Iowa, following I-80

Those who have never looked for it might be surprised to know how much there is to see driving across Iowa along I-80. There is a good deal of history (this is, after all, the route countless settlers took while leaving the east, first to settle here on the plains, and later to head farther west than that) and a bunch of tourist attractions (as this is still about as quick a route as you get if you're heading across country by car) and the world's largest truck stop. Sadly, I passed up this unique oportunity, and merely drove past on my way to the Amana Colonies.

The Amana Woolen Mill The Amana Colonies, my guidebook tells me, were seven towns founded by a group of people who came out to the uninhabited wilds in search of a place to practice communal-property religious beliefs; aparently they made it work for over a century before voting to break up their settlements into individually owned land and businesses. At any rate, the Amana Woolen Mill was begun by the early settlers and is still a working mill today. These days most of the building is gift-shop, and there are only a few working looms, but if you go on a week day, you can watch whatever they are weaving (or preparing to weave) and perhaps buy a lovely wool blanket or shawl that was made on the premisis.

Danish Windmill Museum, Elk Horn Aparently Elk Horn, IA, which is one of those towns with about two and a half streets, is a great stronghold of Danish immigrants. Sometime in the '70s, one of its residents came up with the grand idea of aquiring a real danish windmill as kind of a national spirit statement, thus promoting tourism and encouraging people to visit their little town and thus bring in money. To this end, the Elk Horn resident searched Denmark until he found a windmill that was for sale, and had the model on the left here constructed so that each piece could be identified when they took it apart, and thus reassembled properly after shipment. One of the points that is emphasized as you watch their video and tour the mill is that this is a Danish windmill, as opposed to the Dutch sort that most people think of automatically; interestingly enough, while they were sometimes fitted with millstones as well, the main purpose of a Dutch windmill is as a water pump.

While I was there, they had workmen making repairs and readjustments. You can just barely see one of them lying out along a beam in this picture.

Kimballton, Home of the Little Mermaid, is the next town north of Elk Horn. They have a little plaza for her, with a small park attached, and a restaurant or two on the way out to encourage you to eat something while you're there. There was no water in her fountain.

While much of Iowa is quite flat, I was impressed by the terraced fields that I drove past.

In this location Carmen Sandiego would probably steal: The World's Largest Truck Stop