Back on the jersey again
Before we left Florida, we commissioned jerseys for this trip that feature a handy map of our route. We sent a picture of the map to the jersey designer. For some reason, the designer decided to trim off the Eastern and Western edges of the jersey. Like 15th century maps of the world, somewhere in Western Iowa our route disappears into an unknown void. There be monsters? Today, we came just far enough east to re-enter the domain of our jersey maps.
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Iowa has been a bit of a historical void for the last few days. We've passed endless fields of corn and beans without giving any thought to what happened here before the fields appeared. This morning we saw a small historical marker indicating that in 1857 Indians had killed members of 6 white settler families.
The historical marker didn't give the back story, but we can guess at the general trends, if not the specific details of this tragedy. John Deere invented a plow that could turn over heavy prarie soil in 1837. Twenty years later the plow was being mass produced and hunger for Iowa prarie land would have been overwhelming. As settlers flooded in, conflict with native Americans was inevitable.
At around the same time we re-entered our jersey maps, we entered Minnesota. Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, but the first thing we encountered was a marsh. There were also plenty of corn and bean fields. I always think of Iowa as conservative and Minnesota as liberal. Can farmers growing the same sorts of crops have such different attitudes? Is Minnesota's liberal image just due to the urban population in the Twin cities? Is it just a foolish stereotype in my head?
People come to Florida to retire. It seems tractors come to Minnesota to retire.
During our visit to the Living History farm near Des Moines, we saw an elderly gentleman reminiscing about his old Allis-Chalmers tractor. Apparently farmers feel a strong emotional bond with their tractors.
From what we have seen, Minnesota courthouses all feature a statue of the scales of Justice. Presumably someone from NIST makes periodic visits with a cherry picker to calibrate the scales to ensure impartial justice is served.
We enjoyed lunch in a small restaurant in Windom which featured unmarked salt and pepper shakers. Each pair had a 2 hole shaker and a 3 hole shaker, but which was the salt and which was the pepper? The answer surprised us.
Our motel features a private garage with every room. If you don't think this is a useful feature, you probably have never tried to wrestle a tandem up a flight of stairs.
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5 years ago
5 years ago