Yes, please / No, thanks
Yes, please
• Local foods
• The first four seasons of Glee
• New York / Broadway shows
• State parks
• Collections
• Green smoothies
• Fall color
• Magazines
• Paris
• Ziploc bags
• Mom & pop diners that serve pie
• The Superior Hiking Trail
• Lists
• Farmers markets
• The Sunday New York Times
• Big, fluffy snowflakes
• Old movies
• Cats (my cats, not the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, although I have to admit that I sort of liked that, too)
• Disney World
• Cyclone basketball
• Spring flowers
• Dive bars
• Really nice fonts
• Authentic ethnic restaurants
No, thanks
• Suburbs
• Meat
• Football, golf, car racing, boxing, and most other sports
• Humidity
• In-your-face religious zealots
• Fast food
• Movies with car chases, too many special effects, or things that blow up; any movie with Matthew McConaughey
• Chain restaurants
• Skinny models who look like heroin addicts (this is NOT beautiful)
• Reality TV
• Casinos
• Menopause
• Uncomfortable shoes
• Drivers who don’t use their turn signals
Iowa Girl on the Go 
Love this, Carole! Can’t wait to read about your next adventure. I’m gonna start making my list now of what cool things I can do when I’m an empty nester. Just 9 more years.
Carole, I have read your blog and looked at your pics and you seem to be having the time of your life! I was just reading some of it to my husband and telling him that I think you are the only person from high school that is actually DOING what they wanted to do. So happy for such a great gal! Keep writing, I will keep reading and if we are ever that way I will have you send me a list of “to do’s”. Take. care.
Denise, thanks for writing. I really am having fun — writing and editing a magazine for a living and also writing and taking pictures as a hobby. And traveling for both. Hope things are going well for you. Let me know if you’re ever in Iowa!
It’s the 75th Anniversary of the Orange City Tulip festival, so i think this would be a great year to check that out!!
Carole! I write a blog called Iowa Sunshine Blog that I think you may enjoy but I also want to tell you about a small dive bar called Baxa’s Sutliff Store, If you can’t been before please stop down and see us! I am a part time waitress and I always like to hear from other bloggers and I think you would love to come have a drink, eat some good food and walk on the historic Sutliff bridge!
Hi Carole!
I’m wondering if you’ve been to Oelwein, Iowa? Great little shops downtown (7 South, Turkey Bottom Haven, Decades, Home Again, Woodworks By the Lake), lots of mom and pop restaurants, Fontana Wildlife Reserve nearby, Amish shops…
It’s just a great little town.
I have been through Oelwein but never spent any time in the town. It sounds like a destination for me! Thanks.
Hi Carole – have you ever visited the Kellogg Historical Museum? We just helped shipped an old Studebaker Truck there.
My mother-in-law bought your Maryville house; now my daughter and fiance live there. Glad to run across your blog and High Trestle Trail pics. Am an avid bicyclist on rails-to-trails. I’m a native Iowan still in love with Iowa but have lived in Missouri for 41 years and love it just as much! Love Missouri’s Katy Trail and the many wonderful rails-to-trails in Iowa.
Hi, Nancy, good to hear from you! We drive past the house every time we’re in Maryville, which isn’t too often these days.
Carole, now that RAGBRAI is about to return, I’m missing your pre-ride inspection tour.