Iowa

“Ya know what Iowa stands for? Idiots Out Walking Around!” – bad joke

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“Why is Minnesota so windy? “’Cuz Iowa sucks and Canada blows.” – another bad joke

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Growing up in Minnesota, I heard these two bad jokes often. Iowa is a lovely state. I have been laughed at for saying that before; really though, Iowa is amazing in beauty.

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The Missouri River creates the western border and the Mississippi forms the eastern, creating high, tree-covered bluffs with endless recreational opportunities.

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The central parts contain rolling fields of crops and prairie grass, with numerous other river valleys interspersed.

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Iowa has Lewis and Clark history, the Loess Hills, covered bridges, the Field of Dreams movie site, great universities, and Effigy Mounds National Monument. Famous Iowans include President Herbert Hoover and the great western actor John Wayne.

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Northwest Iowa is hardcore Dutch. Tall, blonde hair, blue-eyed people everywhere. I dated one of them. It did not go well. The best memories in Iowa were the times without her.

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She lived on the eastern bluffs of the Big Sioux River, the natural border between Iowa and South Dakota. I remember sitting on her back deck alone in a rocking chair, watching the sun set over the horizon. Thickets of trees in the foreground, rolling hills of green in the middle ground, and the vastness of the Dakota plains in the distance was the usual sight in front of me. The orange, reds, and yellows colored the sky well after the shining sphere dipped below to another part of the world.

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It is simple times as these which I recall the most.