Iowa was a salve for our parched souls after long days of high plains sage brush deserts. Lush, verdent emerald green fields of corn topped with golden tassles blowing gently in the breeze. Sultry warm instead of shimmering, searing heat. Ponds and wetlands fringed by cattails brought memories of Mother saying “you KNOW there are snakes in there!”
Chris, Cousin Larry, & I look at each other whenever we pass wetlands & proclaim “You KNOW there are snakes in there!”, smiling broadly as we fondly recall road trips with Mumsy!
Other oddities (besides us…!)
Iowa – home of James past & James future!
^ That’s a section of track that Jesse James removed to stop & rob a train! Below is a train wheel with the marker to commemorate the event.
For future James we visited Riverside Iowa. A town that has thoroughly embraced Star Trek! (And we are totally *geek* enough to love it!) The history as explained by RoadsideAmerica.com
Steve Miller, a Riverside councilman, was a Trekkie, and he read in Gene Roddenberry’s book, Making of Star Trek (1968) that Kirk would be born in a small town in Iowa. The book didn’t name the town. Miller thought, “Why not Riverside?” At the next council meeting (March 25, 1985) Miller proposed that Riverside declare itself the Future Birthplace of James T. Kirk. The motion passed unanimously.
Miller’s inspiration became official Star Trek canon in May 2009, when Riverside was identified as Kirk’s hometown in the Star Trek reboot movie. The entire town was invited to a special secret preview screening of the film, a day before its official release.
I absolutely love stuff like this! The weird & wacky offbeat oddities you can stumble upon driving across America!
Yellowrock & Roll! 