"The Hawkeye State"

Welcome to Iowa

Iowa/Nebraska border on I-29
April 30, 2007

"Is this heaven?" "No, it's Iowa." This famous exchange is from the movie Field of Dreams, and unfortunately, I never made it to the actual baseball field in Dyersville, since it was just too far away for the purpose of this trip. And unlike Shoeless Joe, I didn't mistake the Hawkeye state for paradise. Don't get me wrong; Iowa is a lovely midwestern state, but the endless corn didn't make it stand out from other states like Indiana or Kansas. But Iowa does make a name for itself every four years, when it hosts one of the first Presidential primaries, and no doubt it will be important next year as well. One of the worst blizzards I ever saw took place when I drove through Iowa on my way to a Michigan basketball game in Iowa City, yet people still turned up for the game that night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena

This was the second welcome sign I passed on my trip, the first being along Abbott Dr. heading into Omaha from Eppley Airfield. Apparently, you enter Iowa for about half a mile, as this bizarre anomaly has something to do with a flood that changed the location of the river that used to define the border. I didn't like the additional signs attached to it (plus the ridiculous location of it), so I decided to take a picture of this one along the interstate. Both look identical, which is unfortunate. The white background with boring graphics isn't especially memorable, but the illusion to Field of Dreams is a nice touch. Maybe adding some images of corn would help it out.

Welcome to Des Moines

April 28, 2007

Right in the middle of the state, Des Moines also serves as Iowa's largest city. It's just the impressive city in the heart of the plains, and traffic downtown was surprisingly busy for a Saturday afternoon. Its name comes from the Des Moines River (which means the "river of the monks") that cuts right through the heart of downtown. The river actually divides the city in two, and serves as the official divider for streets being named east and west. Unaware of this at the time, I was trying to find the capitol at 12th and Grand, unaware that another intersection with streets of the same name also existed on the other side of the river. I think it took about 20 minutes before I realized the map I printed off before I left was for west 12th street, and then I was able to navigate through the streets of Des Moines without further incident.

I really liked this capitol. Despite having a similar architecture as the majority of the other capitol buildings and the U.S. Capitol, the feature that makes it stand out are the four miniature domes on the corners of the building. I really like the shade of green used here, and it seems to work well with the dark brown of the building and the gold from the main dome (which is impressive in its own right; kind of harkens to Notre Dame's golden dome). As was the case at the other two capitols on this trip, the grounds in front were under construction and it appeared a new promenade of steps leading up the hill towards the front was underway.

Miscellaneous Iowa Symbols

State Route Sign

License Plate

Seal

Quarter