Iowa Jokes in 3...2...1....

All right, so this week was an interesting week. Not only was it my birthday, but it was decided that my dad and his siblings would get together for a family vacation. However, this was the first family vacation they've taken with all siblings together in about 50 years....which turned out to be interesting to say the least. But it was pretty fun! Minus the Spam Museum chatter...but anyhow. All of the randomness shall now commence with photodumping and much hilarity.

First, I-29 was road construction haven...more construction than I've every seen going on in SD at one time, mind you. So that was pretty much the gist of our Iowa exposure in the first hundred miles or so. Plenty of wind turbines too, and what they called "modern rest areas". How modern were they? They were so modern, that it resembled a parking lot with garbage cans place strategically along it. Srsly.

Past the wind turbines, we detoured to Winterset, which was pretty fun. Of course, as we detoured there, we detoured the detour to go check out one of the bridges of Madison County...we didn't actually realize what county Winterset was in until we saw signs pointing toward the bridges, so we figured why not. It was taking a little while to get there with the gravel roads and everything, but then my dad commented, "With our luck, we'd end up visiting the one ugly bridge out of all of them."

After that, it was predestined to be the ugly bridge. No matter what our opinions were after the matter. :P

This actually was one of the few bridges that still had a good amount of running water underneath it....at least that's the impression we got. In its original spot, too. Then right next to it was the also awesome NAKED bridge of Madison County! :D

And in between was Iowa's version of Stonehenge:

The rest of Winterset was driving past the birthplace of John Wayne (also caught unaware that there was more shit down here), and checking out the Fons and Porter store. All in all, very successful detour. Then instead of getting back on crappy interstate roads, we just headed straight east towards Knoxville. KNOXVILLE! One of the greatest dirt tracks in existence. It was actually a lot bigger than I expected, but then again, it's located in the middle of town, not built into a hill....I'll get to that explanation later. We also managed to stop by while their county fair was in session. Sweet!

After that, all we had to do was drive north to hit Newton, which is where Iowa Speedway was. Which turned out to be equally as awesome, and we got a shit-ton of stuff for only $70. The lady working at the desk (her name was Pam) actually gave us next week's sale prices on what we got just that Saturday, she was so awesome!!

A couple days later, I had my first ever motorcycle ride, thanks to my uncle. This was probably one of the biggest highlights to the trip, but it was awesome!! Plus, this is where I get to rub in the fact that my uncle is also in a motorcycle gang. And yesh, that's me in the awkward back. :P

We were heading off to the Amana Colonies, which was pretty nice. Only about 25, 30 miles from where we were staying in Iowa City so it was a decent motorcycle trip. However, there wasn't much to the Amana Colonies. :/

Yuup, that's a good portion of it. Then there were little random kitties all over, it was awesome!

Uhh, what else.....the next day we drove around some more, came across a pretty cool pond that was absolutely covered in lilies. But it was a bit rainy that day, so not many were in bloom. But still, pretty nifty.

.........and this just explains itself. /facepalm

Next day was the day we made the trek home, but of course we had to detour to some strange little town to visit! This time it was Kahlua, aka AMISH COUNTRY! Amg, buggy parking!! :D

And if you look closely, you can see a couple of the bearded Amish menz. lulz!

We also stopped at an amazing cheese factory and some more quilting shops, and also a bakery, but it was the Amish people that were so awesome. Amish/Mennonite, but we've got our share of Mennonite colonies near home, also.

What can I say about Iowa? Well, for one they find just about every town as "historical," or a county that must have it's own museum...all right, but no one else really thought your land was very sacred or special. Drive down I-29 and look at how the Omaha and Winnebago reservations are all in Nebraska. Yeeeeeeah.... There's also a shit-ton more semis on the road than I'm used to seeing, as goes the same for the number of trees. Not just any special trees, basically run of the mill trees that no one cares to learn about. At least in the Black Hills, the trees are a particular pine family. :P This was also the first time ever that our camera has fogged up when outside, so the weather is a bit wonky. But it was a really unique experience...

Of course, there was a lot more to the trip than it appears. There were plenty of restaurant eating that my family would probably like to forget about thanks to my aunt, and there was plenty of shopping and touring and stuffs. I experienced Sioux City in the daytime for the first time ever, we bought a crapton of food, and our hotel was directly across the street from the ACT testing headquarters, which was pretty sweet for me! I know for sure I'm missing something, too, but it'll come to me--most likely when I'm more awake. In the meantime, posts of RAGBRAI and Huset's racing (and my new favorite driver) will be coming up soonish.