The drive through the entire state of Iowa was actually quite lovely. Iowa immediately looks and feels distinct from Nebraska, much tidier and agricultured. The weather today was again – perfect. Sunny and warm. The countryside in Iowa and Illinois so GREEN, all flat surfaces are grassy. Trees are just beginning to gently leaf out.
The TV last night indicated very severe weather for much of Iowa right on up to Rockford. A twister touched down in Iowa City. But there was not a trace of clouds today. Rockford last night got a 10-minute rain.
The severe twisters are being spawned by record-setting heat: 80’s and low 90’s yesterday in Nebraska and Iowa.
We breakfasted this morning at the City Café in downtown Council Bluffs. The place was fiercely decorated for Easter: baskets and eggs, strings of chick lights, a 2-foot long fuzzy carrot hanging above our table. For $5 we got enough food to stuff ourselves, including the largest glass of orange juice I’ve ever had.
As F noted, everything (food and housing, for sure) is much cheaper in this part of the world, than in Denver.
This part of America’s Heartland gives graphic evidence of the Crisis of Obesity afflicting the country. So many severly overweight folks I’ve seen! At the café this morning everyone looked to be sad of long standing, so that there was not a glint of lightness or humor in anyone’s eyes. Worn faces, hard lives.
It is quite surprising for me, to see how radically different is my relationship to all of the topography that we’ve slid across in the past 36 hours, compared to years past. I realize that before, in addition to being indoctrinated right and left that it’s nothing more than flat and ugly, I didn’t know how to understand the subtle palette of changing beauty to be seen here. It’s neither Latvia, nor Colorado, but it is Beautiful.