After leaving the Mississippi River to travel across Iowa, we expected to see boring corn fields.  We discovered something unusual in Eastern Iowa.  It was a community of villages that started as a religious community.  It is formally called the Amana Colonies.  They were a religious group called Inspirationalists that started in Germany in 1714.  They are not Amish or Mennonite; they didn’t have anything against modern conveniences.  They believed that the Holy Spirit was able to speak to people and give words of “prophecy”.  (Imagine that!)  After much persecution they left Germany for America.  They started first near Buffalo, New York, then later purchased 26,000 acres of land in Iowa.   They practiced truly communal living, “having all things in common” until 1932.  Now it is a big tourist spot with Bed and Breakfasts, a RV park, and many quaint houses and shops.  But the descendants of these people still live there.

There were more hills in Iowa than I expected with fields as far as we could see.

The farmlands continued into Nebraska, where we found a Danish community.  They brought a windmill all the way from Denmark, as well as a Viking house.  Have you ever seen a Viking house?  Well, here is one: