Oddball Iowa: A Guide to Some Really Strange Places [Paperback]

This zany travel guide presents a more peculiar state than the Iowa Tourism Office might like out-of-towners to imagine. Leaving out the traditional scenic trips to the Mississippi River bluffs and the Amana Colonies, this guide will take the adventurous traveler to the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk, the home of the Lonely Goat Herder marionettes fromThe Sound of Music, and the world's largest Cheeto. To enhance the experience of this unusual side of Iowa, the guide includes facts about numerous events in Iowa's history, such as Ozzy Osbourne's infamous bat-biting incident and Jesse James's first moving-train robbery. Iowa is depicted as the birthplace of the Roto-Rooter, the Delicious apple, the electronic computer, the reinforced concrete bridge, and the Eskimo pie. The accompanying photographs and maps will direct travelers to other fun vacation spots and attractions, including the butter sculptures at the Iowa State Fair, the annual National Skillet Throw, the Hobo Convention and Museum, the Ice Cream Capital of the World, and the National Balloon Museum.

Pohlen...wrote them up with humorous glee and gentle jabs not common in travel guidebooks. —Des Moines Register

Who knew...there were so many odd and unusual places in the Hawkeye State?   —Chicago Tribune

In addition to off-beat locales worth a visit, the guidebook offers some fun, sometime-obscure facts.   —The Hawk Eye

The state is more than corn, pigs and Amana Colonies...he unearths places worth exploring.   —Chicago Sun-Times

Jerome Pohlen uncovers some really strange stuff from around the state, even right under our mid-Iowa noses.  —Ames Tribune

Full of fun-to-visit sites and fun-to-know things.   —The Daily Nonpareil