Iowa Photo Essay

Until Janice married and moved to Iowa, I had never been there. In my mind's eye, the view was limited. I pictured flat land covered in corn. Most of all, I pictured a land far from where I lived. 

Since then, I have discovered my car can find the way to Iowa, no matter where I start out from. It has gotten me there from Florida, from Pennsylvania, and now, from Georgia. 

And I've discovered the corner of Iowa that she lives in.

The first thing I learned was that I was right. Iowa is flat.

And there are corn and soybean fields for as far as the eye can see.

But each time I return, I discover the little things that make Iowa special. 

I love walking down the gravel road at the end of the day. 

As I walk I notice things.

Like the textures in the fields.

In summer the roadside gives way to green soybean fields. 

In the fall, as I walk, my eyes are drawn to the rows, weaving their way into the distance. They are no longer green, but dry, and ready for harvest. 

But if you come earlier, when they are changing, the fields are bright gold, and the leaves remind me of gold coins fluttering in the breeze. I think I've found the pot at the end of the rainbow.

I am always drawn to the out buildings, sheds and old barns. The peeling paint, cracked windows and leaning timbers tell a tell of history. They have been here a long time. If only they could talk.

(No worries, though. The farmers have plenty of tales to share when they have time to sit and talk.)

An old pump rises above the weeds.

Shadows follow me on a late afternoon walk. But I love how the light glows on the buildings at this time of day.

An early moon rises over the corn.

An old fence still lays claim to an abandoned homestead, keeping the fields at bay.

Winter, 

Spring, 

Summer,

or Fall,

the charm of the mid-west may be more subtle than the grandeur of the Rockies,

but it is just as enduring. 

So each year I come back to see my family. But with each visit, I am captured once again by the landscape. 

And I look for new ways to rediscover her part of Iowa.

Grotto of the Redemption

This spring while Larry and I were in Iowa visiting Janice we took a day trip to see the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend, Iowa. It is an incredible achievement of one Catholic Priest that started as a simple promise. In the early 1900's a young priest in Germany was about to be ordained when he was stricken with pneumonia. As he lay there, possibly dying, he made a promise to the Virgin Mary that if he survived, he would build a shrine to her.

He survived...and fulfilled his promise....and then some!

He was sent to a small town in Iowa and enjoyed traveling around the United States. A fairly common activity in those days was to collect gems, crawling inside caves, or finding them in fields, wherever they were available. Father Dobberstein collected all kinds of gems and gorgeous pieces of petrified rock, sending them home, by rail or by freight, whatever way was available. In 1912 he began his shrine to the Virgin Mary. And when that was done, he kept going!

This is a tiny corner of a large wall covered in petrified rock.

The grotto was built to resemble caves in a mountain side. Each cave depicts an aspect of Christ's life, from his birth to his crucifixion. The entire thing is covered in gems..... $4,000,000.00 (that's millions!) worth of gems, and petrified rock! It is quite a sight to see.

White quartz pieces were used to create the illusion of snow capped mountains. In some places he used the green glass of broken coke bottles to depict flowing mountain streams.

Wandering through the display gives me the illusion of walking the streets of Jerusalem, although I've never been to Jeruslem. Displays were in caves set into the walls.

Rose quartz and other rock minerals and gems cover this stairwell.

The Manger scene is just an example of one of many grottos. The ceiling is mostly petrified rock.

There were several other scenes. The garden of Gethsemane was beautiful. The 2 disciples were tucked into corners, sleeping. Another big focus were the Stations of the Cross.

The Grotto of the Redemption is an unusual tourist attraction, but well-worth the trip. Since there was plenty of room to run, even the kids liked it. Next time you are near West Bend, Iowa, take a few hours to see this one-of-a-kind place.

Night Lights

During my visit to Jan's I gave you lots of impressions of Iowa. The flat, gravel roads. The sounds. The fields. It is so different from Pittsburgh that I always enjoy going there as much for the view as for the family. I'm going to share one more view that really fascinated me the first time I noticed it. It is the lights at night.

When Jan met Mike she took him to see the ocean. He said he had never seen water for as far as the eye could see, but he had seen corn for as far as the eye could see. In daytime in Iowa, it doesn't seem as if there is much else. It is corn and soybean fields, distant horizons, occassional outcroppings of trees, a house and barn every mile or so.

But walk outside at night and look around. There are lights everywhere. Stand in the road and do a 360 degree turn. The lights don't seem to be in a row, but they are all around you. Where do they come from? None of them look close, like the ones in your neighborhood. But they don't look far away either. They are 'across the field'. Some are red blinking ones. You can assume they are attached to a tower somewhere. But where?

I've learned that light travels great distances. I knew that from my science classes, and from looking at the stars. In Iowa it becomes more evident. Those red blinking lights are on windmills 30 miles away. They sit just above the horizon and look as if they could be on the main road. The white lights are the dusk to dawn lights on farms I can't even see during the day. I don't see big lights, small lights, near lights, far lights, (excuse me Dr. Seuss). I see LIGHTS!

It is an amazing sight to me. Just another intriguing aspect of a part of the country very different from Pittsburgh.