Tidbits of Iowa Culture 2

I have seen some curious things in the past month and here's a few I've taken pics of.


Here we see an Amish cart with horses parked at the local Pamida. When I came back out of the store all that was left was two large steaming piles in the middle of the parking lot.


The Amish strike again in this ridiculous picture! A couple Amish men and their sons pile out of this Lincoln. This alone is hilarious, but why on earth do they have that decal on the grill? These Amish are livin on the edge, and they like their Lincoln grills raunchy. "An Amish with a 'tude, you know that's unheard of!"

















I have seen this common mode of transportation frequently, but only just have managed to capture it. It seems Iowans have decided that riding lawn mowers are the best way to get around in town. I've seen them driven to the post office, the grocery store, Pizza Hut, and my personal favorite, the local tavern. Here's one now on his way back from the gas station at which he filled up and purchased a doughnut.

This next picture is sadly blurry, much like the infamous Sasquatch picture. This photo is of a man with VERY peculiar side burns.... his are not vertical, but horizontal and in the center of the side of his face. He was in Centerville, IA, and was walking while muttering about "the margarine... the margarine..."

I've included another picture of what he would have looked up close to give you a better idea.

Very odd...

Lastly, I wanted to include my Uncle's awesome set up for his wireless headset...
A very clever use of painter's tape and a zip-tie. Just awesome.












Laurel

A Random Hodge-Podge

This a a better picture of the damage dealt to my windshield.



This is rather odd, I've never seen one of these before... it's usually a sign that just says, "NO DOGS ALLOWED"

By the way.. this was on the window of the post office in Oskaloosa, IA.



This is a picture of my uncle Sonny's make-shift steering wheel in his S-10.

This particular model also has no speedometer, so you never know exactly how fast you're going, you just hope you're a good guesser. lol



This last picture is of the Scooby-Doo bobble head my sister gave me when I was maybe about 8 or so to put in my first car. And here he is, in my first car! He was the first thing I put in it.

Also, in this picture you get a glimpse of the awesome 80's-tastic interior of my car. Pretty wicked, huh?

Laurel

Tidbits of Iowa Culture

First we see some roadside hunters.



Don't bother to get out of your car, or even hunt on your own property... if you see a deer from your car, roll down your window and fire away! With this type of hunting, the hunting season rules can and will be ignored.



On we progress to the ever-popular mullet....



He has you fooled folks, he had tucked the other 2 feet of the mullet tail into his jacket moments before this picture was taken.

This particular specimen was found in Centerville, IA, home of the always exciting, Pancake Day Parade.








Last for today, the best place (or Iowans seem to think) to tie your dog is to an ICE machine.. most of the time, when I see an ICE machine, I see a dog tied to it..





Stay tuned for my next exclusive, "Redneck Landmarks of Southern Iowa."


Laurel

Disturbing Iowa

What is that? What is that on the antennae of that crappy car?



It looks like a squirrel tail.....














IT IS....

I saw this in a Wal-mart parking lot in Osceola, IA.

Laurel

Pella, IA Revisited

Yes, I returned.

To find many pleasant surprises I might add.

My day today began at 7 am. I know, shocking, I never get up before 9 anymore.

Anyway, my Uncle had ordered a new brake hose for my car from a parts store in Pella (of all places) and I had to go get it early in the morning so we could fix it before he had to go to his appointment.

Here's where I insert the necessary information that you need for this story to make sense.

Iowa has been having serious flooding issues this summer, and it rains (correction, pours buckets) every single night. Naturally, many fields and roads are either washed out or complete submerged in water.

This cause me to have problems. Which are things that I don't care to have. :(

I attempted to go the normal way.
Washed out and closed.

I tried the short way around.
Covered in a minimum of 2 feet of water.

I tried a different way.
You couldn't see any road for 6 miles or more.

By this time, it was 8:30 am. So I headed back to my uncle's to go the other other way. My car sputtered to a stop about 12 miles from his house.

Out of gas.

Luckily I am prepared and I brought a gallon and a half with me for this exact issue. But it wastes more time.

I get back to my uncle's and decide to get the part and just go back to my mother's house without fixing it. It's okay, because it's just the right side brake, I can manage. :)

The other other route took me through roads that weren't unsurvivable, but they looked like this:

I made it to Pella. I got the part and I got gas.

Here's the cool part.

I need a set of new strings for my guitar. I had broken the E string. There was one shop in about a 150 mile radius that sold decent guitar strings.
This place:

It was supposed to open at 10:30 am, but I waited and hour, and at 11:30 it finally opened. The owner of the store was simply amazing. "Rob" was so into his drum solo he was writing that he forgot to open his store. It's a guitar/drum store that has it's own recording studio.

When I started talking to him, -from the heat and my severe exhaustion from the strenuous morning- (I'm guessing) I got a horrible bloody nose, and didn't have any tissues. He got me some. :) Nice guy.

Continuing on:

The strings set was only $5.00 and that's amazing for starters because they're usually $7.00-$10.00. (I always get D'Addario strings)(for future reference)

We got to talking at length, and he let me play any guitar I wanted to in the store for as long as I wanted. Awesome.

He just gave me a free E string (the one I broke) so I could save the set for later, and he fixed my guitar output jack for free. AWESOME-SAUCE.

I met his best friend (who lived next door) Animal, who apparently is twice as good on the guitar as the owner was (and I shredded on my guitar for a good 5 minutes after he fixed it and sounded closed to as good as Van Halen!) AMAZING!

Animal talked to me for like 30 minutes about guitars and playing them. He designs pick guards out of aluminum an plastic as well as drumsticks and they are just awesome!
Here's a link to his web site. http://animalsalumiums.vpweb.com/about_us.html

The site itself is underdeveloped and you can't see any of the actual items, but it gives you his info in case you have questions. Animal also gave me a free aluminum pick he made so I could try it out and keep it. (I picked for a while with it on my guitar and some of the store's and liked it so much I bought 2 more!)

Rob (the owner) has played in many different bands and has opened for CCR and met them. WICKED!

This was a very friendly, helpful, awesome store and if you're ever randomly in the area, go there. It was pretty awesome.

I also past this rather phallic looking grain factory tower..

Laurel

Field of Dreams

I decided to take a different route of driving on my way back to my mother's house through some back roads. I ended up driving a 30 mile loop around to the same place I had started, and then in the end finding my way back to the house.

On these back roads I found many interesting things such as this baseball field. Now abandoned, it is literally many miles away from any town at all and is surrounded by corn and soybean fields.


I couldn't help but look around for Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones. Needless to say, I couldn't find them. But it was amusing to whisper to myself as I continued driving ahead, "If you build it, he will come."

The one thing that truly vexes me is how anyone could mistake Heaven for Iowa.. it's just plain silly. I like to hope Heaven isn't so infested with bugs that you can't move without at least 4 landing on you. Not to mention the horrific humidity! It's August, the worst time of the year to be in Iowa.. you can cut the air with a knife!

Another interesting thing I saw in the ditches next to the road was wild marijuana. I shit you not. Here's one now!


As my friend Dusty described this plant.. it's GARGANTUAN! Yes, yes it is. I saw a few others along the side of the road as well, the farmers just (supposedly) spray weed killer on it because it effects their crop growth... It's just a weed they say. And people pay out the nose to get half a sandwich bag of this stuff? Crazy how different states are to one another...

Laurel

Pella, IA

Pella, IA

Known for its yearly Tulip Time festival, Dutch townspeople, fake windmills and wooden shoes.

This town has over 5 hair salons, 7 antiques shops, and 5 knick-knack shops.... population? 9832.

Wow.

My friend Becca and I had a day to just hang out and we decided that this small-ish town was nearby, had a movie theater, and we had never really been there. We walked around the square and looked into all the little shoppes. It was pretty boring actually, but there were a few memorable items inside the shoppes.

I was in this one shop that had this flute from a foreign country... interesting place to blow into....



I also saw this picture in one of the knick-knack shoppes and was tempted to buy it.



Strange town, strange shoes, strange people... new experience.

Laurel