In 1988 I spent one summer in Iowa City, the home of University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop, submitting a portfolio of essays and hoping to be among the 3.7% of applicants accepted into the program. I didn’t make the cut, but I did fall in love with Iowa City. The university has a river running through it and an amazing art museum, plus the small-town appeal of a thriving university community. I visited Grant Wood’s house, where an artist friend of mine had a painting displayed, bought by the couple who occupied the Arts and Crafts style home on a quiet tree-lined street. The main streets leading to the university were dotted with houses run by the fraternities and sororities of U of Iowa’s Greek life. It was my first introduction to the Hawkeye! The name originates from a character in James Fenimore’s novel, The Last of the Mohicans. A short drive north took us to the beach on a man-made lake in Coralville.
This year in the Spring of 2024, I landed in DesMoines rather than Cedar Rapida airport. My daughter and her husband picked me up for the two hour drive to their new home in Mystic, population 319, in Appanoose County. I was to stay a little over two months in the guest room of the home built by her husband’s grandfather. The custom-built house sits just on the edge of Highway T14 along with eight acres of farmland. In every direction are verdant rolling hills and fields of soy or corn waving in the breeze; a breeze that is a constant and a respite of some record-breaking high temperatures in the weeks I was there. The adjoining farms are owned by relatives and the welcome was warm.
The man-made Rathbun Lake is the local spot for boating, camping, swimming and fishing. It is circled by hiking trails. The several marinas offer restaurants with local delicacies and views across the large lake. It covers 11,000 acres and is one of the largest lakes in Iowa.
The Hawkeye State’s greatest natural resource is its rich soil, the main crops being soybean and corn. Iowa produces the most corn in the nation, and the gas pumps offer lead free with a percentage of ethanol added. Iowa is the top U.S. producer of this energy source. But the other resource is pork! Hogs outnumber Iowans 4-1, and the Iowa Chop is considered the state food. I bought a few pounds of these at the Country Meat Market in Centerville, the nearest town to Mystic. The hogs and cattle from local farms are slaughtered and dressed right there and outside is the pungent smell of those animals. The chops off the grill are thick and succulent.
But the other popular food is the Tenderloin. At first, I was expected a beef sandwich, but it is a breaded pork tenderloin on a hamburger bun with lettuce, pickles, and condiments of your choice. This is the typical working man’s fare at lunchtime, second only to the Made Rite. This sandwich is a loose meat sandwich like a sloppy joe without the tomato sauce. There are official Made Rite restaurants all over Iowa; the original was opened in 1926!
The most striking thing I experienced in my short stay in Mystic was the openness and friendliness of the people. Okay, I am the mother-in-law of the legendary National Hall of Fame wrestler from University of Iowa, but I think the welcome I received is typical of these wonderful Mid-westerners, and particularly the Iowans.
Despite the small population of the area, there are events every weekend. The last Friday night of June, July and August is Bike Night in Centerville, with upwards six hundred motorcycles, mostly Harleys, parked in the town square. The June Bike Night featured a live band, the Gimiks, who entertained the crowd with covers of Queen and other 70’s bands. There were booths offering beer, tee-shirts and kettle corn. One booth offered what looked like an iv bag with a straw sticking out of the top; it was sort of a wine laced slushy in fruity flavors. A bouncy castle attracted the kids and the restaurants around the square offered the famous Blue-Ox martinis, with vodka distilled in Iowa.
The following weekend was the Junk Journey in Southern Iowa. Maps were distributed by the Chamber of Commerce and showed antique shops, thrift shops, barns, yards, and homes displaying vintage crockery, swords, bottles, fabric, tools, and furniture to be picked through, discovered, and purchased at reasonable prices. We found a ten-speed bicycle for $10 only in need of a new rear tire and it would be ready for the Iowa Ragbrai, another amazing annual event in Iowa.
Some highlights of the 2024 annual Ragbrai bike ride event were advertised on social media and featured the long-awaited announcement of the Ragbrai route for this year’s ride.
The Ragbrai Face Book page posted this:
The longest ride of Ragbrai week 2024 comes on Day 6, at almost 85. But it doesn't have Day 3's brutal elevation gain, and it goes to some of the most interesting places in southern Iowa.
Ottumwa to Mount Pleasant
Thursday brought the chance to stop at the Welcome Home Soldier memorial to U.S. veterans, both living and dead. As Friday's first pass-through town, Agency — so named because it was established as a U.S. government Indian agency in 1839, before Iowa was even a state — features its own distinctive monument: the elaborate grave of Chief Wapello of the Sac and Fox tribe. He helped lead his people out of Wisconsin and resettled them in Iowa. He was a proponent of peaceful co-existence with white settlers, but after his 1842 death, his people were among native Americans relocated to Kansas. (This monument was initiated by my son-in-law’s family and the stones are carved with many of their family names.)
Somehow, Eldon, until now, has never been a Ragbrai town. It's baffling because the city is home to one of the most iconic of Iowa artifacts: the American Gothic House that was the backdrop for Iowa artist Grant Wood's world-renowned 1930 painting. The preserved home isn't on the route, but it's only a short detour on paved roads. The house is owned by the Iowa State Historical Society.
Mount Pleasant is famous as the home of the annual Midwest Iowa Old Threshers Reunion, a gathering of fans of antique farm equipment, including the giant steam tractors that brought agricultural mechanization to Iowa's prairies and helped turn it into some of the most productive farmland on the planet.
Another event which was held shortly before I had to fly back to Spain, was the 4th annual BBQ and Brew in Centerville. We visited twenty booths offering samples of barbeque pork and chicken and then cast a ballot for our favorite. Micro brewed beer was on offer and the ubiquitous tee-shirts for purchase. Sitting under the shade trees in the town square after eating BBQ all afternoon was a great way to pass my last hours in Iowa.
Overall, I had a great visit with my daughter and a preview of her new life in Iowa. Her vegetable garden is thriving as are her five dogs and four cats! We had enjoyed numerous, almost psychedelic, sunsets over their fields, and we had gazed up into a star-studded Iowan sky at the amazing Strawberry Moon. I am sure the coming autumn will be beautiful and the first winter in Iowa will be a challenge. But I cannot imagine a better place for her to settle than Mystic, surrounded by the beauty of the farmland and the support of her Iowan relatives.
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