Day 3 Trailing away... Granger, IN to Newton, IA 387 miles

Miles and miles and miles of corn again. It seems like Interstate 80 is flanked by nothing but corn fields (and gas stations and fast food, but mostly corn fields). We started out this morning with a reservation to stay at a winery in Iowa through a company called Harvest Host. It is a great business idea. Harvest Host finds wineries, breweries, golf courses and places similar who have parking lots that sit empty at night but are in beautiful settings. If you join for a small fee, you can stay at these places for free; all they ask is that you purchase one of their products. Okay, twist my arm to buy a bottle of wine. You have to boondock if you stay with Harvest Host. A reminder...boondocking is when you are fully self sufficient. No water, no electricity, no plumbing hook-ups. We can go two days boondocking because we have everything we need. The only thing we can't use without a hook-up is the air conditioner and the microwave. I think this used to be called "camping". As we left 80 and turned down the charming country road to the winery I decided to check my weather app. Modern life has simultaneously ruined and bettered everything. 88 degrees with 76% humidity; feels like 96. Cooler after dark but not much. What California wimps we have turned out to be!

I found a KOA close to Des Moines with full hook-ups a mere 50 minutes away. But since we were already at the winery and we felt bad because we reserved one of their two RV spots, we went in to explain. A tasting later and some very nice conversation with the people working there, we purchased some bottles to share Iowa with our friends. It was a beautiful setting, not unlike Napa county. We saw a goldfinch which neither of us have ever seen and that was quite a treat. Also we learned that wine is totally dependent on the weather (you all probably knew this) and so Iowa wine is very different from California wine. Won't you join us for a glass to taste the difference? We are now settled at our KOA with the air conditioner on full blast. We will sleep well tonight. We traded freeway noise for a beautiful setting just to stay cool.

On a completely different note...do you wonder what we do for hours in the car other than watch cornfields go by? For the last two days we have been listening to Mary Trump's tell-all memoir of why Donald Trump is the way he is. It was fascinating, albeit discouraging. She is a psychologist and she told a horrifying story of Donald Trump's young life and his very dysfunctional family. I was rapt since attachment theory is my main area of focus as a therapist and clearly he has an attachment disorder. That is what makes him the narcissistic, borderline sociopath that he is. Spoiler alert: he is not fit to be president. We finished the book today and are looking for a new book to tell us what we already know.

Finally one other thing we do as we drive ~ marvel at the fact that Iowa uses so much wind power. There are endless windmills. They are certainly doing their part to be green. I know I sound like I am a little bit in love with Iowa and indeed that is true.