9. Day 5: Iowa

morning in Vermillion SD we wake to our first rainy day of the trip. The rain exposed our first problem with Lola - the front windshield leaks. Not a big leak but the bottom corners are definitely allowing water to drip into the dashboard area. Water means rust and we spent way too much time and money trying to get rid of the car's rust. We don't want to create rust. So, we use washcloths to wipe up the moisture. We now know we have an issue to deal with. Its a disappointment but at least we know. Putting disappointment aside, we head to University of South Dakota campus to visit The National Music Museum. The museum's collection includes more than 15,000 musical instruments from all over the world, ranging from the 16th century to modern times. There are Stradivarius violins and cellos (and a guitar) as well as the guitars of Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley. It was fascinating and inspiring. We all enjoyed our visit. Then, it was time to hit the road and head to Iowa.

Iowa. Corn, corn, corn and more corn. Every field was corn with a few fields of soybean thrown in. The rolling hills of corn were beautiful to drive through; the towns we drove through were charming. It is clear that corn drives the economy of this state. Ron and I traveled through Iowa a long time ago and remembered the unique town of Ida Grove, a town with a "castle theme". We drove through town looking for turrets and draw bridges. A pair of turrets on either end of a bridge on a golf course grabbed our attention. As we turned into the country club's parking lot, we found ourselves following a 1966 bright red Mustang convertible driven by a tiny grey haired lady. We parked at the end of the parking lot and saw the lady get out of her car and walk towards us. She walked up to the car and told us how much she liked our car and how she loved the color. Shaelyn turned on her video camera and recorded a wonderful "car" conversation with this delightful lady.

Our day ended in Ames, Iowa, home of Idaho State University. We stayed at an inn called Iowa House, a beautiful 3 story old brick house which once was a fraternity. Don't really want to know what the walls would say if they could talk. We had a 4 block walk to campus and had dinner at the Mongolian Grill, a no frills Chinese restaurant patronized almost exclusively by Asian students. We found the right place. Food was a great!

LH