Blogs from Iowa, United States, North America - page 27

My name is Charles Blake VerPloeg. I am a junior at Drake University double majoring in Accounting and Entrepreneurial Management. I am concentrating in Business Law. This fall I will be studying in Florence, Italy through Institute of Italian Studies at Lorenzo de' Medici. My lovely girlfriend, Sylvia, will also be coming with me as she continues her education here as well. I am almost completley ready....I think......I hope! I've gotten my plane tickets, my insurance, my passport, my visa, etc. There is so much more than I ever expected to be involved in going abroad. I will admit, it can get very stressful at times, especially if you have never been anywhere outside of the U.S. before. Everything is so new to me! It has been a great experience so far, and I haven't even ... read more

Day 10 We woke up fairly early after our late night in time to meet up with Kelly, Robbie & the boys for breakfast, at a place called the Village Inn just a minute down the road (not unlike Denny’s as a vague similarity). There were so many nice dishes to choose from, & Vaughan had particular trouble deciding on his order. After messing around there for a while & drinking loads of coffee, we headed for the Mall, which was also near where we were staying. It was a fairly big mall (the size of some of our bigger ones), with many stores I had forgotten about since I was last in the USA. I ended up trailing behind everyone else in Sears & then didn’t know where the others had gone - I ... read more

Welcoming July, it seems it is time to close covers on this leg of the journey. I had a tumultous last week abroad flying from Southern Portugal, where I picked oranges from the grove near the airport, and flew off to Ireland once more for a total stay of 3 days. Just about enough time to tie all looses ends, see familiar faces, get my baggage, and find a home for an unused car. I arrived Chicago to have my Portuguese oranges confiscated due at customs, a nice warm welcome home. I walked out to see my two friends, Tiffany and Jon, who managed to drive 5 hours over to get me, and then drove me back. It was hot. Really hot, and the horizon was not very visible as a full Midwest Hazy day set ... read more

Hello from Iowa, Two leisurely days on the road from Tulsa. Sunday I discovered I would be driving right by “The Little House on the Prairie” where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived for a year. So I took the couple of mile detour to check it out. The gift shop/museum didn’t open until the afternoon so I just wandered about for a few minutes. I know the log cabin is a replica of the one they lived in. I’ve not had the opportunity to research the authenticity of the other buildings located at the sight. Here's a link to the website. http://www.littlehouseontheprairie.com Monday I encountered quite a bit of rain, heavy at times, but otherwise the drive was uneventful. I arrived in Story City, IA about 5:30. I had an enjoyable visit in Atchison, KS touring ... read more

url='/Videos/3964.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3964.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'Meet Molly the horse! I really struggled with which lame pop culture reference to use as a segue into the entry for our five day stay in Des Moines. I originally went with "Oooh, Baby do you know what that's worth?" but I thought Field of Dreams was more appropriate since we were staying on an Iowa farm and the actual site where the movie was filmed is less than a hundred miles from here. Throw in the fact that our next stop is the Badlands of South Dakota, where Kevin Costner directed his socially conscious western epic Dances With Wolves, and the choice seemed clear. But the point of all this is to say that Iowa, and more specifically Des Moines, might actually be heaven, or as close an approximation as we are ... read more