I’ve lived in Iowa for more than a decade as I write this post. It’s a long ways from family and the friends I have back East, and I feel that detachment very keenly sometimes.
Yet, my time here has not been lost time. I’ve met people who have enhanced my life, both personally and professionally. And I’ve had the opportunity to see the country of my birth in a way that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. I’ve become a “collector of national parks,” having so far visited Badlands, Grand Canyon, Great Smoky, Mount Rainier, Olympic, Redwood, Rocky Mountain, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Zion, and other sites managed by the National Park Service, such as Mount Rushmore National Memorial, North Cascades Scenic Highway, Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Big Cypress National Preserve and Effigy Mounds National Monument.