Personal Challenge 2018 - Week 29

This is the 29th week of my personal 50-week States of the Union Challenge. Each week I research one of the 50 United States (in the order they attained statehood). I share tidbits of information about the state here on my blog and I create a card that is inspired by something about that state.

This week's state (the 29th one to attain statehood) is...

Iowa

Date of Statehood: December 28, 1846

Here are some things I discord about Iowa...

The state is comprised of 92 percent farmland.

At 2.4 billion bushels, Iowa produces the most corn of any state, and even more corn than some countries.

There are more hogs than humans in Iowa. As of 2013, the state’s hog population was 21.2 million animals, whereas the human population was just north of three million.

There are around 67 million chickens living in Iowa. That means there are more chickens living in Iowa than there are people living in California and Texas combined - and those are the two most populous states in the country. And to bring that into perspective, those hens produce close to 15 billion eggs a year. 

More than25 percent of the state’s electricity comes from wind power. That’s the result of more than 3200 wind turbines, the highest concentration in the country. The state hopes to up that to 40 percent by 2020.

Iowa has more golf courses per capita than any other state in the U.S.

Otto Frederick Rohwedder was apparently fed up with trying to cram hand-sliced pieces of bread into a toaster, so in 1912, he invented a device that would cut bread into consistently-sized slices. Unfortunately, Rohwedder's fantastic invention was destroyed in a fire before it could be unleashed on the world. It took him some time to refine and rebuild, so sliced bread wasn't commercially available until 1928.

Though the 1995 movie was based on a book of fiction by Robert James Waller, the setting for The Bridges of Madison County is real. There were originally 19 covered bridges from the 1800s in the county, but only six remain today. The one pictured is the Holliwell Bridge that was prominently featured in the movie.

Iowa is home to the National Hobo Convention which takes place every year in Britt, Iowa.

The Iowa 80 in Walcott is the world's largest truck stop.

Quaker Oats, in Cedar Rapids, is the largest cereal company in the world.

The land-locked state is home to an island city, Sabula (pop. 576), which is just one mile long and a quarter of a mile wide. It wasn’t actually an island until 1939, when the construction of a lock and dam system flooded the lowlands west of the town.

Clear Lake, Iowa, is where "the music died." Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson all died when their plane crashed into a field there in 1959. Waylon Jennings, who was part of Holly's band at the time, was supposed to be on the flight, but gave his seat to an ailing Richardson. Jennings took a bus instead, and Holly jokingly told him he hoped he would freeze on the bus. "I hope your ol' plane crashes," Jennings joked back—and it haunted him ever since.

Actor Rob Lowe was playing in a PGA Pro-Am celebrity golf tournament in West Des Moines when a golf ball he had just hit struck and killed a goldfinch in mid-flight. Actuaries actually calculated the odds of him going to Iowa and killing the state bird with a golf ball: 1 in 747 million.

RAGBRAI, which takes place in Iowa, is the largest bike touring event in the world. Since 1973, the Des Moines Register has sponsored the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. The week-long event takes cyclists from the Missouri River on the west side of Iowa to the Mississippi River on the east border. Routes change every year—since its inception, routes have covered 780 Iowa towns in all 99 counties. Though there was a time when more than 23,000 people participated in certain legs of the ride, it’s now limited to 8,500 for the whole week-long ride. 

Here are some Iowa laws worth noting...

One-armed piano players must perform for free.

A man with a moustache may never kiss a woman in public.

Kisses may not last more than five minutes.

Within the Ottumwa city limits, a man may not wink at any woman he does not know.

Ministers must obtain a permit to carry their liquor across state lines.

Any hotel in the Dubuque city limits must have a water bucket and a hitching post in front of the building.

Horses are forbidden to eat fire hydrants in Marshalltown.

One must obtain written permission from the City Council before throwing bricks onto a Mount Vernon highway.

I've decided to go with this bit of Iowa information for my card's inspiration... Campers and motor homes are manufactured in Winnebago County. They're called Winnebago's.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!
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Supplies Used

Stamp Set: Stampendous Campground stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and colored with Copic Markers

Papers: Recollections Black and White and Fun Stampers Journey Summer Days CS, AMuse Studio Polkadot DP and DP from the Paper Studio Pink Lemonade Paper Pad

Die: Papertrey Ink On the Road

Embellishments: Rhinestones from unknown vendors