IOWA The Surprising State

Iowa is the part of America most travelers cross at seventy miles an hour. This book argues for slowing down.

Driving America Volume 1: Iowa — The Surprising State is the most thorough independent guidebook to Iowa published this decade. It treats the state not as the median strip of Interstate 80, but as what it actually is: a place of dramatic geological singularity (the Loess Hills, the Driftless Area), serious literary and immigrant culture (Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Decorah), the last surviving Frank Lloyd Wright hotel in the world (Mason City), one of three Mississippi River bluff cities, a Catholic basilica in a town of 4,000, the largest state fair in the United States, and the only place in Iowa where the gold dome of an 1886 capitol is matched by a $4.3 million Grotto built of precious stones by a single priest over forty years.

What's inside

16 destination chapters covering every region of the state: Des Moines, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Davenport, Sioux City, Council Bluffs, Mason City, Decorah, Dyersville, the Amana Colonies, Pella, the Iowa Great Lakes, Le Mars, West Bend, Winterset.

6 special chapters on themes that cut across the state: the agricultural heartland (Iowa produces a fifth of America's corn); the Iowa State Fair, August 13–23, 2026 (themed to America's 250th anniversary); Iowa food culture (the pork tenderloin, the loose-meat sandwich, Pella bologna, Maytag blue cheese); RAGBRAI, July 18–25, 2026 (391 miles from the Missouri to the Mississippi); Iowa's surprising inventions (sliced bread, the trampoline, the electronic digital computer, the gasoline-powered tractor); and the Driftless Area & Loess Hills (Iowa's two most singular landscapes).

8 planning tools: a 10-day Iowa road trip itinerary, weekend getaways from Chicago/Minneapolis/Kansas City/Omaha/St. Louis, budget guidance by travel style, practical info (weather, ADA, family travel, dietary considerations, LGBTQ+ travel, senior travel), the complete 2026 events calendar,