Iowa

The three-day tour of Iowa started in Ames. I stopped there to pick up a selection of clam shells from folks in the biology department; this inevitably means a trip to a basement room full of odd bits of preserved animals. In this case, many jars of amphibians and snakes!
Then, a quick wander through central campus:
I then headed south, towards Madison county/covered bridge land. I hadn't realized those bridges aren't actually in use anymore (well, at least the one I saw), so the road has been built bypassing the old covered bridge. I pulled in late to a campsite in the SW corner of the state, and started the whole process again the next morning. Soil and river water sampling got me as far as the northwest corner; I also stopped in Sheldon and visited the DeJong graves there (mom's mom's family). I couldn't find great-grandpa Peterson's grave though. Stayed the night near Spirit Lake where it rained all night and all morning. Stopped in Ruthven, saw a few more graves: and then grabbed the last Iowa samples in the north central region before heading to Minneapolis.