Iowa #40

Our very first stop in Iowa was the little farm town of Akron. They had a lovely city park with all of the amenities and we stayed for 4 days just to miss the Labor Day crunch out on the roads. We met some of the nicest people in that town like Bob and Sharon Frerichs and their friends, Wanda and Richard Phillips. They all seemed to like to rub and scratch an old ‘yella fella.’ We took lots of walks around the park and into town and generally just laid back and absorbed the feeling of a really sweet middle American town full of happy folks. Of course there were too many flies and too much humidity, but hey…!





One of our adventures out was to the town of LeMars, recognized as the “Ice Cream Capital of the World” because more ice cream is made here by a single company (Wells Dairy, makers of Blue Bunny Ice Cream) than any other city in the world – more than 120 million gallons a year. I insisted that we just had to go sample some of the best of the best. It was worth it and this old guy got his very own bowl of vanilla with a bunny cookie too!








Well the great thing about our life is that we can change anything at a moment’s notice – so we did! Here’s what happened: as we were driving to LeMars we spotted two great barns with big painted designs on their fronts and we decided to stop and photograph them on the way back from the ice cream outing. When we stopped at the first one we found out the place belonged to one of the great couples we had met the first night in Akron - Wanda and Richard Phillips. We stayed a while, chatted on the front porch and learned that the painting was actually one of Wanda’s original quilt designs and that it is part of a statewide movement called Barn Quilts. These beautiful designs and the wonderful barns they hang on are all over Iowa, Ohio, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and maybe some other states too. The idea apparently started in Ohio in about 2003 and is spreading. It is a great way for small farm communities to entice tourists into their out of the way towns and at the same time some historic barns not only get a face lift but might actually get a new lease on life with paint, stabilizing and a renewed sense of pride by their owners.



Then and there we decided we wanted to photograph as many of these barn quilts as we could while in Iowa. Wanda told us that another quilt county was a place called Sac County. (Ironic, huh?) Change of plans, eastward ho and hello Sac City, Sac County, Iowa! Now these folks are really promoting the Barn Quilt thing. They have brochures, tour maps, t-shirts and a good website. Check out this site, you will love it as much as we did. My Gals went a little crazy running all over Sac County taking pictures of these barns, but I went a little crazy myself checking out all of the great farm smells and critters! Here's a small sampling of some of the barns.









This pretty place also promotes itself through many activities in its City Park, out on the Racoon River and in its downtown businesses. It boasts a 3100 pound popcorn ball, a new Guinness World record when it was created in 2004 by 40 volunteers in 13 minutes. It measures 23 feet in circumference, is seven feet tall and is housed in its own building. Whew! They also boast the only existing complete Chautauqua building in the state. (Chau-what-a? Hey, glad you asked! It means “an educational, recreational assembly with lectures, concerts, etc.” Named after Chautauqua, NY, the town of origin of the Methodist program in the 1800’s that traveled across the country, usually in tents, educating, lecturing and entertaining in rural areas.) Built in 1908, now fully renovated with historical murals and information on the history of Chautauqua, it is one busy place. There were even brief rumors that Barack Obama was coming to the Chatuaqua Center the week we were there! We found this little town to be another one filled with friendly, proud, real people.

This is actually a mural on the liquor store showing the Chautauqua building.






We learned more about things to see or do and ‘I-o-was’ blown away by the diversity of this “flat, nothing but corn fields” state! While visiting with three great gals, Shirley, Laura and Lynda, at the Sac City Chamber of Commerce, my Ladies found out about the “eighth wonder of the modern world” – the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend. This is a composite of nine separate grottos portraying scenes from the life of Jesus. It is made of concrete inset with stones and gems from around the world and from every state in the US. It was begun in 1912 by Fr. Paul Dobberstein. He dedicated the next 42 years to its design and construction, traveling all over the states to collect specimens for the grottos. Matt Szerensce and Fr. Louis Greving continued the work after Fr. Dobberstein’s death. The Grotto of the Redemption is now listed as the largest grotto in the world and really must be seen to be fully appreciated. We hope some of our pictures will help convey the beauty of the petrified wood and gem stones used in this incredible site. I continue to be amazed and amused by the human capacity to conceive the idea a ‘thing’ and then to dedicate years, even lifetimes, to creating the ‘thing’ itself - be it a 110 foot high scrap metal sculpture, a 60 foot bull’s head or grotto of stones. In my world if a ‘thing’ doesn’t move, smell or make noise, I won’t dedicate more than a minute to it!


























Thanks for coming along again. The trouble is we always seem to find more fun or unique things to see and do; so be forewarned, there is a lot more of Iowa to come!