problem was that the Fair was less than two weeks away, and the airfares were through the roof. This made for mildly animated discussions in our living room. As we were pondering our options, we (ok, I) learned that the baseball field used in the movie Field of Dreams was just outside of Dubuque, Iowa! We had to go the distance!!

Well, this time, the problem was geography: Dubuque sits on the opposite side of the state from Des Moines, location of the Fair. Hmmmm. But wait! As if things weren’t already complicated enough, we discovered that the farmhouse that painter Grant Wood used in his American Gothic painting is – you guessed it – in yet another corner of Iowa. Bill was apoplectic. The living room discussions were no longer animated, they were explosive.

Thankfully, reason ultimately won out, and of course we went to the Fair, the baseball field, and the farmhouse. Wouldn’t you? These aren’t just Iowan icons, they’re American icons! Iowa is just so bursting with things to do, that we ended up making two trips — at substantial cost to both our bank account and Bill’s nerves. Before I share the details, I just want to double-check with those of you who are attorneys. Just hypothetically speaking, of course, is it true that a person really can file for divorce based on grounds of The Butter Cow?

Anyway, on to the State Fair. Without further ado, The Butter Cow:

The Cow is in a refrigerated case behind glass, and a crowd of people pass by the front, so getting a prize-winning photo is a challenge.

The Fair was great fun for us city folk. We admired all kinds of prize-winning farm animals:

We stumbled into a live auction for sheep, and tried to figure out what in the heck the auctioneer was saying. It sounded kind of like this:

“OkwhollgimmefivehundreddoIhearfivehundredfivefivefivegimmegimmeeefiveisthatfiveisthatfivfiveheybattabattabattaheybattabattaswing!”

I loved this blue-ribbon wedding cake:

and this huge, 1,300 pound pumpkin.

We consumed about 100,000 calories worth of fried food, including deep-fried oreos, deep-fried twinkies, deep-fried corndogs, and a deep-fried Milky Way bar. Just to help clear out our arteries, we also had the best corn on the cob any of us have ever tasted. We even tried some local honeycomb, filled with light, sweet honey that melted on our tongues. We washed it all down with honey lemonade. I almost bought an Iowa Farm Cookbook at the Fair. It included recipes like this one for “Pink Fruit”:

“Mix red hots into a cup of 7-Up. After it dissolves, pour over canned, drained pineapple”.

Ah, there’s nothing like a State Fair.

Do you suppose the folks in Montana know about this?

* * * * *

A very astute guy named Jacques Barzun once said:

“Whoever wants to know the hearts and minds of America had better learn baseball”.

We couldn’t agree more. And one of the best baseball movies ever is Field of Dreams. If you build it…well, you know the rest. On our second visit to Iowa, we stopped at the fabled field, an authentic farm that was used in the movie. For those interested, the farm and field are currently up for sale, for a cool $4 million or so. We’re not ready to buy the place, but we had a ball (pun intended) playing on the field.

* * * * *

Artist Grant Wood was traveling through the tiny town of Eldon, Iowa in 1930 when he saw a simple farmhouse that had a fancy, gothic-style window. He found that interesting, so he made a few sketches and went on his way. Later, he asked his dentist and his sister to pose (separately) for him, and he promised them that he would change their images in the painting he was making. He didn’t, and the dentist stopped speaking to him because of it. Regardless, the result was the famous, often-parodied, American Gothic :

And by the way, Wood later said that the painting represented an American farmer and his daughter – not his wife, as commonly thought. The farmhouse still stands in Eldon, along with a visitor center with a great sense of humor. We enjoyed the place, though driving two hours out of your way to stand in front of a farm house makes about as much sense as driving two hours out of your way to stand on a corner.

We enjoyed chatting with Lucille, an energetic 84-year-old volunteer at the American Gothic Visitor Center who has lived in Eldon since she was 17. She moved to Eldon, graduated high school, and got married all in the same year. In those days, Eldon was a bustling town on the Chicago – Pacific Railroad line. The town was home to 2,500 people, nearly all of whom worked for the Railroad. The school was full and folks had five grocery stores to choose from. Sadly, during the 1980s, the railroad went out of business and the town declined. The population fell to 900, the stores closed, and even the school moved out of town.

The 3-year old Visitor Center has helped return Eldon to the map, welcoming thousands of people per year to pose in front of the farmhouse. Lucille educated us on the different types of pitchforks used on a farm: 3-pronged hayfork, 4-pronged pitchfork, and her least favorite, 5-pronged, which was used to clean out the horse stalls. In other words, the crapfork.

* * * * *

As if we didn’t have enough to do and see in Iowa, I was delighted to learn that we would pass through Cedar Falls, a town important to my mom, Virginia. In the early 1940s, brave Virginia supported our country’s war effort by joining the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). She boarded a train near her Southern California home and traveled across the country, arriving in Cedar Falls for training. After a few months, she returned to California to put her skills to work until the war ended. Over the years, she often spoke of her time in the WAVES, and she kept in touch with several of the women she met in Cedar Falls. I’m sure the town has changed a bit, but it still seems to have the charm my mom remembers.

Our many travels in Iowa took us along I-80, 280, and 35, and highways 1, 6, 34, 16, 63, 163, 151, 20, 27 and maybe even a few more. Thanks to the excellent recommendations of our friends and Iowa natives Pam and Rick, we saw plenty of corn. Rick told us about the massive piles of corn cobs during harvest time, but unfortunately our visits were on the weekends, when the farmers were taking a break! Still, we managed to see miles and miles of cornfields.

To tell the truth, we expected Iowa to be flat and somewhat boring, with all that corn. I’m happy to report that we were wrong – Iowa is filled with gentle green rolling hills, charming towns and villages, Amish farmers, and more. We found the state well worth our efforts. Even Bill thinks so.

11. Iowa
A cornfield