Category Archives: Iowa Miscellaneous

For Christmas, here’s what I wrote after Thanksgiving about the Canadian Pacific Kansas City’s Holiday Train stop in Bellevue. Jackson County is the 14th county in Iowa I’ve written a Substack story from.

Erin Kiernan is voluntarily leaving WHO in Des Moines to spend more time with her family — and that’s in the most positive way possible. The TV staff surprised her with a seven-minute farewell segment. Today is her last broadcast. … Continue reading →

John Fitzsimmons of Boone, a longtime member of the Lincoln Highway Association, died Saturday. He had a blog he occasionally posted to from 2016 to 2021. He billed himself as a “vagabond road artist”.  I last saw him at the … Continue reading →

This story was entirely dumb luck (stopping at a Marion Kum & Go that was in the process of becoming not-a-Kum-&-Go) followed by the usual “This data set has to exist somewhere. It doesn’t? Guess I have to find out myself.” … Continue reading →

OK, eating pie is better than reading about pie, but I can only do so much. Here’s a look at one of the pie contests at the Iowa State Fair.

Here’s my Substack story from when RAGBRAI passed through Aplington and Parkersburg. It’s only been a month since it happened, and if you haven’t read it, it’s new to you!

What if you could get the car associated with your childhood memories back? And it was in approximate driving condition? Well, when I went to Conrad’s Black Dirt Days in June, I found someone who did just that.

Two related, but discrete, items from the past week show us the significance of the loss of the Greatest Generation. First, from Pew Research: Reflecting on the United States’ actions, 35% of Americans today say using the atomic bomb on … Continue reading →

The Great Eastern Iowa Tractorcade switched sponsors from WMT to KXEL this year, partially because one of the main coordinators switched jobs. The 26th edition of this ride was in June, and for 2025 they started in Mount Pleasant and … Continue reading →

As of the 4 PM newscast on Wednesday, KCRG has wholly (or 95%?) adopted the graphics package used by all the other Gray Media TV stations. Two words: CALLED IT. It’s also dropped having a ticker at the bottom in … Continue reading →