29 Iowa [Updated to Full Credit]
I had driven through Iowa before but never slept or ate or done anything touristy. Ok, so we probably ate there because it takes a while to drive through, but the point is that I certainly couldn't give myself full credit.
This year I went on my big Midwestern baseball road trip and I slept in Iowa not once but twice. The first night was after I saw the Royals in Kansas City. I headed north on I-29 after the game and ended up staying in a little town called Percival just north of the Missouri-Iowa border. I even had breakfast there after the first night's stay. That by itself is more than enough to cross it off the list, but there's more! After a full day in Omaha (separate post coming, I'm sure), I headed east. When I finally got tired, I stopped several times before finding a hotel with a vacancy; apparently central Iowa was hopping that night. Eventually I ended up in Iowa Falls.
However, all of this is merely setup for the real reason I can cross off Iowa from the list. Somewhere over the years in a post I can't quickly find my sister suggested that I should go to the Field of Dreams movie site in Dyersville. As it happened, when I set up the trip I intended to go from Omaha to Madison, and Dyersville was right on my direct path, so this was a no-brainer.
Once you leave US-20 it takes only 10 minutes to reach the field. I pulled up on a beautiful Sunday afternoon with a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes just to look at it and a nice breeze. The corn in the outfield was just as tall as it is in the movie (August was clearly the right time to visit). The house from the movie is on a small ridge, and the field lies at the bottom of the ridge. There's no charge to visit the field; you just pull up and park.
Is this heaven?
It's Iowa.
When I got out of the car, there were a few families playing catch on the field. Some older members relaxed on the bleachers, and a few others wandered the outfield. I immediately regretted that I had neither my baseball glove nor somebody to play with. However, I did have a personalized Louisville Slugger I had acquired earlier in the trip when I visited the Louisville Slugger factory. The souvenir stand happily sold me a baseball stamped with "Field of Dreams" for $7.50. I started talking swings. It had been a long time since I swung a bat, and it's not an activity that I was ever very good at in the first place, but my first attempt went almost all the way to the corn. Of course, I was standing at third base to avoid the pile-up of kids at home plate so this isn't actually impressive, but leave that aside. An older gentleman (e.g., older than my father, probably) who had his glove fielded it and tossed it back. I hit a couple of more bouncing liners out to him, and then I talked baseball with him and his group. It was fun.
I originally thought I'd stop in, take a quick look around, and then leave right away. I ended up staying almost 45 minutes. It was wonderful. I realize that it is kind of ridiculous to spend 45 minutes looking at a nice green field with nothing particularly noteworthy about it but the corn in the outfield and the movie tie-in, but there you have it. If I didn't have somewhere to be I might have stayed all afternoon.
Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it.
In order to maintain my usual level of cynicism and detachment after all this schmaltz I'm pleased to link this Onion article with the headline "New Father Remembers Time When Baseball Wasn't So Goddamn Meaningful". Also, I'd like to point out that unlike Ray Kinsella, I played catch with my father (or vice versa) many, many times.
Scoreboard
Full Credit - 40: Delaware ( partial credit post), Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland ( partial credit post), New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Iowa ( partial credit post), Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona ( partial credit post), Alaska, Washington D.C.
Partial Credit - 4: Connecticut, Alabama, Nebraska, Idaho
No Credit - 7: South Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Hawaii
This year I went on my big Midwestern baseball road trip and I slept in Iowa not once but twice. The first night was after I saw the Royals in Kansas City. I headed north on I-29 after the game and ended up staying in a little town called Percival just north of the Missouri-Iowa border. I even had breakfast there after the first night's stay. That by itself is more than enough to cross it off the list, but there's more! After a full day in Omaha (separate post coming, I'm sure), I headed east. When I finally got tired, I stopped several times before finding a hotel with a vacancy; apparently central Iowa was hopping that night. Eventually I ended up in Iowa Falls.
However, all of this is merely setup for the real reason I can cross off Iowa from the list. Somewhere over the years in a post I can't quickly find my sister suggested that I should go to the Field of Dreams movie site in Dyersville. As it happened, when I set up the trip I intended to go from Omaha to Madison, and Dyersville was right on my direct path, so this was a no-brainer.
Once you leave US-20 it takes only 10 minutes to reach the field. I pulled up on a beautiful Sunday afternoon with a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes just to look at it and a nice breeze. The corn in the outfield was just as tall as it is in the movie (August was clearly the right time to visit). The house from the movie is on a small ridge, and the field lies at the bottom of the ridge. There's no charge to visit the field; you just pull up and park.
Is this heaven?
It's Iowa.
When I got out of the car, there were a few families playing catch on the field. Some older members relaxed on the bleachers, and a few others wandered the outfield. I immediately regretted that I had neither my baseball glove nor somebody to play with. However, I did have a personalized Louisville Slugger I had acquired earlier in the trip when I visited the Louisville Slugger factory. The souvenir stand happily sold me a baseball stamped with "Field of Dreams" for $7.50. I started talking swings. It had been a long time since I swung a bat, and it's not an activity that I was ever very good at in the first place, but my first attempt went almost all the way to the corn. Of course, I was standing at third base to avoid the pile-up of kids at home plate so this isn't actually impressive, but leave that aside. An older gentleman (e.g., older than my father, probably) who had his glove fielded it and tossed it back. I hit a couple of more bouncing liners out to him, and then I talked baseball with him and his group. It was fun.
I originally thought I'd stop in, take a quick look around, and then leave right away. I ended up staying almost 45 minutes. It was wonderful. I realize that it is kind of ridiculous to spend 45 minutes looking at a nice green field with nothing particularly noteworthy about it but the corn in the outfield and the movie tie-in, but there you have it. If I didn't have somewhere to be I might have stayed all afternoon.
Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it.
In order to maintain my usual level of cynicism and detachment after all this schmaltz I'm pleased to link this Onion article with the headline "New Father Remembers Time When Baseball Wasn't So Goddamn Meaningful". Also, I'd like to point out that unlike Ray Kinsella, I played catch with my father (or vice versa) many, many times.
Scoreboard
Full Credit - 40: Delaware ( partial credit post), Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland ( partial credit post), New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Iowa ( partial credit post), Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona ( partial credit post), Alaska, Washington D.C.
Partial Credit - 4: Connecticut, Alabama, Nebraska, Idaho
No Credit - 7: South Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Hawaii