Iowa

I wish I had cool pictures of Iowa, but I just don't.  Too bad, because I thought it was beautiful.  Our drive through Iowa was a little foggy and rainy, but smooth.  I was surprised.  I guess I always expected to find all Mid-western states created fairly equally, but I was particular taken with Iowa.  It was so green with beautiful rolling hills.  We took a little detour near Des Moines to go see some of the covered bridges of Madison county.  The bridge we found wasn’t as picturesque as I might have hoped, but fun, nonetheless.  We drove a little through the countryside near there and it reminded us a little of Sankt Stephens, Switzerland; vibrant green fields, old rustic barns, lots of cows and a low hanging fog.  It was gorgeous. 

 

We stopped in Ottumwa briefly in search of dinner.  I looked up restaurants online and found that the Canteen Lunch got pretty good reviews so we headed there.  We parked and found the place tucked back almost in an alley.  When we walked in we found a tiny diner with only bar stools and a counter to sit at.  We were also greeted by some pretty awkward stares.  The kind that say, “you’re not from around here, are you?” or “we don’t take kindly to your outsiders here.”  We felt unwelcome to say the least.  After a moment, one lady handling a large amount of unappetizing ground beef, asked if it was to stay or to go.  We said to stay and saddled up at the counter. 

“What'll it be?” she asked.  I scanned the menu that seemed to contain only a handful of items.  “I’ll have a cheeseburger.”  

“Whadya want on it?” 

“Umm… lettuce, tomato…”

“We only have ketchup, mayo, or mustard.”

Nope.  I’m not spending five dollars on a naked burger, thank you.  As politely as I could, I said I’m not really interested and we left.  Afterwards we couldn’t stop talking about how strange that experience was.  Everyone in the restaurant just turned and stared at us.  So weird.