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MUMBLINGS November 9, 2006
"I don't give a d---- for the whole state of I-O-W-A-Y,
the whole state of IOWA…"
While I was a student at the University of Missouri, this
was one of the cheers we used when playing football with Iowa State University.
It must have made them mad because they always beat us.
Flying is no fun any more. Leaving Mobile, we had to fly
to Dallas, Texas and wait four or five hours to catch a plane to Cedar Rapids,
Iowa. Getting on board and going through inspection is not a very pleasant
procedure. You have to take off your shoes, they will not let you take anything
that is liquid on board unless you check it, and then you can't have anything
liquid over three ounces. Even though they knew me and called me by name, I
still had to go through every procedure which included inspection of my
luggage, thorough inspection of my body, take off my belt, etc. Finally getting
clearance, we boarded the little 50 passenger American Eagle which is fairly
uncomfortable, but not too bad for an hour or so. The flight to Dallas took
about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Out of all the terminals that I have been through,
Dallas is one of the worst. After landing, we had to go at least a mile to
catch the other plane. Then to Cedar Rapids was about another 11/2 hour
trip.
Once you get off the beaten path like going from Mobile to
New York, or Atlanta to Chicago any of the long flights that they use big
planes, they sock it to you. For example, a round trip flight on this trip was
almost $800.00. You can probably fly from New York to London for about the same
price , if you book in advance.
Any way the visit to Iowa was quite pleasant. We saw
thousands and thousands of acres of corn. It looked as though about one third
had been harvested and the rest would be later of course, possibly after it
started snowing. The farmers are very happy because the corn is bringing about
$3.00 a bushel, compared to $.75 or even lower in previous years.
Iowa is the #1 producer of corn in the United States.
There are several plants in the state to use most of the corn to make ethanol
out of it.
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Continued
They are estimating that the corn will go up even higher.
If all the corn in Iowa is used to make ethanol it will only last the hungry
motor vehicles in the U.S about one day. It is so expensive, and petroleum is
cheaper and more efficient. So corn is not the answer to gasoline problems.
Iowa has almost three million people and in size, 56,000
square miles, is larger than Alabama's 52,000 square miles. Iowa is # 25 in
size in the U.S and Alabama is # 27. However, Alabama has over a million more
in population. Des Moines is the capital of the state, with a population of
about 200,000. In addition to corn, Iowa is # 1 in production of pork and eggs,
and second in soybeans and beef.
Most of the land is rolling and there are no mountains.
They claim to grow timber, but we did not see any that looked big enough to
harvest. You can safely say that Iowa is strictly an agriculture state, even
though they do have some manufacturing. Tourism is not of great importance,
even though thousands of people go there to see the Herbert Hoover Museum and a
few other sites.
The states surrounding Iowa are Missouri to the south,
Illinois to the Southeast, Wisconsin to the Northeast, Minnesota to the North,
South Dakota to the Northwest, and Nebraska to the Southwest.
You may not believe it, but the reason we went to this
great state was to visit President Herbert Hoover's Library, about which I am
anxious to tell you.
See you again soon, I hope.
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