Iowa
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All My Yesterdays
My yesterdays are all stacked up in piles. I have the yesterdays of high school, where I dreamed of moving away to the city. There are yesterdays of college and post-college where I worked nonstop to pay off debt and start a career. Then yesterdays of my 30s, which are interspersed with strange hiccups that… Continue reading
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Harvest in Iowa
It’s been years since I was in Iowa during the fall, but in an effort to avoid the harsher months of Midwest weather, I scheduled an October return to my home state. I arrived during the sweet spot of harvest, when farmers work all hours to remove the crops that have been growing all summer and just… Continue reading
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Blink and You’ll Miss It: Rediscovering Home
An unexpected trip to Iowa gave me renewed practice with the geographic vagueries I use when describing my childhood home. North-central Iowa. Sixty miles from Des Moines. Seven miles off the interstate. Blink and you’ll miss it. I spent years resenting my no stoplights, “never heard of it” hometown. I yearned for the urban life– shopping… Continue reading
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A Winter Run Through an Iowa Wind Farm
Over the past few years, the part of Iowa where I grew up has seen some big changes. As Iowa has become one of the largest generators of wind power in the United States, more and more of the state has become home to wind farms. This weekend I could not help but be drawn… Continue reading
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Postcard from Iowa
This weekend finds me back in Iowa, just in time for the first snowfall and winter chill. The snow was nothing too dramatic, enough to cover the ground and send a message to everyone that winter is on its way. Continue reading
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Tara and Simon’s RAGBRAI Part 4 of 4: Unexpected Joys, Lessons Learned, and a Look Ahead
What better way to spend a Friday than spending a few minutes with Tara and Simon as they wrap up their RAGBRAI trip. Read on to find out the unexpected joys they encountered, lessons they learned through the week, and their pondering of the question– would we do it again? Continue reading
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Tara and Simon’s RAGBRAI Part 3 of 4: Other Riders and Unexpected Challenges
RAGBRAI is a sprawling event with more than 10,000 riders criss-crossing the state of Iowa over seven consecutive days of riding. Today’s post features Tara’s observations about some of the other RAGBRAI riders as well as unexpected issues that Simon and she confronted. Continue reading
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Tara and Simon’s RAGBRAI Part 2 of 4: The Ride
What is it like to be a rider on RAGBRAI, the largest cross-state bike ride in the country? Tara takes us there with her vivid recount. The Ride Continue reading
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Tara and Simon’s RAGBRAI Part 1 of 4: Why Iowa?
Every year in the final full week of July, thousands and thousands of people participate in the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI), a west to east ride through the state from the Missouri River to the shore of the Mississippi. As many readers know, Iowa is my home state. Growing up RAGBRAI… Continue reading
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Cycling Memories: RAGBRAI
This week, Girl on a Bike invited people to post their favorite cycling memory to her blog. Prize for posting? A chance to win a $50 gift certificate to Revolution Cycles. (See here for her writeup and contest). Her post prompted me to dig into my bicycle memory bank. As I thought back, my first… Continue reading
Chasing MailBoxes 