Why do birds fly south for the winter?

Bringing color to the roadside stops.

Why do birds fly south for the winter? We can tell you, having just traveled from Decorah, Iowa to Waco, Texas, that even though the common answer is, “because it’s too far to walk…” the real answer is the weather. It gets cold up north.

Frost appears on the pennies

"Ars longa" or "Art is long" painted plant stand

Donna spent a Saturday painting on the inside of the wagon

In the last post we told you about questions we get asked about being book artists, but there is another line of questioning we get just as often, and most often it starts: “Of all the places you have visited, where would you think of moving?” Ours is a theoretical answer, since Santa Cruz is one of the nicest places in the world to live and we wouldn’t think of leaving, but on this last leg of our trip we did find a few interesting places.

"Live Action Role Playing" in a campground in rural Iowa

Decorah, Iowa, with its Norwegian heritage architecture, its many current off-the-grid residents, a great food co-op, and a community-based art center, could be a great place to live. The rocky ridges and hardwood forests surrounding the town are awful pretty too.

Hand knitted & embroidered gloves, Vesterheim Museum, Deborah, Iowa

Peter giving his talk in Deborah, Iowa

Iowa City, where we went to attend the annual conference of Friends of Dard Hunter hand papermakers organization, could be a great place to live. It’s a just-big-enough little city to support a thriving cultural scene. And beautiful in fall.

Surprisingly, since we have never heard of it before, we found Columbia, Missouri to be a great place to live, especially if you want your income to easily exceed your cost-of-living. Mature hardwood trees line quiet neighborhood streets (where we saw our best autumn color scenes this trip), and houses are a fraction of the cost of California houses.

Color in the Ozarks in southern Missouri

Then there is Bentonville, Arkansas, home to Wal-Mart. One of the Wal-Mart heirs has built an art museum, “Crystal Bridges.” Her foundation is funding the arts in the community and drawing artists to the area. Housing is cheap and wages, surprisingly, I was told by tellers and store employees are more like $10-12 per hour, higher than the federally set $7.25.

Nifty vintage neon trailer and car in Bentonville, Arkansas

If it weren’t for humidity and heat and snow and frost and floods and bugs there would be a lot of great places to live in the midwest. And where is the midwest anyway?

Flooded lakeside in Roy Roberts park near Dallas

We spent last few days in Dallas. We’ve always considered Texas to be the start of the west, with its open ranges, and cattle, and cowgirls. No one would think of Dallas as the midwest, right? But actually it is geographically, east to west, about the center of the country. So that means we still have a lot of miles to go till we are in the west! Go figure.

Sunset at Lake Park, Lewisville, Texas

On every trip we dedicate a little blogspace to showing the interesting vehicles we have found. Now seems an appropriate occasion since we are coming to the end of this current wandering trip:

Vintage truck chicken coop at the best Pumpkin Patch in Missouri

Nice wagon also at the pumpkin patch in Missouri

He says to us, "Hey you got an interesting contraption too!"

The ladybug short bus at a campground in the Ozarks

The Toonerville Trolley in the Toy Museum, Kansas City

Vintage toy wagons at the Toy Museum

Then finally: We had a rare thing occur in the second Texas campground we stayed in. There was an actual tiny home in one of the neighboring slots! Its owner and her dog live full time on the road. She hasn't been out a whole year yet, but as of today, she loves it!

The purple tiny home in Texas

And really finally!

Donna loved this tiny home at the Kansas City Art Institute