Iowa is a magical place and some of our best memories of the trip were definitely made there.
Dwight and Arleen couldn’t have been better hosts down on the farm. Dwight made a couple of phone calls to his friends in the area, explaining what we were doing – roadschooling across America, and set us up with some really amazing experiences we will never forget.
Also we happened to be able to visit Dan D's Farm and Corn Maze on the day once a year when all the third graders from the area come for an educational field trip.
Before the educational part started, we got to play in the corn beach – basically imagine a sand box, but filled with millions of corn kernels. For some weird reason, I was the only adult playing in it.
We got to tag along with a class of 3rd graders and rotate through several educational presentations separated by huge bales of hay.
My favorite had to be the Iowa beef people. The guy gave a great presentation about how important and healthy beef is as we sat on the back of a flatbed trailer and listened. At the end everyone got a big chunk of hamburger on a toothpick right off the bar-b-q. Why don’t we go on field trips where they give you hamburgers at home?
We also heard a 10 minute presentation from the Dairy, Corn, Egg, Pork and Soy Bean people. After they all extolled the virtues of a daily diet rich in milk, beef, pork, eggs and corn I am pretty certain at this point that there are very few vegetarians or kosher people in Iowa. In fact, I am thinking people in Iowa for the most part do not have many issues with food.
Not sure they would believe me if I told them that there are people called vegans or that in California people are the ones eating the alfalfa sprouts. And considering a third of all corn grown in Iowa is for feed for livestock, these 3rd grader's parents' livelihood depends on either growing the corn for feed to sell to the people raising livestock, or raising the livestock, or both. So these kids best be getting their fill of bacon and pot roast and washing it down with 3 servings of milk a day (per the dairy lady)
And as if playing in corn kernels and the free Pork coloring book and miniature pig eraser from the Pork industry people wasn’t enough… we got to go in a corn maze. Don't even get me started on the awesomeness of that!
The following day, Dwight arranged for us to visit a farm nearby that was in the middle of harvesting their corn.
He arranged for us to ride in the enormous John Deere combine. A state of the art farm machine that goes through the corn fields 12 rows at a time, plowing them down, shucking them, and pulling the kernels from the cobs all at once.
We sat in the cockpit of this Star Wars type spaceship while the driver, the Luke Skywalker of the cornfield expertly piloted the John Deere combine.
Janey, Sally and Wyatt rode with him first. Payton and I went next.
I can honestly say if you ever get the opportunity to harvest corn – don’t think twice. It was thrilling! The kids were very impressed too. Here is some video: Click on the brown words below.
Harvesting corn – Janey, Sally and Wyatt riding in the combine
View from inside the combine
Leaving the farm, we had a long drive ahead of us, South towards Kansas City. As the dust swirled up behind my minivan, I felt the kind of gratitude that fills your heart when you experience something for the first time.
When for a moment you get a glimpse into a world different from your own. Not from a story, or picture, or book, or website.
For me it was my feet crunching across a field of newly harvested old cobs and dead cornstalk stubs. It was the Iowa wind. The knowledge that the cycle of farming end and begin simultaneously. Grabbing the bars attached to the green metal ladder and climbing up past the gargantuan tires. Sitting up so high, seeing above the stalks to the farm house and silo beyond. Taking part in the most modern way to perform an ancient harvest ritual.
The fact that this was for the farmers just another day's work underscored my excitement. The fact that this was for us, just another miraculous day on the road in America was the absolute best feeling in the world.
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