The last 2 nights we've been in Decorah, IA. Honestly, I never considered that Iowa might hold one of my favorite places, but Decorah is making a good case for inclusion. It turns out that NorthEast Iowa is more rolling hills than flat cornfields. That, along with their terrible roads, makes for tough biking. But Decorah is a gem here. It's a little college town of about 8000, nestled in hilly forest bluffs along a river. Our campsite is right on a noisy, rushing stream, and we've been welcomed with generous, open arms since we got here.

There's a great local co-op, a terrific downtown strip, and lots of community character, which is predominantly Norwegian. Yesterday we were given tours of two great off the grid houses in the nearby countryside, and met a few people who really impressed me more than I can quickly describe (since we need to tear down camp to go interview one of them). The lives of Liz and Daniel, David and Perry-O are really inspiring to me. They've all established themselves here in this off the grid way, and it is amazing to see working so well after I've read about homes like theirs so much.


But there's another component that I find just as important, and it is a younger generation of people who seem dedicated and bright as well. Ian and Andrea are moving into the homestead of David and Perry-O, and they have great ideas about getting things off the ground themselves. Liz and Daniel's daughters exhibit much of their parent's idealism, and I feel sure that they will both be tremendously successful women with the confidence and love their parents have blessed them with.

Finally, John Snyder and his dog Jim. We met John and Jim along the river Saturday evening and told him about our trip. He orchestrated us meeting Liz and Daniel, and really got the ball rolling on all of this. He also drove us around yesterday as we met all of these fine folks, and really showed us a great time. We were lucky to meet you, John, and we wish you and Jim all the best.


Signing off for now, but I hope I can write more later.

PS I didn't forget about Brad, but I want to talk about the extracycle in another post. :)