Iowa Girl on the Go

Today is my daughter Katie’s birthday, and she wanted to go to the zoo. So she and I and a couple of her friends went to the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines.

Billed as “Iowa’s Wildest Adventure,” the Blank Park Zoo is  the only accredited zoo in the state of Iowa. The zoo manages 49 acres of land, 22 acres of which have been developed into animal exhibits or facilities. There are currently  104 different animal species and 1,484 total animal specimens at the zoo.

The first thing you notice when you get there is all the construction. A new park, entrance and animal exhibit are being constructed north of the main parking lot. The entrance will include a new road, sidewalks, bike path, pond, and landscaping. This is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. The park area, which will include a picnic shelter and playground, will be finished in 2012, and the animal exhibit will be constructed in 2013.

Inside, the sea lion pool is being reconstructed, so there are no sea lions currently on display.

The zoo expansion will be a nice improvement, because if there is anything I can criticize about Blank Park Zoo is that it’s a little small. Not that I mind, because I think it’s OK to be able to see a zoo in a couple of hours, but I’d enjoy spending more time there if there were new or improved exhibits.

I do enjoy this zoo, though. It’s set up in sections that include the Discovery Center, big cats and primates, Australia, Africa, and (usually) sea lions and other marine animals.

The Discovery Center reminds me somewhat of the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, which is really a world-class zoo just beyond the western border of Iowa. That’s a zoo in which you can spend a full day and walk yourself silly. The Discovery Center combines some of the things in Henry Doorly: an aquarium and rainforest, plus some other exhibits.

Once we walked through that area, we visited the flamingoes and then made a bee-line for the giraffes. You can feed giraffes at special times of the day (today it was 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m.), and although my daughter is 25, she still loves to feed the animals. So we did that, along with a bunch of other families with preschoolers.

Feeding giraffes is hard work, so we took a break at the snack bar and watched some extremely entertaining monkeys for awhile. Apparently they were performing some sort of mating ritual.

Then it was back to the front of the zoo, where we could take our time visiting the chattering Japanese Macaques, sleepy African lions, and the gorgeous Amur tiger. We walked through the Australia section, and I tried to take pictures of a wallaby without much luck.

Happily, there was a cardboard cut-out for me to photograph. That’s Katie as the little joey.

We went to the petting zoo and fed the goats and a really adorable llama. Inside that exhibit I overheard one very young boy tell his father, “But I don’t know HOW to ‘spend wisely,'” and another father asking his toddler daughter, with goat chow in her fist, “Did you just put those in your mouth?” Ha! I don’t miss those days.

A special dinosaur exhibit, which  opened May 27 and runs through Sept. 5, is on display at the ZooPlex. The dinosaur replicas range from full scale to half scale and are up to 32 feet long. Several of the replicas are animatronic. The little kids seemed to love them.

I started my Grant Wood tour on Thursday with two main goals: Visit the God Bless America sculpture inspired by Wood’s famous American Gothic painting at the Dubuque Museum of Art and tour the Grant Wood Studio at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. I also wanted to view the Grant Wood collections at both museums.

What I learned was A) there is way more Grant Wood art and history in Iowa than I ever knew about, B) there is too much Grant Wood art and history in Iowa to do in just one day, and C) the Grant Wood Studio isn’t open on Thursdays.

I also found that it was hard to stick to the task at hand, what with all the distractions along the way.

My first distraction occurred while I was driving along Hwy. 20. As I neared Waterloo, I saw a sign for La Porte City. My stomach rumbled. La Porte City, according to a friend who lives there, is home to a shop that creates donuts of unrivaled deliciousness. I hadn’t eaten breakfast. Why not? I drove south nine miles to the small town and hoped I could find the donut shop.

It wasn’t difficult. I turned down the town’s main street and, sure enough, there was the La Porte City Bakery. I parked out front, went in, and ordered two donuts (one for breakfast and one just in case I got hungry later). The total for a yeasty sugar donut and a huge cinnamon twist? $1.35. Such a bargain. And the cinnamon twist was perhaps the most delicious thing I ever ate in my whole life.

Back on Hwy. 20, I managed to stay on task all the way to Dubuque, although I briefly considered veering off at Dyersville to visit the famous Field of Dreams.

Dubuque is a Mississippi River town that has so many charming characteristics and things to do that it was hard for me to drive straight to the art museum. There’s the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium and the Cable Car Square with its Fenelon Elevator (all of which I’ve done in the past), plus the Mines of Spain Recreation Area, which sounds very exotic. I stayed focused, however, and drove straight to the Museum of Art (7^th and Locust).

Standing next to the museum is Seward Johnson’s God Bless America, a 25-foot sculpture that’s been on display in Chicago and Mesa, Ariz., among other places. I saw it in Chicago but was eager to see it again in Iowa, where it belongs. It seemed very out of place on Michigan Avenue.

The sculpture of the iconic American Gothic painting does seem quite at home in Dubuque, but if you want to see it there, go soon. Its exhibition ends Sept. 1. Unlike many of the parodies of the famous painting, God Bless America does not attempt to satirize Wood’s art but rather enlarges and adds dimension to it. The sculpture shows the famous couple full-length with a large suitcase at their feet. I think it’s wonderful.

Inside the museum (admission: free) there’s a small but quite nice collection of Grant Wood paintings, some created in Europe prior to the adoption of his well-known American Regionalist style. The museum is small but has a few other holdings, including current exhibits by Edward S. Curtis (images of North American Indian children), Jiawei Gong (“Celestial Writings”), and 9/11 quilts.

After touring the museum, I couldn’t help but walk around the downtown area with its great old river-town architecture. It’s really delightful.

Back in the car, I headed on Hwy. 151 toward Cedar Rapids. Along the way, I couldn’t help but stop in Anamosa and take a look at the spectacular architecture of the state penitentiary there. Known as the “White Palace of the West,” construction of the structure began in 1873 with the dolomite stone quarried at nearby Stone City. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s a real beauty.

I attempted to take a further detour and tour the Penitentiary Museum, but it wasn’t open. Wouldn’t that have been fun? I grabbed a brochure that touted the museum’s features: a replica cell, contraband created by prisoners, a detailed model of the prison carved by an inmate, and information about infamous residents of the penitentiary. Hours are noon to 4 p.m., Friday through Sunday. I put this on my list of things to do another day.

But Anamosa also turns out to be hard-core Grant Wood country, so it’s a good thing I stopped, right? I spent about half an hour in the Grant Wood “Art Gallery,” which is stuffed with weird Grant Wood memorabilia, photos, prints, knickknacks, postcards, and a gazillion framed (and unframed) American Gothic parodies. I talked to the nicest old guy in the gallery, who was very eager to help me with my quest to find more Grant Wood history in Iowa.

He sent me to Stone City (the same Stone City where the penitentiary rock was quarried). The “city” used to be home to nearly 1,000 inhabitants back in the late 1800s, many of whom worked in the rock quarries. Later, Stone City became the inspiration of many of Grant Wood’s famous paintings, and he chose the site for his art colony in 1932. The area still features a large stone church, general store building, and several other stone structures located along the picturesque Wapsipinicon River. If you go there, be aware that the road to Stone City directly from Anamosa is currently closed due to construction, but I took County Road 34 and the signs led me in a round-about way to Stone City (about 8 miles).

I should mention that this whole area looks just like a Grant Wood painting, so it was a fun drive.

But enough of the side trips. On to Cedar Rapids.

The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art houses the largest collection of Grant Wood’s work, although not all of it is on display. The museum is not large, but it’s quite nice. Some of the Grant Wood paintings and drawings are in a small Grant Wood room; the rest are mixed within a very good “American Century” exhibit. Rounding out the current exhibits are “Shout Freedom!” (black-and-white American photography), “Like Mother, Like Son” (photographs of Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret and David B. Huesinkveld), Mauricio Lasansky (prints), and Treasures from the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, which was shut down following the floods of 2008. The Czech and Slovak exhibit was especially nice. The museum has free admission through the end of the month.

As I mentioned, I was most looking forward to seeing the Grant Wood Studio that, I learned too late, is only open Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. (until Dec. 31, when it closes for the winter). Well, live and learn. The studio will be on my itinerary for Part II of the Grant Wood tour, along with the American Gothic House in Eldon and perhaps the Grant Wood exhibit at the Tipton Public Library…and whatever else I find along the way.

The Adel Sweet Corn Festival is pure joy.

The whole town gathers to celebrate, with corn shucking on Friday, a parade on Saturday, free sweet corn, vendors around the town square, and stage entertainment Saturday afternoon and evening.

I love this festival because it’s so home-grown, no pun intended. The parade features little kids, high schoolers, scouts, high school reunion oldsters, farmers, churches, and only a few politicians.

Even better than the parade is the huge sweet corn feed. The line seems huge when you get in it, but it just flies by. These people really know how to cook and serve corn on the cob. Dozens of ears are cooked all at once in milk crates submerged in boiling water. The crates are then dumped out on a stainless-steel serving tray and served by an army of volunteers armed with with tongs.

How many free ears of corn can one person take? As many as you can fit on a paper plate. I saw people with six ears. I ate two ears, and they were fantastic. Afterwards, my face was coated with butter, salt, and pepper. In fact, the whole town probably had to be power-washed after the festival ended, what with all that butter.

Who can resist a little kid eating corn on the cob? I loved taking their pictures. Everyone was happy.

I have to be honest right up front: I have never been a big fan of the Iowa State Fair. But I figure if I’m going to blog about things to do in Iowa, I can’t ignore THE biggest thing that happens in the state aside from the caucuses.

I spent the day at the fair Friday, and I have to say that although I found some things to like about the event I’m still not a big fan. I guess I’m more of an observer than a participant.

Here’s my day:

• 10 a.m. Arrive at the fair. Buy a Dutch letter from the vendor from Pella. Dutch letter does not taste like it came from Pella. $3.00.

• Visit the Agriculture Building. Get in a long line that appears to be for the butter cow but is, in reality, a line for free food.

• Eat a hard-boiled egg on a stick, courtesy of the Iowa Egg Council.

• Find the actual butter cow line, which is also hellaciously long. Chat with a woman about my age about all things state fair. View the butter cow and sculpture of Norma “Duffy” Lyon at age 10, sculpted by current butter cow creator Sarah Pratt. In my opinion, Duffy’s sculptures were far superior. The butter cow turned 100 this year, so the fair’s thematic graphics were devoted to the cow’s buttery likeness. (I enjoy this.)

• Watch kids sign a 100^th birthday card for the butter cow.

• Watch the judging of the giant pumpkins.

• Visit the Cultural Center and very much enjoy the photography, drawing, and painting competition. Some of this stuff is as good as you’d see in a gallery or museum, but without the fancy displays. It’s honest and approachable.

• Hike all the way to the far northeast edge of the fairgrounds to visit the poultry and rabbit barn only to discover that the vast majority of the poultry and rabbit people have not yet checked in. There are no rabbits at all, and there are only a few chickens. But I like them. They are very cool.

• 12:05: Ready for something to eat. I don’t get into the whole deep-fat-fried-crap-on–a-stick style of food they serve at the fair. But I do like ice cream. So I opt for a peppermint bar from Bauder’s. I like that Bauder’s is a local business. I like that the peppermint bar is made by hand and wrapped in red-and-white-checkered paper. I LOVE how the peppermint bar tastes. I will inadvertently wear chocolate on my face for the next two hours. $5.00.

• It’s starting to get crowded now, and it’s sunny. The weather forecast said we’d have thunderstorms. I’m glad it was wrong.
• 1:15. I’m thirsty so I buy a fresh lemonade with real lemons. At $3.50, it seems awfully small, but it tastes great.
• Listen to a trio of Iowa 10-year-olds sing show tunes at the Bill Riley stage.
• Walk into the shopping area inside the Grandstand. It’s filled with “as seen on TV” items like miracle mops. I leave after about 30 seconds.
• Lured into the Iowa Craft Beer tent. Tickets for 3 small or 1 large beer are $7.00. This seems like money well spent. The beer tent offers selections from a number of Iowa breweries including Peace Tree, Olde Main, and Mill Stream.
• Stroll through Walnut Center Crafts building. Lasted more than 30 seconds, but not a lot.
• Walk through the Midway. It’s ok, as Midways go.
• Try to ignore the yapping politicians and the media drooling all over them, but it’s not easy. There’s Jared Blankenship, a farmer and former teacher from Texas, who I’ve never heard of. Then there’s Debbie Wasseman Schultz, chair of the Democratic National Committee. And then Newt Gingrich, former U.S. House Speaker. All are on the Des Moines Register’s State Fair Soapbox. Which is actually more like a hay bale.
• Buy some saltwater taffy. Eight pieces for $2.00.
• Walk briefly through the horse barn. Consider visiting cattle barn and swine barn, but then I come to my senses.
• Watch kids (and adults) slide down the Giant Slide.
• Enjoy the vintage car display.
• Work in the Iowa State Fair booth, rolling football posters for fans and others eager to pick up anything free in the Varied Industries Building. It’s a cool booth, and it’s air-conditioned.
• Take a break for dinner. Here are a few of my choices: red velvet funnel cake with cream-cheese frosting, pb&j on a stick, fried butter on a stick, chocolate-covered fried ice cream, pork chop on a stick, hot beef sundae, cotton candy, chicken strips, deep fried Twinkie on a stick, walking taco, gyro, giant half-pound tenderloin, Philly steak sandwich, jumbo burger, pulled pork Bar-B-Q, tater ribbon fries, corn dog. I briefly consider eating a caramel apple but opt for cheese curds. This is a mistake. They are deep-fried and very greasy. I should have had a strawberry smoothie and called it dinner. Cheese curds: $5.50. Enormous lemonade to wash them down: $5.00.

• 9 p.m. Shift ends. I consider going to The Nadas’ free concert. It’s too late for the Youth Spelling Bee, the Fiddler’s contest, and the Household Pet Cat show. It appears that the entire east side of Des Moines is on the Grand Concourse.
• I fight my way to my car and go home, still not convinced that the state fair is the place for me.

I have to say that the Iowa State Fair is very well-organized. The marketing and communications are very well done, and I love this year’s theme. The fairgrounds are clean, with lots of restroom facilities and plenty of places to sit and people-watch. There is also a fair amount of shade, information resources, first aid stations, and the like. My hat is off to the organizers, because this is a huge undertaking and it seems to go off without a hitch.

It’s hard to imagine, but 200 years ago a vast prairie ecosystem stretched across the Midwest and into Canada. The tallgrass prairie encompassed parts of 14 states, including nearly all of Iowa.

The Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge and Prairie Learning Center allows us to return to that bygone era. The Refuge was created by an act of Congress in 1990 to re-create 8,000 acres of tallgrass prairie and oak savanna, the native plant and animal communities existing in central Iowa prior to European settlement.

The Refuge is located near Prairie City on Highway 163 in Jasper County and is a unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System administered by the federal government. Amazingly, it’s the largest reconstruction of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem in the entire U.S. It includes more than 200 types of native prairie flowers and grasses.

There are five miles of walking trails at the Refuge, upon which you can theoretically see pheasants, badgers, buffalo, elk, white-tailed deer, monarch butterflies, and a wide variety of native prairie flowers. I took the tallgrass trail Sunday evening, a two-mile blacktop trail with benches every third mile. I did see lots of prairie flowers, butterflies, birds, and an abundance of dragonflies and other insects. I’m not so sure I wanted to see a badger.

Other trails include the half-mile gravel Savanna Trail and a handicapped-accessible prairie overlook interpretive trail.

The Prairie Learning Center was closed when I was there (hours are 9-4 Monday through Saturday and noon-5 on Sunday), but it includes a visitor center with bookstore, theater, classrooms, and exhibit area.

An 800-acre drive-through bison enclosure is open dawn to dusk, seven days a week. The night I was there, I saw a few lone bison and a sizable herd – but they were fairly far away from the road.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website, the Refuge staff and volunteers are “working with conservation officers, schools, scientists, and prairie enthusiasts to preserve a piece of Iowa’s natural heritage. Rare prairie and savanna seeds are being collected, studied, sown, and tended. Small savanna and prairie remnants within Refuge boundaries are being protected. Mowing, brush cutting, and prescribed burns are being used to manage both planting and remnant sites. Ongoing research is guiding the restoration processes.”

I just say it’s a lovely place to walk on a summer evening.

My two sisters came to visit me this weekend. They live in Kansas City, and I almost always go there to see them (and the rest of my family), so it was fun to entertain them on my own turf.

We met at the Des Moines Downtown Farmers Market on Saturday morning. This is definitely not the best first impression of Des Moines, because between the traffic and the construction and the closed and one-way streets, it’s not easy to GET THERE and even more difficult to park. They were impressed by the sheer volume of the event because, as they pointed out, it seems like an annual thing — not a weekly thing. We couldn’t buy much because we had no way to keep it cool, so we bought pastries and ate them for breakfast.

From the market, we headed to the East Village, which made a very positive impression on my sisters and my niece, who came along for the ride. We went to Found Things, the awesome vintage store on Grand; Porchlight Antiques, which recently moved from its former location in Valley Junction; and Sticks. Sticks wowed them with its wonderful, functional artwork and home decor. Too bad none of us can afford anything in the store.

Both of my sisters love Valley Junction, so that was the next destination on the list. We got our pictures taken in front of the Sisters store (that’s me on the left, Donna in the center, and Judy on the right) and started browsing. Sisters is actually one of my favorite stores there. We also went into several antiques shops, a couple of art galleries, Wicker and the Works, Paris Flea Market, the theatrical shop, and the Atomic Garage. We were hot, tired, and ravenously hungry by this time. And, unfortunately, it was after 2 p.m. so many of the places I would have suggested for lunch were closed.

My car was still in the parking garage at Third and Court, so we went back to Court Avenue and lucky for us Court Avenue Brewing Company was partially open. (At that time of day, the restaurant is closed, but the bar and sidewalk seating are open.) We enjoyed the air conditioning as well as the food, starting out with the pretzel appetizer (I can eat those dips with a spoon). I had a spinach salad with almonds, strawberries, and poppyseed dressing — so nice on a hot day. The others ordered, respectively, a burger, a reuben, and chicken pesto pasta. We ate so much for our late lunch that we never did eat dinner.

All the shopping and the heat wore us out, so we headed to our hotel to get settled in…and we never really left. I had made a reservation at the Hotel Fort Des Moines. I had never stayed there before, but I chose that hotel based on location (close to Raccoon River, Centro, Django, and the Pappajohn Sculpture Park) and for its reasonable $89 per night room rate.

Our room was comfortable, if not terribly spacious nor luxurious. It was surprisingly quiet (surprisingly, that is, given that there was at least one wedding party staying there, and wedding parties are notorious late-night partiers). The four of us gossiped and laughed and caught up on the latest, and it wasn’t until about 8 p.m. that I suddenly felt the need to get out of there and see the outside world. We talked about going to Centro but ultimately decided on Django, the French bistro that’s part of the hotel. I had a glass of pinot noir and a cheese plate; the others opted for dessert. It’s a little bit fancy and a little bit pricey, so I felt somewhat underdressed. But that food and wine really hit the spot.

This morning, we wandered down to the Pappajohn Sculpture Park, and while we all agree that modern art can be confounding, we liked Nomad and a few of the other pieces. My oldest sister, Judy, was disappointed that she couldn’t climb on them.

Sisters!

I traveled to Burlington today on business, and after my work was finished I was pleasantly surprised at all there was to do in this southeast Iowa river town. So here’s a list of why you should go there, too.

1. Snake Alley. Snake Alley is one of Burlington’s landmark attractions. Located between Washington and Columbia on Sixth, this street was built in 1894 as a shortcut from Heritage Hill to the business area. Bricks were laid at an angle to assist horses as they went down the hill. It drops 58 feet, contains five half-turns and two quarter-curves, and runs for only 275 feet. Ripley’s Believe It or Not calls it the crookedest street in the world.
2. Big Muddy’s. No, not the Mississippi River – that comes later. Big Muddy’s is a restaurant located near the river and near downtown Burlington. The menu features, among other things, frog legs. Personally, I had a salad. Whatever you order, the view of the river is great through the floor-to-ceiling windows. And there’s a nice patio for outdoor dining.
3. Burlington Bees. This minor-league baseball team (a Class A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals) plays on their home field from April to September.
4. The view from Mosquito Park. Views of the Mississippi abound, but none is more spectacular than from Mosquito Park, overlooking the mighty river. Located at Franklin and North Third.
5. Historic homes. While you’re trying to find Mosquito Park, be sure to ooh and aah at the spectacular historic homes in this neighborhood.
6. The Great River Bridge. I’m a sucker for a cool bridge, and this is one of the coolest to cross the Mississippi River.
7. Historic river-city architecture. In addition to being a sucker for bridges, I also sort of have a thing for river-city architecture, and Burlington’s is awesome. Old mills, hospitals, and churches built more than 100 years ago from brick and local stone line the bluffs along the riverfront. Ten are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
8. Potato chips. Yep, potato chips. Sterzing’s chips are made in Burlington. I’m told that you either love ‘em or you hate ‘em, but one bite of the light, crispy chip put me in the “love ‘em” group for sure. According to the company’s website, their main product, The Economy Pak, is sold in retail stores that proudly carry their chips. Sterzing’s chips are made fresh every day. Yum.
9. FunCity. OK, I admit that I can’t vouch for these last two items first-hand because I didn’t go to either one. FunCity is a family entertainment facility featuring an indoor-outdoor water park, bowling, go-karts, laser tag…need I go on? This is definitely not my cup o tea, but I’m sure it would be fun for someone.
10. Starr’s Cave. This nature center, park, and preserve does appeal to me, but I didn’t have time to visit it. The 2011 Iowa Travel Guide says that “great scenic views abound in this 200-acre area of forest communities and massive limestone bluffs rising above the creek.” Sounds pretty, and I hear there are bats in the caves. What more could you want?

Bonus activity: Tassel Ridge Winery

On the way home I stopped at Tassel Ridge Winery, located in Leighton, Iowa, between Oskaloosa and Pella. Tassel Ridge has surprisingly good wine and a large showroom/tasting area in which you can purchase Iowa products in addition to about 30 different kinds of wine.

I tasted four dry wines: two whites and two reds. The American Dry Riesling was a light, fruity wine that would be especially good to drink on a hot day. The Candleglow White was a good basic Chardonnay. I was not a big fan of the American Syrah and gave it a not-smiley face on my tasting form. The other red, called “Pizzeria & Pasta Too!” tasted a whole lot better than its name.

I bought a bottle of the Candleglow and helped myself to a copy of the new Iowa Wine and Beer Guide. This should be a handy reference when I follow one of the Iowa wine trails, something I hope to have time to do this fall.

Today marks the anniversary of the day one year ago when I had my “eureka!” moment and decided to start an Iowa travel blog. I was sitting at the National Balloon Classic in Indianola watching several dozen balloons take off and land on the acreage in front of me, and I thought, wow, there are a lot of really fun things to do in Iowa.

So I decided it would be appropriate to come full circle and attend the Balloon Classic again this year. I’d been thinking it would be cool to go in the morning – balloon flights are scheduled for 6:30 a.m. daily throughout the duration of the festival (July 29 – Aug. 6).

I got up this morning at 4:30 and left the house by 5 a.m. Turns out this early departure was completely unnecessary. We arrived at the festival grounds at 6 a.m., and literally NOTHING happened until almost 7:30.

Well, maybe not nothing. I got to listen to a little kid next to me singing, at around 7 a.m., a made-up song that went something like this: “When’s it gonna star-art, when’s it gonna star-art?” I hummed along with him, feeling his pain. And I got to watch four young lads on my other side enthusiastically shouting and running up and down the hill…over and over and over. Not that this annoyed me.

The start time is pretty arbitrary. I remember last year arriving at the evening balloon flight and sitting for a very long time before any balloon action began. But at least there were food vendors and a band to keep us entertained. This morning was very slow, as we watched the fog lift and waited for something to happen, balloon-wise. I wished I had my Sunday newspaper, but it hadn’t been delivered when we left the house at 5 a.m.

Finally, at a little after 7:00, the pilots got the green light from the balloonmeister and took off in their trucks. About half an hour later, balloons began to appear over the southern horizon. For the next hour, it was a spectacular show, with around 70 balloons heading back to the field in front of us to attempt to drop bean bags onto ground targets before rising back up and heading for the next target.

The Indianola Balloon Classic is a regional competition in which balloonists earn points toward their national standing. In addition to the morning balloon flights (free admission) and evening flights ($3 per person or $10 per carload), the week-long Classic features balloon rides, bands, “Nite-Glow” balloon flights, a parade, and fireworks. The festival is in its 42^nd year.

Indianola is about 12 miles south of Des Moines’ southeast side on Hwy. 69. If you go, bring a lawn chair. If you go in the morning, you might want to bring along some breakfast and a thermos of coffee because the vendors are not selling, as I imagined, breakfast burritos and mini-donuts.

RAGBRAI is a big deal in Iowa. I love reading about it in the Des Moines Register. The writers always find such interesting stories to tell, and the pass-through and overnight towns are right up my alley. It’s like a week-long fantasy blog.

This year, the ride started on Sunday and went from Glenwood to Atlantic the first day. Here’s what I missed: rhubarb custard pie in Griswold, a 32-foot-long bike made of scrap metal in Lewis, and more pie in Atlantic (sour cream raisin and chocolate peanut butter – yum).

That’s the thing about RAGBRAI (the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa). It’s all about the pie. And the quirky little towns. One of the coolest things is when 10,000 cyclists gather in a town that only has 200 residents. That’s sort of amazing.

I haven’t had many first-hand experiences with RAGBRAI. For starters, I don’t bike. That’s a drawback. I also don’t love crowds as a rule. I also don’t enjoy heat. Nor do I camp. So, pretty much, I’m not a RAGBRAI kind of girl.

That said, I had a blast a few years ago doing a story about Iowa State connections to RAGBRAI in VISIONS magazine. Photographer Jim Heemstra and I spent the better part of three days following the bike ride from southwest to southeast Iowa and eating pie along the way. It was a challenge to hook up with Iowa Staters, given the spotty cell phone coverage and sheer volume of bikers who, well, all look a lot alike. But it was awesome. We got up close and personal with towns like Drakesville, Bloomfield, Keosauqua, and Bentonsport.

Three years ago, Ames was an overnight town on the RAGBRAI route. We covered that for the magazine, too. Mostly I remember it being hot and not connecting with people very easily (again). And Lance Armstrong being in Ames.

So, back to this year, which is again across the central part of the state. Monday’s route went from Atlantic to Carroll. I’m sorry I missed the Danish abelskivers in Elkhorn (described as pancake-popovers) and the Little Mermaid fountain in Kimballton. I will put that on my list for later. I also missed German potato salad and beer-sauerkraut-fudge cupcakes in Manning. (Some things are better left alone.) Also on Monday the riders experienced Templeton and its famous rye whiskey and the Santa Maria Winery in Carroll.

Yesterday, the riders came very close to Ames when they rode from Carroll to Boone. I have several people in my office who live in Boone and were very excited to be in an overnight town. The highlights yesterday were pancakes in Lanesboro and the “Twister” hill in Pilot Mound, made famous by that tornado movie.

Today, since the ride was so close, I took half a day off work to join the fun and try to find some pie. I started in Slater, where the trash cans were already overflowing with beer cans at 11 a.m. Literally the first thing I saw when I walked into town was a guy’s totally bare ass. And another guy wearing nothing but a Speedo. And there was also a very nice man with a pink beard wearing pink boas. He was a member of Team Flamingo.

There was loud music. And lots of people. And fantastic pecan pie.

Elkart had pie, too. And a nice fire station where riders could go inside and cool down. Did I mention it was hot today? I think the high ended up being 94 with a heat index of 105. The humidity was murderous. I have no idea how all those people managed to bike in that kind of heat. I was in an air-conditioned car most of the day, and I was exhausted.

White Oak was a fun stop on today’s route, with the White Oak Winery in full swing with wine, beer, games, and live music. Bondurant was too crowded, and by the time I got there I had lost my enthusiasm for finding pie. So I had a beer and came home.

The RAGBRAI riders still have three more days to go. Tonight they’re in the big city of Altoona; tomorrow they head for Grinnell, with lots of pie opportunities in Colfax. Friday they ride from Grinnell to Coralville, including a ride through the Amana Colonies. Saturday is the end of the road in Davenport, but not before riders go through Wilton, home of the famous Wilton Candy Kitchen. How did I not know about this?

I learn so much about Iowa during RAGBRAI!

While I was in northwest Iowa this weekend, I visited the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend. It was…how shall I put this? Bizarre.

When I started writing this blog last year, I put together a short list of things I really wanted to do and see in Iowa, and the Grotto was on that list. It’s very famous, so it just seems like something you should see if you live in Iowa. Kind of a bucket-list item, like the Corn Palace in South Dakota.

The history of this “miracle in stone” – considered by some the Eighth Wonder of the World according to the Grotto’s upbeat website – is this: A Catholic priest, Father Paul Dobberstein, became critically ill with pneumonia, and he prayed to the Virgin Mary that if he survived, he would build a shrine in her honor. Survive he did (not a small thing in the days before modern antibiotics), and he built a monumental structure in West Bend containing nearly 100 train-car loads of rocks, precious and semi-precious gemstones, and seashells.

Work on the Grotto complex began in 1912 and continued for 52 years, built primarily by Dobberstein and a fellow priest. The series of nine grottos each portray a different scene from the life of Christ. It’s said to be 100 feet wide and up to 40 feet high in some places.

It’s interesting, to say the least. I climbed around and took lots of pictures. You can take a guided tour, if you want (given on the hour during peak tourist season for a free-will donation). I did not find it particularly beautiful or artistic, however. It looks to me like the work of a couple of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder who have access to 100 railroad cars worth of rocks. (Oh, and there’s a gift shop and a café to go along with it.)

The Grotto is featured in the television and book series Weird U.S., if that tells you anything.

But do go, if you get the chance. And don’t forget to stop by the world’s largest popcorn ball in Sac City while you’re at it.