Des Moines, Con't

I wanted to get a few more thoughts about Des Moines down before moving on to other shorter (but easier to write about) stops along my trip.

As already noted, Des Moines seemed like it would be a very comfortable place to live.  It's a very manageable size, and easy to get around, and have a number of nice places to live.  It has enough to keep one (well, to keep me) entertained, including art museums and galleries, lots of live music, a theater district that attracts Broadway touring companies, decent places to dine, etc.  I'm not so sure what the local sports scene is like, but other than college football (which I catch on TV) and figure skating (ditto), I don't really care about sports.  I think there's a minor league team in the area and the U of Iowa and Iowa State aren't too far away.  And being Big 10 country, I'd get to see a lot of Big Ten football every fall on TV.

I'm less certain I'd find the group of friends that are like me.  I've made and have friends of all ages and marital/parental status, and I tend to gravitate towards people older than me anyway, but I don't want to feel like a social freak if it turns out I'm the only unmarried 37 year old woman in the whole city.  And let's face it, not every town is like DC in that there are large numbers of unattached, or at least child-free, 30 and 40 somethings.  (That's something I always liked about DC -- lots of people in the same or similar social situation as me.)  Chatting with the locals, I got mixed opinions about how easily I would make friends with similarly-situated young-ish people.  I'm certain Des Moines would be great for a family, but less sure it would be great for a singleton.  This impression is bolstered by how early so many things close.  Des Moines is not one of the those towns that totally closes down at 5pm, but it's not a round-the-clock bustling city, either.  That's sort of OK with me, as many of my hobbies are the solo, stay-at-home kind.

Out on the town with Dan (Linconstyles), flashing our Warcraft gang sign.

I also have slight qualms about being kinda-sorta in the Bible Belt.  Des Moines itself is pretty liberal and progressive, and has enough ethnic diversity that I wouldn't expect too much in the way of bigotry, either racial, religious or sexist.  And I didn't get a single question about where I went to church, or other tips-offs that an atheist like me would be a total outsider.  But I worry about the rest of the state.  Now, Iowa isn't as politically off-putting as some of the states I plan to visit, but I'm wary.  I was heartened when I read the Des Moines Register, and read the feature that listed all of the bills that the state legislature recently passed and, more importantly, failed to pass, because most of the really bad bills failed.  Things like seriously cutting back on education, help to the poor, and reproductive freedoms, etc. for the most part did not pass, although it was a little disheartening reading that some of the bills were even proposed in the first place.

While I'm thinking about it... it seems more and more that so-called "conservatives" are doing their damnedest to cut back on education at all levels of government.  When did ignorance become a conservative cause?  :(

Now back to Iowa...  When thinking about Des Moines, I have to take care to think only of Des Moines.  I've realized over the past few days that I really liked the surrounding areas, from Dan's farm a few hours away, to the tiny town of Adel 30 miles to the west.  I like that the city and suburbs of Des Moines so quickly end and immediately become farm land, with occasional sporadic small towns sprinkled around the state.  But other than occasional weekend ventures out into the country, my life in Des Moines would probably be limited to the city itself, so I'll have to take pains not to confuse my fondness for the countryside and its small towns with fondness for Des Moines.  Having said that, I was favorably impressed with Des Moines and I suspect I would be content or happy there.  I do not feel as if I must live in Des Moines, but I'll certainly keep it in mind when thinking about my future.

Outside the Des Moines art museum.

Coming soon:  What I've done since I left Des Moines!  Teaser:  Niagara Falls!

Des Moines in Review

Well, this post is a few several days late.  I'm now in Sudbury, Ontario, having driven north from Iowa through Minnesota and into Canada, then east towards Toronto.  Yes, it's the long way, but I wanted to see the north shore of Lake Superior

I've wanted to get my thoughts about Des Moines down for several days now, but I've felt unable to write.  Part of why I've dawdled is that I'm not sure how to write this up.  I looked around Des Moines with an eye towards the things I would do frequently if I lived there, and explored different neighborhoods, spending more time in places I would probably want to live.  So a lot of my time there was spent driving around, checking things out, strolling, and visiting ordinary places like the library, grocery stores, some restaurants, shops, etc.  I did do a couple of non-standard things (which I'll write about later) but much of the time in Des Moines was pretty ordinary, as I intended.

So now I'm forcing myself to write something down, and it feels like the first time I wrote a blog post.  It wasn't great, but I had to start somewhere.  So this might be a rambling narrative of my time in Des Moines, and in the end, will be an incomplete assessment of how much I liked it.  Because here I'll focus on what I learned while in Des Moines, as opposed to the sort of thing one can learn on the internet.

In short, I liked Des Moines.  It was very ... comfortable.  Yes, that's the word.  It wasn't very exciting, but there's certainly enough going on that it's not dull, either.  I flipped through some local newspapers, and there was always something to do, especially live music shows.  I went to one, and was happy with the quality and content (a blues band, doing a mix of covers and original stuff).

I was mildly surprised by the crowd that went to the show.  It was 99% white and I was probably the third youngest person there (seriously) but this wasn't representative of Des Moines's population overall, which was more diverse than I'd expected.  I'm not sure why this show only attracted a certain crowd but anyway...

There are several different neighborhoods, especially when you include the suburbs.  Some of course are those new giant homes, where everything is the same color and none of the trees are higher than 15 feet tall.  But the closer in suburbs and most homes in Des Moines itself are much nicer.  There's a "bad" part of town, but it's more like the poor part of town, where things look shabby and houses are small.  But it's doesn't look or feel dangerous.

When you cross The Thinker with that rabbit from Donnie Darko.

There's also a decent amount of downtown living, which I would look into if I moved to Des Moines.  Different options are scattered around the downtown area.  One option is the gay part of town (which, like Dupont Circle, is not exclusively gay), complete with good restaurants, fun shops, and a great tea house.  It also contains a large asian grocery store, which offers all sorts of foods I like to eat and a lot of weird stuff too.  The regular grocery stores in Des Moines are pretty robust, although I may not be able to get sushi at them (there are some sushi restaurants in town, though).

Getting around town was a breeze.  I didn't sample the public transportation, which consists only of busses and a few free circulators.  But Des Moines is so easy to drive in and park in, that unless I'm too poor to actually afford a car, having to drive won't be the hassle it is in places like DC.  In the middle of the day (and night, while everyone is out being social), parking is plentiful and easy to find.  And where it's not free, it is cheap -- like 45 cents/hour for on-street parking.

Doh!  Time to check out of my motel.  I'll post this much and write more later.  Now that I've gotten started I feel a little better about writing.  Plus, I need to write about the past few days driving around Lake Superior.

Des Moines Cuisine

I think this menu from High Life speaks for itself, but feel free to suggest captions for the photo.

The Bridges of Madison County

The first thing I learned today is that it takes almost as long to take down a tent as it does to put up a tent.  In part, that's due to having to take all the stuff out of it first, and making sure everything gets packed the right way so the next set-up goes smoothly.  But still.  Well, I'll know to budget more time to deconstruction next time I take down a tent.

What's that you say?  You didn't know I would be camping?  Yes indeed.  To save some money, and hopefully to have fun, I bought a tent and some gear (I've been too afraid to try my stove, though... I know I'm gonna screw it up lol).  I won't sleep in it every night, but I'll use it a lot.  It's not a lot of trouble, although it's really no fun to deal with in the sun in 90 degree weather either.  But it's more fun than not fun, so I'll keep doing it.

On to today.  I took time out of my regularly scheduled activity (touring Des Moines, which I'll write more about in the next day or two) to tour the famous covered bridges of Madison County, Iowa.  If you're wondering, yes, I did read the book but I didn't see the movie.  I'll probably watch it now, to see the places I've seen with my own eyes.

Bah, I accidentally had my camera on some stupid setting, so all the pics are too bright.

There used to be a lot more covered bridges in the county, but only 6 remain.  And only one of them is in shape to have cars drive across it.

The one you can still drive across.

There's not a lot more to say about Madison County.  It's mostly farms, with a few picturesque areas, usually near the bridges or the rivers.  It's also where John Wayne was born, as every sign along every corner in the county lets you know.

Fredericksburg, Iowa

Since I have the time, I thought I'd write about today.  I'm spending the night at my friend Dan's place, in northeast Iowa.  He owns the Hawkeye Buffalo Ranch, which is where I met him on a tour of his ranch several years ago.  I saw him last summer, too, when I stopped in with my parents near the end of our drive to Washington State and back.

I got a chance to feed the buffaloes, and I'm becoming a pro now.  I even managed not to hit the beasties in the face when I threw the corn to them.

I traded him some corn for some buffalo snot.  He definitely got the better end of that deal.

This calf was born a few hours before I arrived.

I also got a chance to eat some buffalo, since Dan cooked a nice dinner of buffalo (from his ranch), baked potato, and fresh snow peas from his garden.  Well, I cooked the peas, but they were very easy.

Dan & a home-cooked meal.

My arrival was from a different direction as the last two times I've been here.  Today's route, courtesy of the GSP that I'm not sure always provides the most efficient route, was through downtown Fredericksburg.  There wasn't a whole lot to see there, but the old one-room schoolhouse caught my eye, so I turned around and drove back to photograph it.

Then as I approached the ranch, I found myself on the first, but probably not the last, dirt and gravel road of my trip.  I've driven on dirt and gravel before, but never realized before today how similar it feels to driving on snow.

The last treat of the day was getting to ride the farm's ATV.  I've never been on one before, but it was fun, especially in the empty field where I wasn't worried about hitting anything.  It took a lot more work than I expected; you need to hold down the gas button the whole time, and the machine sends vibrations up your arms the whole time too.  So it might take getting used to before riding it far.  Alas, no pics, as it was an impromptu ride!

Leaving Chicago

I spent the last six nights in Chicago.  I've been here several times before, so I didn't feel like I needed to spend all my time either sight-seeing or exploring the city with an eye towards living here, because I know it fairly well.  Instead, I spent most of my non-solitary time with friends, first Susan and Marc in Evanston, and lunch with Jim in the Southport neighborhood, then with Gino and Denise in Hinsdale.

Susan & Marc

I don't like all suburbs, but I liked Evanston.  There are L and Metra stops, and you can walk to places like shops, restaurants, and the public library.  The library was really nice, too.  It's where I camped for a few hours on the day I arrived, waiting for Susan to get home from work.

The cool mobile (is that what they are called?) in Evanston's library.

Chicago has great food, and I expect Iowa, my next stop, will generally have ... less-than-great food, so I ate out several times while I still knew I'd get something good.  Eating out is not a habit I want to continue for the rest of my trip, as the costs add up, but I don't regret doing it here.

Gino likes to vogue while waiting for his sushi.

A couple of this stop's highlights were seeing a play called Chinglish, which was written by the man who wrote M Butterfly, and which apparently is heading to Broadway soon.  (It was good -- I'd recommend it if you're in the Chicago area.)  And meeting yet another friend from The World of Warcraft, Kyllan (aka Vallingar).  It's pronounced KAI-lin, if you're wondering.  Not KILL-in'.  He's as fun in person as he is in the game.

Elevated pizza, to match the elevated trains.

My next stop, and the first "serious" stop on my trip is coming up next.  After one night in NE Iowa to see a friend, I'll be in Des Moines for about 5 nights, exploring the city with an eye towards possibly relocating there.  Des Moines is one of eight cities I plan to explore this way.  (Seven of the eight are places I've never been to).  I will mostly avoid tourist sites (museums, etc.) and will spend my time exploring neighborhoods, libraries, shopping options, diners, the public transportation, etc.  The things I'd have to deal with on a daily basis if I lived somewhere.  I like museums and orchestras and theaters, etc.  But I don't go to those every week.  My daily routine will affect my life far more than things like that, although I'd prefer to live in a place that has a fair amount of culture.

This part of my trip may be a completely failed experiment.  Either because all eight cities are crap and I'd never move there in a million years, or because it turns out I just can't learn anything about them by hanging out for a week, or because other aspects of life intervene -- like I can't get a job there or for other reasons decide to re-settle down in a city I already know.  But if nothing else, these eight stops will help anchor my tour of the US, and at worst should feel like eight mini-vacations within the bigger trip.  So the stops shouldn't be a waste of time overall, even if they don't result in me finding a new home.  More on what I'm looking for in a future post.

Rural Indiana

I've actually been in Chicago for a few days, but I'll write about that later because I've got a few more days here.  If you can't wait to see what I've been up to, though, check out my High Noon pics.

I wanted to get some pics and thoughts down about my drive through rural Indiana, on my way to and from Lafayette.  I might have only been on the road for about 6 hours total in Indiana, but it was the kind of road I really like to drive:  Gentle curves, very little traffic, one or two lane country roads.  Well, two lanes are better than one because I never quite know how to navigate around the inevitable farm equipment going 20 mph on the one-lane roads.  But you get my drift.

This one stretch of road in NW Indiana had windmills as far as the eye could see.

But while I very much like driving on these kind of roads, I would not enjoy living in these kinds of towns.  In large measure, because the "cuisine" leaves a lot to be desired.  For instance, I stopped at a road-side diner.  The prices were good and it had car hops even.  But it had only one vegetable item on the whole menu -- deep fried cauliflower -- which I ordered because it sounded healthier than the deep fried everything else, but still wasn't that healthy.  Nor that tasty, after the first few morsels -- too much deep and too much fried, and not enough cauliflower.

Later, I stopped at a rural grocery.  Now I didn't expect it would be full of delicacies, but I just wanted fruit.  But even the fruit was... not so great.  Only one kind of apple (red delicious, of course... how dull!).  And the blueberries, which are in season now, were very mediocre and were imported from Georgia.  So they were designed to be hearty and to travel well, not to be plump and bursting.  Other fruit and veggie selections were equally uninteresting.  Why live so close to food sources if the food available at the local shops is neither local nor particularly good?

Bad food aside, at least some rural areas have something I really like:  Old graveyards, with actual tombstones, not those lame modern graveyards where everything is flat because the grass is easier to mow.  /rolls eyes at lazy graveyard caretakers/  Since I had a lot of time to kill between Lafayette and Chicago, I stopped and toured a couple.  None were as old as any in Europe (of course) and not were as colorful and fun as the Easter Island graveyard, but they were pretty cool anyway, and I got my fix of the macabre.

An older specimen, from the mid-19th Century

A very unusual gravestone:  Just a metal plate bolted to the earth.  I can't recall seeing another like this anywhere.