USA 2016 part II - Road trip in Iowa

North America » United States » Iowa
July 15th 2016

Published: December 4th 2016

Corn, the Day the Music Died, Star Trek and more Corn Last summer we had to make a large renovation in our home. This made our lives a bit unpredictable for a few months. This chaotic living condition made it difficult for us to plan our vacation as far ahead as we normally do. This is part of the reason why we decided to split our vacation into two parts. First half we went where we found tic... Read Full Entry

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Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro

Ake Och Emma

We are Emma Holmbro and Ake Dahllof. We live in Stockholm, Sweden. We have travelled more or less regularly since the mid 1990-ies and it seems like the more we travel the more difficult it is to decide where to go next. Not because we are running out of places to visit but because we find more places we want to go to faster than we manage to travel to them. Some of the things from our travel bucket list we have ticked off since we started this blog in 2006 are Angel Falls in Ven... full info

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Maquoketa Caves State Park

Tried to take an interesting photo. It is OK, isn't it?

Galva

Galva, named after the town Gävle in Sweden, has their own version of a Gävle Goat. This goat is fortunately less flammable than the original one...

Bishop Hill

Bishop Hill has turned their Swedish heritage into a tourist attraction.

Bishop Hill church

This building was used as a church in the Bishop Hill Colony

Bishop Hill

Historical building in Bishop Hill.

Välkommen till Swedesburg

"Välkommen till Swedesburg" means "Welcome to Swedesburg"

Goat made from hay

Swedesburg has their own goat made from hay

Dala Horse

Swedesburg's Swedish heritage can be seen in many places, such as in this Dala Horse

Swedesburg's cemetery

In Swedesburg's cemetery most graves have Swedish sounding names written on them.

Maypole in Swedesburg

This is a so called maypole. It is used when Swedes celebrate Midsummer holiday

Snake Alley

Snake Alley is a short street in Burlington, Iowa where they in a short distance have built several switchbacks in the roads to enable transport in a street that, if it was straight, would otherwise have been too steep to negotiate

Art in De Moines

When we looked for De Moines Art Centre we found another art exhibition. This is one of the statues there

De Moines Art Centre

This can be seen in De Moines Art Centre's exhibition in the town centre

De Moines Art Centre

This can be seen in De Moines Art Centre's exhibition in the town centre

East Peru - Home of the Delicious Apple

In East Peru the first Delicious Apple was grown

Corn, corn, corn

The landscape in Iowa is easily described. It is corn field after corn field after corn field.

Corn, corn, corn

More corn is grown in Iowa than we thought was consumed in the entire world.

A child of the corn

We had a bit of fun in the corn. Did Stephen King visit Iowa before he wrote Children of the Corn?

A child of the corn

Look carefully at the panorama above and you can see that Emma played a lot in the corn

Tornado shelter

We drove around for almost 10 days in the Tornado Alley and still didn't see a single tornado. This is the closest we came to one

4th December 2016

taracloud
Tara Cloud

True explorers of the unknown!
Many of us have spent several weeks in Chicago, but I imagine that few can boast of seeing the very earnest, small-town wonders that you two discovered in the wide-open, flat lands. All that corn you saw is subsidized by the government and mainly used to make Americans fat--it's for high fructose corn syrup (sodas, etc) and for cattle feed (hamburgers)--boo! However, how great that you got a personalized tour of Amish ways, and fabulous that they used solar for their phone booth. Love your music quotes that fit so perfectly!

5th December 2016

Ake Och Emma
Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro

We come from small towns ourselves
We both come from small towns and we know that there is much to discover off the beaten track. The towns we come from you won't see in any guidebooks. But we can still take people on tours for two or three days and show interesting sites around there. /Ake

5th December 2016

Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht

I'm glad you liked Amish country. I did too ;o)

5th December 2016

Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht

Is there a large Swedish community in this area?

5th December 2016

Ake Och Emma
Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro

On Swedish communities in the US
It seems like quite a few Swedes ended up in Iowa. But I think Minnesota is where the highest concentration of Swedes could be found. /Ake

5th December 2016

Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht

I didn't know this LOL I thought they came from the Okanagan Valley In British Columbia Canada ;o) They grow them there too + Washington State.

5th December 2016

Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht

Did you see any corn mazes in the Des Moines area?

5th December 2016

Ake Och Emma
Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro

No corn mazes
We didn't see any corn mazes. It would have been cool though./Ake

5th December 2016

Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht

Did you see any fraidy holes (underground storm shelters)

5th December 2016

Ake Och Emma
Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro

The closest we came a shelter
As far as we know this is the only shelter we came close to, and all we saw was the sign. /Ake

5th December 2016

Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht

We had many of this in Canada too but people stopped dancing the classic stuff.

5th December 2016

Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht

Great photos!

5th December 2016

Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht

Corn mazes usually operate in the fall, during pumpkin season ;o)

5th December 2016

Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht

The old kind look like a root cellar. I'd provide a google link but don't think I can here?

5th December 2016

Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht

There are many Swedes in Canada too. Do you have long-lost relatives i the US or Canada?

5th December 2016

Ake Och Emma
Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro

Our relatives over there
We have plenty of relatives in North America we have no contact. Most of them we don't know their names of course. But we also have contact with a few of our relatives. Most of them are in Canada actually. /Ake

5th December 2016

Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht

Now I'm getting nosy LOL Where in Canada?

5th December 2016

Dancing Dave
David Hooper

God bless America - The Roadtrip
Your foray into Iowa is sounding like a stroke of genius Ake & Emma...the Great American Roadtrip. What a list of highlights listed above. But brings me back to Earth when I see a pair of glasses marking the spot for the day the music died.

7th December 2016

D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley

Love Americana
Great shot

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USA 2016 part II - Road trip in Iowa

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