Currently: Cedar Falls, IA

The first time I drove to Iowa with my friend Kathe, we were going from Chicago to visit Sarah. This was pre-GPS, so all we had was Mapquest directions and directions from Sarah, too. They matched up exactly, except that Mapquest had told us to take one exit, and Sarah told us to take a different one. We trusted the Iowan rather than a directions website that was notoriously bad at directions, and kept looking for the one Sarah mentioned. Well, we didn't find it, and eventually got off the highway to regroup. As it turns out, the exit had recently gone through a name change, and iirc Sarah was still using the old name, or didn't know the sign had changed, so we are the two people who actually should have trusted Mapquest.

When we pulled off, we ended up in a cornfield. An actual cornfield. There was a strip of road, and corn on either side of us as far as the eye could see. We grabbed the map from the backseat and started looking at it to figure out where we were and how to get back to where we were going, which I am just useless at. But while we're doing this, Kathe says, "Look," and points out the window.

There was was a sizeable crowd of people dressed entirely in black, walking towards us through the cornfield. I don't care, that is one of the creepiest things I've ever seen. One of us, I don't remember who, noted that we've seen this X-Files episode. And no, seriously, there's an X-Files episode like this.

As they kept coming, Kathe finally said, "Go go go!" and, freaked out, I just started the car and drove off as fast as possible, where we eventually got directions at a roadside A&W. When we finally got to Sarah's and told her the story, she said, "Oh, those were just Mennonites." And we realized they probably were trying to help us. Oops.

Sooo that was my first experience with Iowa.

Taken out a window. Hello, corn.

That said, I feel like Iowa gets a bad rap as a nothing state, but I like it. It's not somewhere I think I could live all the time, personally, but it's kind of become my getaway place. Since I have been home, it really has turned into somewhere that I can just take off to when things are stressful and have my own room at my friend's house and I can attempt to cuddle her puppy who hates being picked up. It's the sort of place where we once drove 45 minutes to a craft show at a high school (did I buy Amish food that might be me trying to make up for the above story? Maybe), and on the way back stopped at garage sales because there were dogs in the yard and we wanted to pet them. I don't think I've ever had a visit where Sarah hasn't either run into or seen someone she knows while we were out. Everything is John Deere and Hawkeyes and my god, these poor people and their constant political commercials. CONSTANT. And while I know some people think everyone here is a farmer and the whole state is nothing but cows (excuse you, that's Wisconsin), Cedar Falls is just a smaller city like you'd find anywhere else, albeit one with not a ton of scenery on the drive in. It's a slice of quiet in a hectic life, and there's no bad there.

If there's one place I need to go every time I'm in town, it's World's Window. It's a shop in downtown Cedar Falls that sells Free Trade-certified goods, made in other countries by people who are working for better lives. It's pretty good stuff at good prices, too. I'm partial to their jewelry and I pick up Christmas ornaments at every opportunity, which I should stop doing because we're out of room on the tree but I will not stop doing because I'm me.

Plus, if you need a reason to go, say hello to the world's largest truck stop.

You know you want to.