On to Iowa

Traveling through Nebraska, the song that kept running through my head was 'Oh, What a Beautiful Morning' with the corn as high as an elephant's eye.  But as soon as we crossed into Iowa, I switched to The Music Man and 'Iowa Stubborn'.  And it doesn't matter that all the people I know from Iowa are neither stubborn nor contrary (at least no more than the rest of us.)   ;-D

But in addition to how nice the people are, what you might not expect is how beautiful Iowa is.  We stayed on US 30 for just a short way, then switched to state road 44 through lush rolling green hills.

Our first stop in Iowa was in Audubon at Albert the Bull park.  Another one of those gorgeous mid-western city parks.  He's a big one.

The city was named to honor John James Audubon the ornithologist, artist, and painter.

There were numerous mosaics in the park and along the sidewalk in town.

Just spectacular.

And they didn't limit themselves to local birds.  For instance, these terns.

And my favorite, puffins.

Two days before we were there, at noon on July 4th, this shop caught fire.  It was still smoldering and flaring up intermittently.

We also took a run over to the nearby Danish town of Elk Horn.

Built in Denmark in 1848, this 60-foot windmill was shipped to Elk Horn and reassembled in 1976.  Over 300 volunteers helped restore it to its original working condition.

This house is supposedly an authentic reproduction of a 900 AD viking home.  Ron and I were skeptical that they had the technology to saw boards that long ago.

Here he is in Viking garb.  That helmet alone weighed a ton.