IA Day 7 - Birthplaces, BBQ, and Big Gnomes
My last day in Iowa began with a trip to a charming coffeeshop called Cafe Milo, where I got a good strong iced coffee to start things off right. They had high ceilings, a warm atmosphere, and lots different flavors of coffee and pastries so I imagine its a popular spot for the local college students.
My big stop for the morning was the Reiman Gardens, 17 acres of stunning horticulture curated by Iowa State University. Construction of the current gardens began in 1994, but the University has had horticultural gardens since 1914. A friend of mine said the gardens were a must see while I was in Iowa, and I was not disappointed.
Every year the gardens choose a different loose theme which determines how the various horticultural displays are arranged and curated. While I was there, the theme was “Movement” and, throughout the gardens, the greenery was complemented with various kinetic sculptures by an artist named George Sherwood who carefully arranges stainless steel to create pieces that gently sway and revolve to play with sound, light, and space. Each sculpture was great in its own way and it made for a fun experience getting to see them pop up throughout the gardens. As a little intro, visitors were greeted with this funky number called Every Water as soon as you walked in.
My first stop in the gardens was the Hughs Conservatory Complex, a 5,000 sq. ft. greenhouse that contains hundreds of vibrant tropical and seasonal plants. Walking into this lush mini-oasis from the plains of suburban Iowa, it’s like walking onto an entirely different planet.
Highlights for me included: funky purple leaves, cacti of all shapes and sizes, and weird, lovely tropical flowers.
Decorating a lounge area in the conservatory was a shimmering George Sherwood sculpture called Watercolor, that seemed like it was almost not made of solid materials but some sort of floating liquid.
After the conservatory, I walked outside through some beautiful gardens featuring colorful perennials with eye-catching flowers:
Rising out of a field, there was a monumental minimalist George Sherwood sculpture called Wind Orchid which slowly twisted and turned in the breeze.
Walking to the next gardens I passed under a cute old-fashioned wooden Covered Bridge:
On the other side of the covered bridge, there was a whimsical Children’s garden with playful interactive elements adding to the flora. A highlight for me here was this fountain featuring three fat sculpted frogs spitting out long arcs of water, which is very fantastical at first glance and much grosser the more you think about it.
Next up was Lake Helen, the central water feature of the gardens. The lake is home to over 12 different species of waterlilies which give it some natural pizzazz while a large silver sculpture called Anemone of Gyres spun and glittered over the surroundings.
Next up were a series of different Home Demonstration gardens positioned around a historic house under the University’s care called the Hunziker House. On the front porch, this included simple household plants carefully arranged into really elegant displays.
Around the back of the house was a beautifully shaded secret garden that had a real fairy tale charm.
Past the home decoration gardens, I got to visit one of the gardens’ star players: Elwood the World’s Largest Concrete Gnome. Standing at 15 ft. tall, Elwood beat out the previous world’s tallest gnome, a mini-golf feature in upstate New York named Gnome Chomsky. Both all-American gnomes were technically beat out by an 18-footer in Poland but that big boy was found to be made of fiberglass so Elwood’s title was amended to stress that he is the world’s largest gnome made out of concrete. Everybody needs to feel special, but even if he isn’t the tallest in the world I did really like Elwood and his big round face had a sweetness to it whereas a lot of gnomes tend to look sort of creepy.
After visiting Elwood, I made my way to the Prairie Vista Garden which featured this serene courtyard with hanging flower baskets and rustic stone seats.
After the prairie vistas, it was back to the home demonstration gardens with more vibrant arrangements of stunning flowers.
In one courtyard, the flowers were complemented by this beautifully stylized Art Deco sculpture by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Around the side of the home gardens, there was a gorgeous sunken garden surrounded by weeping white spruce trees that cover the lawn in a peaceful shade. For added elegance, the steps down into the garden were adorned with large stone urns also designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
After the sunken garden, I started circling back to the front entrance and when I passed by Lake Helen this time I noticed two funky sculptures by George Sherwood called Turns which looked to me like little alien antennas among the lilypads.
As I walked through the large open fields to the next themed garden, I was greeted with several large scale sculptures. These included: a glittering swirl of metallic discs of slightly different colors called Memory of Fibonacci; a formation of revolving forms called Flock of Birds; another similar formation meant to look more like rippling waves called Surf; and one giant birdhouse, which wasn’t by George Sherwood but was still a fine piece of sculpture nonetheless.
Next up were the Trial and Display Gardens which featured some pretty dazzling exotic flowers that came in really vivid shapes and colors:
The flowers were accompanied by more George Sherwood sculptures called Sea Lily and Wind Sphere respectively.
Next up was the Rose Garden which featured a pretty nifty trestle for hanging rosebushes and is notable for its collection of Buck roses a variety of landscape rose that was actually developed at the University of Iowa.
At the center of the rose garden was a beautiful reflecting pool which bubbled up and traveled down a long narrow stone pathway. At the other end of the water feature was a sculpture called Colarium which consisted of multi-colored glass encased in a fractured disc of stainless steel.
After the rose garden was the University herb garden which featured raised beds of different herbs and flowers in raised beds with homey wooden fencing around the garden. At the center of the herb garden, there is a bronze sundial that looks more like an abstract sculpture. Personally I wouldn’t be sure how to make heads or tails of its shadow but it does make for a neat centerpiece.
Last but not least were two more George Sherwoods sculptures: a large piece called Wave Cloud which featured a large array of small rotating metal pieces that would gently spin and ripple in the wind, and a piece called Memory of Water made of different circular pieces of metal in a way that seems almost impossible for the thing to stand upright on its own.
After all that hot garden action, I stopped for lunch at a local Iowa fast-food chain my friend Scott from Des Moines said was a must. B-Bop’s is a retro-style drive-tru restaurant known for their excellent burgers and fries making them a comfort food staple. I got a bacon cheeseburger with fries and everything more than lived up to the hype.
After such a hearty lunch of good honest fast food, I stopped to take in some movie history on my way to Missouri: John Wayne’s Birthplace. The Duke was born in Winterset, IA in 1907. He was born Marion Robert Morrison, but he felt the name Marion didn’t exactly gel with the masculine image he was trying give off, and when the director Raoul Walsh suggested the name “John Wayne” on the set of The Big Trail, his first starring role. I’m not a big fan of John Wayne the person, as he was a huge backstabber during the HUAC and an uber-conservative, but I do have to admit that I have a big soft spot for a lot of his movies, particularly The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Shootist (which I feel are more than a bit undersung). He wasn’t exactly the most versatile actor in the world, but he did have a strangely magnetic stage presence when he was given the right role so I do get how became such an icon. He was also 6’4” so he must have very literally been a commanding presence whenever he walked into a room in the 30s.
There is a museum dedicated to John Wayne at the birthplace, but it wasn’t open while I was there so I just had to content myself with this impressive bronze sculpture of the man outside (presumably not of how he looked when he was actually born).
While I loved the sculpture, I was a little frustrated by another piece of art outside the Birthplace museum which featured paintings of John Wayne from roles in which he played members of the different armed services with the quote “My hope and prayer is that everyone know and love our country for what she really is and what she stands for”. This pissed me off because John Wayne never actually served in the military, so his entire concept of military service is bogus and he made millions of dollars pretending to be a soldier while real soldiers either died or struggled to make ends meet once they got home. You can’t have a quote about authentically loving this country surrounded by images of a guy playing dress-up, it’s just goofy. I think this piece speaks to a larger concern I have in that many Americans love the feel-good movie version of America so much they are blinded to how America actually is. This is frustrating for me because, having driven to all these states, there actually IS so much to love about real America. We are a special and incredible and diverse country, but no nation is perfect and I think more than most we’ve sort of drunk the Kool-Aid of our own exceptionalism because we listen to people like John Wayne who have no actual clue what they’re talking about. I think it slips out here and there (usually at Presidential libraries), but I generally try to keep the blog apolitical yet, for whatever reason, art like this, which is probably well-intended despite ringing totally false, really upsets me because I think if we let go of these more mystical, idealized versions of the country and embraced the country we actually have that would be one small step toward actually making the country the place people want it to be..
With that little rant out of the way, after John Wayne’s Birthplace I stopped to take a picture of the Madison County Courthouse in the Winterset town square because I thought it looked particularly striking. Apparently this is also the very same Madison County from the novel and film Bridges of Madison County, but I didn’t know that at the time and so I sadly did not take the time to see their historic covered bridges.
After this last scenic stop, I bid Iowa a fond farewell and set sail for Kansas City, Missouri for the next state in my journey. When I first got there, I was still talking to my cousin, Kevin, on the phone so I just walked around a section of the city called The Power and Light District occasionally stopping to snap pictures of public art I liked. I couldn’t tell you where these things were since I was walking and talking, but in general, I found KC to be a much bigger and prettier city than I think it gets a lot of credit for.
When I said goodbye to Kevin, I stopped by a hip nearby coffeeshop called Kaldi’s Coffee. They had a cozy atmosphere, a great iced coffee, and a cute leaping goat as their logo so I liked it there a lot. Sadly the KC location has since closed, but they have other shops throughout the state.
While the coffee was really good, it was no match for my ongoing tiredness after the drive down and I fell asleep basically as soon as I got back to my car.
After a little nap, I got dinner at the world-famous Arthur Bryant’s BBQ. The restaurant was started in 1908 by Henry Perry, an African-American chef who is considered the father of Kansas City of Barbecue because he helped define the city’s signature smoked meats and barbecue sauces characterized with a little more heat and a little less sweet than other famous BBQ cities. The restaurant’s current namesake Arthur Bryant studied and worked under Perry and took over the restaurant in 1946 after the former chef’s death. He moved the restaurant to its current location, which was closer to the city’s Municipal Stadium (the city’s major league baseball and football stadium until 1976), and this prime location coupled with Arthur’s signature take on Kansas City BBQ sauce launched the restaurant’s popularity into the stratosphere and it became not just a KC mainstay but a common pit stop for celebrity visitors. Arthur ran it until his death in 1986, but the ownership and, more importantly, his sauce recipe was passed down to his children who have kept things running ever since.
I knew I was in for a treat because the restaurant is famously no-frills, and since the Municipal Stadium was demolished the neighborhood is largely lower-income and residential, but Arthur’s place still had a massive line out the door. You know when that many people are willing to stand and wait in front of a building that doesn’t look like much in a part of the city they usually avoid, the food has to be pretty damn special. I was not disappointed. They’re probably most celebrated for their burnt ends (the flavorful end pieces of smoked brisket) but I just had a hankering for ribs so I went with my gut. I got a rib sandwich, which is a teensy bit silly since you can hardly eat it like a regular sandwich with the bones in, but the meat was absolutely spectacular, smokey, tender, and packed with flavor, and the bread was still nice for soaking up all that famous sauce. It was well worth the wait and one of the finest dinners I’ve ever had (even if I forgot to ask for no pickles).
After dinner, I still had a 20 minute drive to my Air BnB and I was still a little tired so I got one more drink at a cool specialty coffee shop called The Roasterie. They specialize in air-roasted beans and creative concoctions. I got something called the North Shore Cold Brew which was a blend of cold brew coffee, almond syrup, coconut syrup, and chocolate milk. It was refreshing and delicious, and it helped give me the energy for the last push to my spot for the night.
My Air BnB was near a cute ice cream shop called Cherry’s Ice Cream Bar, so I stopped in for a nightcap in the form of a delicious classic sundae with walnuts, chocolate chunks, whipped cream, and of course a cherry on top. The little flag was a nice touch.
Favorite Random Sightings: A billboard right after a casino ominously saying “Your best luck is behind you”; a sporting goods store called Cy's Locker Room; a restaurant called Whatcha Smoking BBQ; and an ad for Christian Genetics, which seems like it might be a bit of a scam
Regional Observations: I don’t know how to explain this, but every man I encountered in Kansas City looks like a dad. Lots of facial hair and flannels
Albums Listened To: I had my iPod on shuffle, but I distinctly remember listening to Fun House by Iggy Pop and the Stooges because I was talking to my cousin about what a weird album it is
Random Joke of the Day: A man asked his doctor if he thought he'd live to be a hundred. The doctor asked the man, "Do you smoke or drink?"
"No," he replied, "I've never done either."
"Do you gamble, drive fast cars, and fool around with women?" inquired the doctor.
"No, I've never done any of those things either."
"Well then," said the doctor, "what do you want to live to be a hundred for?"
Iowa Superlatives:
Favorite Restaurant: Toss-up between Zombie Burger and Drink Bar and Fong’s Pizza in Des Moines
Favorite Bar: Millstream Brewing Company Brau Haus in the Amana Colonies
Favorite Coffee: Mars Cafe in Des Moines
Favorite Open Mic: Iowa City Yacht Club in Iowa City
Favorite Beer: MIllstrean Brewing Company Nitro Blonde Stout
Best Ice Cream: Parlor City Ice Cream in Cedar Rapids
Favorite Attraction: The Bily Clocks Museums in Spillville (though all the art museums, and the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library were very high on my list)
Thoughts about the Comedy Scene: Both the Des Moines and Iowa City/Cedar Rapids scenes were incredibly funny and welcoming. I got the impression that these scenes really appreciated both overt silliness and good storytelling, and I felt really at home in the short time I was here.
Song of the Day:
A sweet tribute to Iowa from one of my favorite Iowan artists