"I don’t think we’re in Kansas any more, Toto"

- Dorothy after seeing all the freakin’ hills in Iowa...

Actually I have it on good authority that Iowa is an Ioway acronym for Ihi Onana Wahili Ahaha which, loosely translated, means “G-zus H! Look at all these damn hills!! Let’s move to Kansas.”

The gig in Omaha was webcast which was pretty cool and we had a nice interview at the host location, The Pizza Shoppe.

In Council Bluffs there's a Dairy Queen on route 6 that's for sale. One of the original style drive-ins with a cool neon sign. Could be a carreer shift in order...

Atlantic (Iowa’s Coca Cola Capital - according to the sign welcoming travelers to their burg) was having ‘Customer Appreciation Days’ over the weekend, but we weren’t able to stick around for the festivities on Saturday which included a hotdog throwing contest, a hotdog eating contest and a combined event (nooooo, not a hotdog throwing-up contest) throwing people who’ve just eaten their weight in hotdogs. First place in the eating portion of the festivities was a one years supply of hot dogs. Presumably second place was a two years supply.

Oakland is home to the Nishna Heritage Museum which used to house the region’s only department store. Over the last 30 years as people moved away or passed on they donated all the crap they didn’t want and apparently the curator couldn’t say no. In room after room after room there was an amazing collection of some very interesting and valuable historic pieces and a lot of junk. From sharks teeth (in the Nishna River?) to an empty bottle of Jack Daniels to embalming equipment to a giant moose head. The best part of the visit was when our docent, Emma, found out I had been pedaling from Los Angeles she immediately said “Oh. You must want to use the bathroom, then. It’s right over there…”. And you know what? She was right...