Pretty Corny

Day 3, Buffalo, IA to Guthrie Center, IA, 331 miles.

Today was a much slower pace and we enjoyed every minute taking in the sights. We started out at Iowa 80 which is the largest truckstop in the world. It was really something; more trucks then I have ever seen before. There were actually 3 beautiful trucks inside that were really nicely done up. There was everything you could imagine in this place; a library, dentist, Laundromat, barber and all sorts of cool truck stuff to buy. Tom wouldn’t let me buy anything. He said the truck wouldn’t fit in the saddlebags.

We ventured off of I80 and took some secondary roads which took us thru tons of cornfields and soybeans. The corn is unbelievably perfect-looking. Iowa is not totally flat. There are many rolling hills. We stopped at the National Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame in Anamosa. It was full of all sorts of old bikes that looked like bicycles, racing bikes, snowmobiles made by Harley (?) There were a bunch of old relics looking at a bunch of old relics!

We took a side trip to Amana. It is an interesting little community that started out as place where they all worked together and shared the daily chores etc. of life. It is where Amana appliances was started and they still have a factory there now. Hmmm, that was actually all they had there.

We met a really neat farmer who answered a bunch of our questions about the corn. He told us that he rents a field to a seed corn company, either Pioneer or Monsanto, and they plant just 1/3 of the field, in the very middle. The corn that they grow is the parent seed for a new variety and it is worth over 1 million dollars. Wow, there’s money in that corn!! He also said that much of the corn that is grown is used for chemicals (biochemicals). Who knew?

So, we bought some corn for dinner. It was a new variety; it doesn’t even have a name yet, just a number. It was delicious. Believe it or not, it was $5 for 14! No bargains here. We finished off with a dinner of cheese curds and brats. Ah, just like being in Milwaulkee again!

I took a picture just for you, Steveo, I am sure you can figure out which one. Tom was wondering, would you buy milk from that store? Hmmmm…..

The bugs are getting me pretty bad so I’m signing off….