First Impressions

Last night on my way to Sioux City I stopped for gas north of Council Bluffs. When I saw a woman in the store with her jeans tucked into her cowboy boots and wearing a plaid shirt, I was reminded that this part of Iowa has more of a western flavor than the rest of the state.

Although there aren't really wind farms nearby that I saw, there are many single wind turbines here and there. A cool trend: painting the town's name on the windmill pylon, rather than on the traditional water tower. Passed a rest stop with three horizontal windmill pylons loaded onto flatbed trucks. An impressive sight: each one is about three times the length of a semi.

There's a great love of searchlights around here. There was a set of car dealership/movie premiere spots rotating out in the country, looking very eerie in the hot, humid night haze. Sioux City itself has a rotating searchlight right on the riverfront, drawing attention to what I think is a riverboat casino. Saw other searchlight beams on the way in, too. Maybe they're worried about Zeppelin raids.

Finally got to the student apartment around midnight and stumbled inside in the dark. It's a charming 1960s walkup with well-preserved fixtures: tiled bathroom, glassed-in sun room (although far too hot to sit in during the summer heat, even at midnight), wall-mounted pink oven still bearing the proud label "Frigidaire: A Product of General Motors Corporation." Fell asleep to the "thwom, thwom, thwom" of central air, which is much appreciated in this weather. Unfortunately we're going to have a full house--looks like we'll be sharing rooms, and there may be five or six of us sharing a bathroom. Unngh... I'm too old to have a roommate. Well, what are ya gonna do?

Heading off to my first clinic in a few minutes. Still trying to figure out my computer access issues. More guerrilla posting later....