I spent a week in beautiful Des Moines, IA. We took a twenty-six mile side trip to Perry to see Henry Nelson’s amazing electric machine. The cabinetry is a work of art. Unfortunately no one knows how the machine produces electricity. Henry Nelson died unexpectedly before unveiling his invention. Currently, the current does not flow. While at the museum, we asked for recommendation about a place to eat in town. We were given a few, but chose Carla’s Cafe. It consisted of a dining counter with a few booths and tables. The cook was in the middle of it all and continually chatted with the customers. Both the food and the atmosphere were a delightful experience.
Directly outside of DeMoines there is a living history farm and town. Three working farms show life in the 1700, 1800s, and early 1900s. The 1700 farm shows how the Ioway people lived and what crops they grew. Their wigwams were covered with layers of thatch, keeping the interior temperatures at a comfortable 50º F even during the coldest winter night. The 1800 farm demonstrated the pioneers who settled Iowa. They had planned to live in their log cabin houses for only a few years, but many extended their stay.
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Des Moines, Iowa is the town that everyone knows about and remembers because it not only hosts the Iowa State Fair but it’s the state capital as well. We’ve all learnt the name in grade school. The fair is an eleven day event held every year in the fall. Some of its more common popular attractions include the Butter Cow, a Double Ferris Wheel and the Fairgrounds Grandstand which is host to popular singers and musicians on a nightly basis during the fair.
The Corn Dog Kickoff is a lively auction event held each year where visitors can do some light food grazing while bidding on silent and live auction packages. The proceeds of the auction all go to helping restore the fairgrounds so visitors can eat, bid and relax knowing that their helping the fair.
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Way back in the mid-1960’s, 1966 in fact, the state of Iowa entered into my consciousness. As a five year old at the time, it wasn’t much of a consciousness. All I really knew was Dad took a temporary job transfer and we’d be leaving Chicago to live in Iowa for a year.
Over the next 15 months, we made several long car trips to and from western Iowa to Chicago. I remember always wanting to see the Mississippi River from the big window of our station wagon.
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