Ho - Ho - Ho - Green Giant

Who would have thought there would be a 50 foot statue of the Jolly Green Giant located in a small town in Minnesota. But there it was, larger than life, and green.

When I found it listed in the road atlas, and it was so close to our actual route, I made a point of taking it in.
The association of the City of Blue Earth, MN had the statue erected in 1979, according to their brochure. Each winter the town folk put a red scarf around the big green guy, marking the change in seasons and preparing the fella for winter.
We were in corn country. Just about every field we drove past was corn, and as we crossed into the great state of Iowa that didn't change a bit. More corn. It was corn and cows, and more corn.
We stuck to the smaller county roads, and continued to enjoy the scenery and the lazy feel of driving through the US Mid-West.
As we drove through the small towns along the county road, we were looking for a grocery store. It was getting on in the day and we wanted to make sure we had provisions for dinner. The gas attendant at Caseys in Osage, IA gave us directions to the Payless Foods in town. She said some of the prices there were good, but other items were a bit expensive. Good to know. The directions got us easily to the store and we went inside. I found the prices to be very good and was wondering what that clerk was talking about. Then I saw the canned goods. It worked out great because we were after some meat and fresh produce, and those prices were in line with what we wanted to pay. I picked up some pork chops and cream cheese and headed back to the RV.
We took a break from driving, and had some down time in the parking lot of the grocery store. It wasn't long when we heard that Monty Python sound of coconuts clapping together. No, wait a minute, that was the sound of a horse on pavement. And that was a buggy that just passed the window.

The buggy stopped, and an Amish man got out and tied the horse to a hitch on the pole in the parking lot. Then a young girl got out and slid the pocket door closed on the buggy. I guess we were in Amish Country.

The town folk didn't seem to find it odd that a horse and buggy pulled up in the parking lot of the food store, and there was a hitching post already set up for the horse. The fields may be all corn and cows, but there is much more going on in the land than initially meets the eye. This is one of the reasons I like to get off the Interstates when I travel. One gets to see a more real image of the regions travelled.