September 17, 2014: One of my favorite Iowa town slogans is in Taylor County.
At the beginning of 2015, I made a resolution to visit every incorporated place in Iowa. I already had a list and was chipping away at it, and by that time I had about 90 left, less than 10 percent of the 945 in the state but still a decent-sized number.
Now, after two day trips in April, I’m down to 30. To illustrate how much out-of-the-way winding an objective like this requires, in 2013 there were 54 places on my list with a population under 100, and seven remain. (Still kicking myself over not grabbing Nodaway and Carbon in October 2014.)
July 15, 2014: Only about 100 people call Oyens home. Oyens, like Gravity, has city limits juuuust off the state highway that runs beside it.
While I try to get at least one picture in every place, sometimes nothing catches my eye. My goals are different from Cody Weber’s, and that’s fine.
Following my circumnavigation of the state at the beginning of fall covering 34 counties, there’s a pleasant side accomplishment of these trips: Over two years (starting 5/22/14), I visited 97 of 99 counties, with only Carroll and Fayette having earlier visited-dates. This span (really May 2014 to November 2015, with two other days this April) includes my departure from central Iowa, so it could be a while before I again have so many counties in so compact a time period.
September 28, 2015: A train passes across the mouth of the Wisconsin River, as seen from the Pikes Peak State Park overlook (HIGHLY recommended).