Day 7 - “Is this Heaven? No, It’s Iowa.”

Something Emily and Kristina hardly recognized greeted them this morning – the sun!  We ate Belgian waffles at the hotel (love all this free breakfast!), and then packed the car for yet another day of driving.  A mere 5 miles away from our hotel was the Mitchell Corn Palace, our first stop of the day.  It is the self-proclaimed corn capital of the world.
 

This dramatic, Taj-Majal-like building is embellished with multiple murals, all created from dyed corn and its stalks.  Each year after the harvest, the town rips down the previous year’s murals and recreates new and different ones, to remain on the building until the next harvest.  We’re not really sure why they do this, but it’s still cool to see.

Next on our list was Porter Sculpture Park, about 30 miles east of Mitchell.  The park, occupying a rolling hillside on the Porter family farm, showcases 40 original works of art crafted from a variety of materials by sculptor Wayne Porter.  Porter uses the art to make a statement about politics and society.  

Emily and Kristina felt especially honored to be able to tour the park because it does not open to visitors for the season until Memorial Day.  They were granted special permission by Ron Porter, who they believe is the son of the sculptor.  “The sculpture park will not be open when you are traveling through South Dakota,” he said via their email inquiry, “but you can stop.  There are a few gates that you will need to open and then you can drive your car directly to the Sculpture Park.  You can then take a self-guided tour.  I think you will really enjoy yourselves.”

We opened the gates and indeed, took a self-tour.  The sculptures were amazing, and well worth the stop.

Emily and Kristina crossed through the rest of South Dakota and then drove south into Iowa.  Bright sunshine, white puffy clouds, tractors, and fertile, dark earth greeted us. 

We arrived at West Bend, IA at the Grotto of the Redemption three hours and two Dairy Queen-for-lunch Blizzards later.  You can read more about the Grot-to (that’s how the locals enunciate with this one) through the links in our sidebar, but essentially, a Catholic Friar made it his life’s purpose to create a beautiful public work out of stone and gems from around the world that represents the idea of redemption.  The whole life of Jesus was represented in a handful of different grottos, all accessible walking through the outdoor complex.  On this sunny day, the grotto was particularly shiny and stunning.  We felt like fish in a sparkly coral reef.

 

Leaving West Bend, we filled up with gas and headed east:  next stop, the Field of Dreams movie site!  We pulled into an unassuming farm in Dyersville, IA and made our way down the long gravel lane.  The white farmhouse, wooden bleachers, and ball field were there ahead of us, exactly like they looked 25 years ago when “Field of Dreams” was filmed.  We could tell the property owners take great pride in their farm, as it was immaculately manicured.

 

 

The biggest disappointment was that there was no corn yet (a fact about which we didn’t think until five minutes before pulling in).  If you build it, they may come in another three months... right?

We talked to the older gentleman mowing the lawn and it turns out he was Don Lansing, the owner.  He was so kind and excited that we were here visiting, from California and Pennsylvania, and invited us to run the bases and hang out on the field as long as we so chose.  He said that his family has owned the farm for 100 years and that he was born and raised on it.  It was his honor to have his farm chosen for the movie, “a great movie,” and he continues to operate this for the public to see because “it feels like the right thing to do.”  In fact, his family makes no money on the attraction and actually has to pay Universal Studios for licensing rights.  Crazy!

Since Emily and Kristina first became friends back in elementary school, playing softball under the coaching of the legend, Dennis Stamm, they were particularly excited to have a catch and hit some balls at Field of Dreams.  And they’ve still got it!

 

Friday evening brought more driving, through the rest of eastern Iowa, across Illinois, and into Chicago (with a drive-by stop at Lou Malnati’s to pick up some deep-dish Chicago pizza to go for dinner.  PS – bad idea, as this type of pizza is virtually impossible to eat without silverware, let alone in the car with our bare hands).

We checked into our hotel and met up for drinks with some of Emily’s work friends whose tour is in Chicago right now.  Late night after a great day… home tomorrow night!