Surprises in Iowa and Homeward Bound

 July 20, 2025

When roaming backroads in northeast Iowa, we saw on the geocaching app a location with the title "The Man Who Fed a Billion People."  It intrigued us so we ventured down a few miles of gravel road to the boyhood home of Norman Borlaug.  Through his research as an agronomist, agricultural yields all around the world increased.  Some refer to him as the "Father of the Green Revolution."  He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and Congressional Gold Medal.  He is an exemplar of how an ordinary person from humble beginnings can have an extraordinary impact on humankind.

We camped one night at Clear Lake State Park in northern Iowa and visited the nearby Buddy Holly airplane crash site out in the cornfields.  The location is a shrine dedicated to an icon of American music and the inspiration for the song "American Pie."  From there, it was only 3.5 hours to Sioux Falls, SD where we made a brief overnight visit to Kris' aunt and uncle.

visitors leave glasses on the posts 

Another location in Iowa on my bucket list was The Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend.  We arrived in time for a tour and were amazed at all of the natural materials that went into its construction - a wide variety of stones, crystals, cave formations, polished agates, fossils, etc.  

While not on my bucket list, we saw a sign for the World's Largest Popcorn Ball in Sac City, Iowa.  If you are familiar with our blog, you know the "world's largest anything" is like a magnet drawing us in.  

We spent some time in the town of Pella, "America's Dutch Treasure."  It is a very pleasant town and I would like to return there someday to see the tulips in bloom.

We arrived too late in the day to take a tour of the Vermeer Windmill.

From Iowa, we took three days to drive home to Houston.  We camped at a few reservoirs along the way and enjoyed morning temperatures in the 50s  One of those reservoirs was Bull Shoals east of Branson.  When we drove through the town in the morning, we sought out the huge octopus sculpture in front of the Aquarium and saw an impressive sculpture in front of the Veterans Museum.

We routed ourselves through Texarkana for one more fun spot at the Arkansas/ Texas state line before arriving home in Houston.

This trip was shorter than others have been, only 49 days and 9,274 total miles through 23 states.  A combination of age, health issues, and heat made the trip a bit harder.  Without destinations with "wow factor" and doctor appointments on the calendar, it was time to head home and dream of adventures for the future.

Lots of Geocaching and a Trip Down Memory Lane

 July 14, 2024

    The goal of the next segment of our trip was to find caches in the rest of the counties in Indiana and Illinois.  Mission completed!  As we drove around the north side of Indianapolis, radar showed the end of Hurricane Beryl passing to the north.  It was quite breezy and we experienced some rain bands, but nothing like our family and friends in Houston.  Luckily, our house fared well (broken limbs and sections of wooden fencing down) and our kids' houses were okay.  Several days without electricity and AC is not fun, but we are thankful that it was not a stronger storm.  

We made a quick stop in the Illinois town where Kris spent her formative years and had lunch with a friend she went to school with from grades 1 through 9.  

Lawn Rangers have performed in a Presidential Inaugural Parade

Arcola High School still looks grand

The old brick streets are still there.

friends since first grade

Other fun things we saw in Indiana and Illinois:

Kokomo, Indiana

Awesome summer reading theme at the Kokomo Public Library

A stop in the "Land of Lincoln"

Macomb, Illinois is the birthplace of Elizabeth Magie, creator of the Monopoly game and has fun locations around the courthouse square:

Dice actually rotate on the spindle

Next, we saw how high the water in the Mississippi was when we crossed into Iowa. Quite a contrast to a few years ago when it was really low and exposed sandbars impeded the movement of goods on the river.

Many of the rivers in Illinois and Iowa were high from recent rains.  

Geocaching milestones along the way . . .

(zoothornrollo is our geocaching handle)