Monday morning, I left bright and early to head off to Des Moines, IA. I've never been to Iowa before, and I was really looking forward to it. Driving through southwestern Wisconsin is really beautiful, there are a lot of rolling hills, and it's very green.
I was enjoying it so much that I almost didn't notice this bumper sticker! I doubt you can read it from the blog, but it says, "we don't dial 911" and has a picture of a pistol. That's nice and comforting! I just had to take a picture, but I didn't want to get to close because if I had accidentally hit the back of his car he would not have dialed 911.
Soon after the bumper sticker, I knew I was getting close to the Iowa border so I pulled off to take a little break and buy a snack. What kind of a vending machine did they have? A Packer vending machine! You don't see those everywhere.
Soon after the Packer machine I crossed the Mississippi...
And was welcomed by the people of Iowa!
I saw TONS of corn...
And of course, when I pulled over to fill up my gas tank, I was filling up my car with ethanol.
I arrived at my friends' house (Jean and Bob) and we caught up, talked about the tour, made plans for the night and ate a delicious dinner. (Of course we ate some corn on the cob with our dinner!) Jean and I took off right after dinner to get to Java Joe's in downtown Des Moines. It was really nice! The coffee house is really big, and they have a little stage where musicians can play, and they have a nice crowd of people that come to listen to the music. Among the listeners, was my friend Shannon! I was so excited to see her...we've known each other for a long time: she used to babysit me when I was little, I sang at her wedding...I'm pretty sure she's known me my entire life. It was really nice of her to come, especially since she had to drive 50 miles!
Then yesterday, I spent the morning chatting with my friend, Jean, and took off after breakfast for St. Louis. I was a little sick of seeing corn fields, so I was happy when I could snap a photo of my Missouri sign.
Last night, was interesting. I played at a book store as a part of a poetry night, at Left-Bank Books, and it was great. The poets were really talented, and had some amazing lines. It made me wish that I worked harder on my lyrics. There was a bit of a somber/serious theme throughout all of the work that was a little different than my mostly positive folk/pop songs, but all in all, the night really flowed well. Again, let me say that the poets were very talented. I did, however, have one concern when a female poet went up front to read some of her erotic poetry. Now keep in mind, I'm sitting with my aunts, uncles and cousins listening to some nice (though serious) poetry, so I thought they were kidding when the erotic genre was brought up. It was not a joke. After a few poems and a lot of avoided eye contact between family members, the poet finally arrived at her RACY poem. What had the other poems been? I felt really nervous and a little embarrassed, but everyone seemed to like the poetry and certainly, no one was bored during the reading!
After the show (I played to a full bookstore of really attentive listeners, including my friend Jenilyn from college...I've been SO LUCKY on this tour!) I went out to dinner with my aunt, uncle and cousin. Here I am with my cousin, Amanda who had just finished her second day of classes at St. Louis University.
I got a chance to see a little bit of the campus...it's really beautiful! We had dinner out at the Old Spaghetti Factory, and on the way back home, I had to snap a quick photo of the arch!
This morning I had a chance to chat a little bit more with my aunt at, and now I'm pulled over in a Drury Inn parking lot using their wifi, as I'm on my way to Columbus, Ohio. So far it's been kind of a long day, but I'll keep an eye out for interesting photo opportunities!
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