1,644 Miles to Boston
Panda Express has it dialed in
Nebraska and Iowa are too often dismissed as flyover states, but those who skip them miss some of the country’s most fascinating stories.
The highlight of today was rinos. Not the kind munching hay at a zoo; these rhinos were twelve million years older.
I wouldn’t want to meet one of those rhinos walking through a cornfield
Long before Nebraska became a patchwork of farms, giant tortoises, camels, and three-toed horses roamed alongside the ancient rhinos in a subtropical savannah that would not be out of place in Africa, until a volcanic eruption over 900 miles away in the Rockies triggered a rapid mass-extinction event. The animals’ skeletons were perfectly preserved intact under 8-10 feet of ash.
A visit to the Ashfall Fossil Beds, 100 miles west of the Iowa border, offers the opportunity to see researchers in action with trowels and brushes, exposing and cataloging bones, entire skeletons, and even unborn fetal tissue, all perfectly preserved in the ash.
The thick prairie grasses disguise deposits of ash that covered an ancient water hole
The Midwest is farm country. When I was growing up in Iowa, the farms were smaller. White farmhouses nestled in groves of trees dotted the hillsides. Fields of alternating corn and soybeans were surrounded by fences with cattle grazing in the pastures and hogs rooting in outside lots. Now those farmhouses are mostly gone; the fences have been taken out; the hogs are in confinement buildings; the cattle are in lots; and the corn rolls for miles in between ethanol plants. Not to say any of that is bad; it is just different from my childhood memories.
The things that haven’t changed are the small towns and the people. The towns still have postage-stamp yards, neatly mowed; the people still wave, and a stop at any Casey’s to fuel up and buy a cup of puppy chow (don’t call it Muddy Buddies around here) proves that no one is a stranger.
We pulled into Sac City, Iowa, to see the world’s largest popcorn ball before straying off the path for a couple of days to spend time with my family in my hometown of Corning, Iowa.
Anything that is the world’s largest is a must-stop
The only disappointment of the day? The free museum by the popcorn ball was closed.
Carousels and Curiosity 
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