Okay, here’s what 330 miles, 3 CDs, a tank of gas, 10 homebaked cookies, and 4.5 hours driving taught me about Iowa:

• There’s some truck driving around with the license plate “BUDDY” that has tail lites that make it look like he’s driving in reverse. I chalk this one up to poor design by Toyota (or whatever company made the car, it was dark and I was going fast).
• Weigh stations for trucks in Iowa state that you have to stop if your truck is over 6000 pounds. In Illinois, you have to stop if your truck is over 8 tons. Now, I don’t know what the conversion is (and I don’t want to find it on dialup right now), but those darn truckers sure have know know how much their truck weighs.
• 3 guys dressed in black hooded sweatshirts standing on a weigh station roof are definately not weighing themselves, or a truck for that matter. My guess is they we’re drinking beer and got stuck up there, or they’re fixing some problem with the roof…you decide.
• The gas station “Kum & Go” is just a bad name (this actually got me to call my girlfriend to share and get a chuckle)
• Driving at 80 MPh 300 some odd miles is boring, but the slight hills and lots of turns make it fun in Iowa. Illinois is flat…I mean, really flat. Ask Kent, he came for a visit, and that was one of the things he mentioned.
• There are a lot of Dodge Neons out there that like to drive 65 MPh in the left lane. Staring at them when you pass them on the right only enrages them to go slower (which is odd since I’m not following them anymore!)
• Cars that like to follow you on your tail going 80 MPh that look like they want to pass you, will only slow down to 65 MPh once you move to the right lane so they can get by. Seriously, this confused me on multiple occasions.
• The Iowa car dealer plates are way cooler than Illinois’ tan pieces of crap that just have “DL” written down the left side.
• Plastering Christmas lights all over your 3 sheds, house, trees and bushes on your farm makes you just an awesome person that my girlfriend would like to meet. Seriously, this one farm looks like it took 2 full days to get Christmas lights all over.

Seriously, all the above statements came from my trip over. It kept me amused, but I mean, come on Iowans (is this the actual term for Iowa people?), use some common sense!

As an aside: You probably realized that I’m now at the Holiday Inn. This place is pretty fricking cool, but my room smells like that “New Rubber Smell” that we all so love. Our Microsoft sponsored get together is starting at 8 PM, and its now 7 PM, so I think I’m going to head down to Damons to grab some chow. If you’re in the building reading this (and didn’t pay the $9.95 fee for high-speed internet until 12 AM Friday morning) come down and eat with me. I’ll be dressed in a gray t-shirt and will probably have a beer in my hand.