Is This Heaven?

It's Iowa.

One of my all-time favorite movies is Field of Dreams, the story of a hippie-turned-farmer (Kevin Costner) who plows up his corn field in Iowa to build a baseball field, because a mysterious voice told him to do so. Afterward, his neighbors think he's crazy, he almost loses the farm because he plowed through his most profitable crop to construct the baseball field, and then ghosts of former baseball greats begin showing up to play ball. Nicki doesn't quite understand my love for the film, but I think it's probably more suited for guys... not to sound sexist... but it's about a man's attempt to come to terms with a failed relationship he had with his now deceased father. You know, typical guy stuff.

Anyway, back to the point. After all of the wonderfully American family-oriented things we have been doing on this journey back east, I requested that we stop by Dyersville, Iowa, so that I could get a glimpse of the film's location. Nicki wasn't thrilled, but she was agreeable to the slight change of course. After waking up in Sioux Falls, SD, we made fairly good time across I-90 through southern Minnesota, then dipped down I-35 South into Iowa. We exited the main highway and took the state highways towards Dyersville, arriving around 5:30PM. We were lucky, as once we arrived we saw that the attraction closes at 6:00PM.

I ran around like a mad man, trying to take as many photos as I could before closing time and before the sun completely set over the field. Nicki obliged in taking a few photos of me and the boys. All in all, it was a fun 30 minutes. The only bummer... all the corn in the cornfield was cut within hours of our arrival. The photos would have been a little better with corn in the field, but I was still overjoyed to see the site.





Sam absolutely loved climbing the bleacher along the first base line of the field. Couldn't help but remind me of the movie scene where the daughter of Kevin Costner's character fell off the back of that very same bleacher and choked on a piece of hot dog. Fortunately, Nicki was there to catch Sam on his way off the back, and spared him from a similar fall.

As for the shot of me, Joshua gets credit for the photographic work. He's a budding photographer and he offered to shoot that one of me holding the very limp remains of a corn stalk, one of the few long stalks remaining. Good for Josh - I'm completely in focus!

And as for the off-the-beaten-track detour we took through most of Iowa today... Did I mention that Nicki is awesome? She is.