Iowa in the news

Hi all. Not sure if anyone watches the comments from the posts, but we have picked up a small following of people around Des Moines which is really exciting. It is great to know that people are interested in life in New Zealand and we enjoy sharing the stories. We would love to hear from anyone with questions or comments.

Iowa News- Iowa (except pronounced with a funny kiwi accent) has made the local news a couple times in the last few weeks. The first instance I heard was the Iowa Corn 500 at Newton. The radio sports includes pretty in depth coverage anytime NZ is represented in events. There is a NZ driver that was in the Newton race. The second was the butter Michael Jackson at the State Fair. The radio dj's had a great time laughing about a butter Michael--- they obviously don't know about the butter cow following.....

Michael Jackson- I am sitting at work Friday morning a couple weeks ago on the day that Michael died. One of the girls is listening to the radio and she turns around and says that Jackson died. I check CNN and they show 'breaking news, check back in a minute'. I check back a couple minutes later to CNN, no update yet. Check again about 5 minutes later, they confirm Michael has died. What I find interesting is that we are sitting half a world away from LA, and know about the death before it is even posted on CNN!

4th of July- Celebrations were pretty light for the 4th of July here. There were a few of the bigger bars downtown having 'American Night'. One had Budweiser, cotton candy and snow cones. John said "Bud isn't good in the US, it has to be awful shipped over the ocean for 3 months". We went out with the couple from Minnesota that we know to a bar where the American Club was holding an event. We sang a few American songs and the guys drank Kiwi beer. There are a ton of different local brands of beer down here. Seems like each region has a local brewery. The French Bastille Day in July 14th and I think Bastille Day is getting more coverage then the 4th.

Ragbrai- Ragbrai is coming up next week. Richard from PedalTours in New Zealand is sending brochures up to Merita, John's sister, to have at her Tour de Farms stand. I believe brochures are being sent to Matt and Dorenda as well. Any of the BOW WOW HOT group riding Ragbrai would really be helping Richard, and NZ, out if you grabbed a few brochures and recruited a few riders to NZ for a tour.