10 Things We Loved About IOWA

1. University of Iowa Hawkeyes

You can’t love Iowa without loving the Hawkeyes.  Tim and I never saw the Hawkeyes football team, but rather only how much Iowans support their team.  Everywhere we went everybody was wearing or sporting some kind of Hawkeye memorabilia like; t-shirts, sweat pants, emblems on vehicles windows and bumpers, yard flags – you name it and it had the Hawkeye symbol on it.  It was as infectious as the Covid-19.  I couldn’t leave Iowa without our own Hawkeye tributes.  I bought a Hawkeye t-shirt and a badge holder and Tim got a Hawkeye glass. Go Hawks!!

2. Bike Trails

Who knew Iowa had so many bike trails and bike paths?  They seemed to be everywhere we went to the point that you could count on there being a bike trail anywhere you wanted to venture.  Nice wide multi-use bike paths are synonymous with Iowa.  One day Tim found me a route to commute to work everyday and 90% of it was on bike paths.  When we visited Dubuque there were bike paths; Humboldt a bike path 20 feet from our campsite; and of course all around the University of Iowa there were bike paths. It was heavenly. My tail didn’t stop wagging.  

3. New Pioneer Food Co-op

It has been especially important to have a grocery store that you can trust and has good food since the lockdowns of CoVid-19.  And showing up in a new town not knowing where to go or what’s available it was nice to have a Co-op store with fresh local food and would give back to the community.  Also at New Pioneer we had “a healthcare workers” discount for most of our time in Iowa which was so nice.   Shopping online made our shopping experience even more enjoyable.  What’s not to like about shopping on an app and then picking it up the next day at the store where they bring it out to you.  Loved it!!

4. Micky’s Irish Pub Fish and Chips

Fish is one of my favorite foods.  Oh how I was missing fish since we left Washington in November.  But I couldn’t help but think, “Good tasting fish in Iowa just isn’t going to happen”.  I mean we are at least 2000 miles from either ocean I was pretty sure.  But my craving for fish had me searching the Google for “The best Fish and Chips in Iowa City” and Micky’s came up. Since the whole CoVid thing it had been a while since we’d eaten out and my craving for fish was strong.  We got curbside to go.  It was SO good I called the guy back and let him know how much I enjoyed the Best Fish and Chips in Iowa City. Yep we went back again and it was over the top, again.  Uh, Yum!!

5. Cedar Valley Nature Trail

This path is going to become part of the Great American Rail Trail, the bike trail that will eventually cross The United States. CVNT is 67 miles long and runs from Evansdale to Ely (pronounced EE-lee).  We rode a lot of the trail from various points and just loved it.  We rolled through farmland, small towns, wetlands and parks. One of our favorite things is how much it got used. We always saw people out riding or walking, strollers and wheelchairs, scooters and skaters.  Do you think Santa will give me one of these for Christmas? My very own Cedar Valley Nature Trail?

6. Corn

Again you can’t love Iowa if you don’t love corn.  It made me wonder, what would Iowa be if there weren’t any corn? If you’ve never been to Iowa (like me) it’s an impressive amount of corn.  And if it’s not corn it’s soybeans.  I can’t remember seeing anything else growing unless it was in someone’s back yard. However we did get a muskmelon at a roadside stand that was “over the top” Dee.Lish.US.  It said homegrown so I assumed it was grown in Iowa.  Another striking difference was that I never saw the corn being watered and yet it grew and grew. I asked someone at work and they said, “It’s just natures way”.  A few little known facts about corn in case you are in the need to know:    99% of all corn grown in the US is “field corn” used for various things like, cow feed or made into fuel and only 1% is sweet corn that we eat. It’s all about the corn, Babe.

7. Parks

Just like bike paths, Iowa has so many parks.  My newfound friends from work showed me a few wonderful state parks that we hiked, like Keosauqua and Palisades state parks.  Tim and I also found parks to camp in and parks to find shade in.  In fact City Park was Tim’s refuge during some of the hottest days, as we did not have shade in Sam’s driveway (our home for 4 months). There seemed to be an abundant number of parks scattered everywhere we went.

8. Fireflies

If you’ve never seen a firefly before you might think they are the coolest things ever – I know I did. Riding home one night after working a late shift I saw them for the first time around Terry Trueblood Park in Iowa City, Iowa. At first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but I kept watching and sure enough, there they were. They are sudden wisps of light above the tall grasses.  A little flicker and then they are gone.  I loved watching them and they made me feel like a child again with such wonder and excitement. Sheer Joy. If you get a chance, check out a song called Fireflies by the band Mofro on their Lochloosa Album.

9. The Birds of Iowa

We saw and heard so many birds, like the Northern Cardinal and American Goldfinch and Red Winged Black Bird – they were everywhere.  They roosted in the bushes where we were staying at Sam’s house and all over the neighborhood. They religiously sang to us in the mornings and all afternoon right up until bedtime.  I’ve found as we’ve started traveling west there aren’t as many birds and I miss them.  On one of the outings I did with my girlfriends from work, Michele introduced me to this wonderful free app called “Merlin” Bird ID, help for identifying 6000 plus species.   She could play a bird song from the app and sometimes birds would answer her back. 

One of our funnier stories is when we first arrived in Iowa and were still trying to find a place to stay, we ended up staying overnight in one of the University’s many parking lots.  It was a distance away from the University so commuters would then take a bus from the parking lot to the Hospital. The night we stayed there we heard birds chirping all night long.  And remembering back now, the song was pretty much the same but at the time it was just annoying.  Come to find out it was a recording the University has set up to discourage “real “ birds from interfering with the surroundings in the parking lot.  We had a good laugh at that when we found out it was a recording.  I kept thinking, birds don’t sing at 2am in the morning. Do They?

10. The UIHC Interventional Radiology Department

And saving the best for last –

I. Loved. My. Job.

I loved working with everyone in that department!  I haven’t been able to say that for so long.  I mean how do you start out at a place of employment and feel like you just slipped into your most favorite comfortable shoes?  It’s just not heard of.  At least not very often. And it goes without saying that if you love what you do it means something to you, you feel worthwhile and valued. 

Immediately when I started working there I was one of the team and when it was time to leave it was so bittersweet.   I didn’t want to leave.  And it was so heart wrenching but felt good at the same time to hear they didn’t want me to leave either.  I was luckily able to extend for an additional 4 weeks. Joy! All the while I’m indoors working, loving my life in air conditioning and Tim is outside melting in the humidity and heat of July in Iowa. It was time to go.