Wednesday, June 24, 2009

True Adventure: Best State Welcome Ever

One beautiful fall day a bunch of us, including Rich and A-Fooze and Cecil Markovitch, went to a state park to check out the beautiful foliage. This state park is on the bluffs above the Mississippi River, and on the other side of the river, in Iowa, is a state park called Pike's Peak. (Apparently it is named after the same Pike as the far more famous mountain in Colorado.) We decided to voyage over there and check out the autumn foliage from the other side, which was equally beautiful. Pike's Peak towers above a tiny town called McGregor, and on a kiosk on top of the peak was a poster stating that McGregor had been "Capital for a Day" when the governor had spent a day there.

"Hey, guys," I said, "check it out! The governor came to McGregor!"

From around the side of the kiosk an unfamiliar voice said incredulously, "Really? The governor came to McGregor?" and then a man stepped out from behind the kiosk and said, "Hi! I'm Chet Culver, the governor of Iowa!"

A quick glance at the poster was enough for me to confirm that he was not lying. He warmly welcomed us to Iowa and hoped that we enjoyed our visit there. In fact, our visit of maybe an hour was perfectly wonderful. How many states, I ask you, have a governor who welcomes you the moment you cross the border?

Famous Hat

1 comment:

Olivia said...

There is an Iowa joke here somewhere :-)