Iowa

Now we head for Colorado, which is one of the states we will consider for a landing site.  It's beautiful, and while its winters are certainly cold, they aren't oppressive, because the skies are usually clear, resulting in mostly sunny days all year long.  We're hoping to time it so that we are able to observe the Colorado fall colors, which should be very pretty (if not quite on the same exalted level as the trees of New England).

The route to Colorado will take us across a couple of states which at first glance hold limited interest - Iowa and Nebraska.  But life is funny, and we're hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

Our first stop in Iowa was Dubuque, just across the state line from Wisconsin.   Not much to distinguish it from a hundred other similar towns, I'm afraid, and our RV park wasn't well kept up.  Dubuque did have a Buffalo Wild Wings sports bar, and I watched the 49ers beat the Detroit Lions somehow, in spite of stinking up the joint.

The high point of our visit was getting Nancy's new Fitbit smartwatch working by taking it to the support desk at Best Buy.

Iowa consists mostly of cornfields stretching monotonously from horizon to horizon. The drive from Dubuque to our next campground in Des Moines was an easy one, but there was high drama as our fuel supply got lower and lower as we drove for what seemed like fifty miles without a gas station in sight.  Finally one appeared, just in time.

Des Moines is the capital of Iowa.  The one attraction we found worth our time was the state capitol building.  Nancy and I do like to visit state capitols.  It's a quirk of ours.

The exterior of Iowa's statehouse, completed in 1886, with its five domes, including a gold-plated center one, is impressive, but not really to our taste.

But its interior is remarkably beautiful.

The law library is one of the most gorgeous rooms I've ever seen.  There are five levels - four balconies - of law books, accessed by a quartet of circular staircases.

The Senate and House of Representatives were not in session, and the building was not humming with activity.  Nancy opened the door to the offices of governor and lieutenant governor and asked a gentleman at his desk if we could take a couple of photos.  He turned out to be legal counsel to the governor.  I think he was bored or lonely because he spent quite a while showing us around and filling us in on some good Iowan history.  One interesting item was that the current ambassador to China is Terry Branstad, a former governor of Iowa, who has been on friendly terms with the President of China, Xi Jinping, since Xi visited him in Iowa some years back.  Iowa sells enormous quantities of soybeans and corn to China and has been somewhat hurt by the current tariffs that are in place.  He also told us that the legislature meets for just 100 days a year, and the senators and representatives receive only $25,000 in salary annually.

Here is that legal counsel, in the governor's reception room.  The photo originally included Nancy, but she insisted that I crop her out because she was having a bad hair day.