tres

hours: 13 (last of the big days!!!!!)
states crossed: 3

I made a major discover today. ready? Iowa is beautiful! really. if you are from there you know that, but poor Iowa get such a bad rap for being the center of the most boring universe. but considering how many 'great' people were born there: Bob Dylan, John Wayne and my very own small town hero, Lance Hellman, how could it not be beautiful? Iowa was lush and pulsing with growth. Its rolling hills dotted with old farm houses and the occasional animal made for a real soul vista.

i am grateful again for another lovely day. and for whatever protecting angels have been watching over me on this grand adventure. grateful also for family. i visited Lance's boyhood home today. 'the farm' as it is know in fables. it was as beautiful, magic, special a place as I had heard Lance and Micheala describe it. My heart ached for all the Hellman history there. stories they have told me came to life in front of me. Micheala baling hay in the fields, riding her pony to town to get ice cream, lance fixing a car in the drive way, riding his horse Scout, sketching a dead bird, playing cowboys and indians in the hundreds of acres of corn Michaela grandmother working in their garden, the hollyhocks, dogs running about, Carle's booming voice coming from inside the house. I could feel and see all these things happening at once as I stood near the farm house and looked out upon the land.