Big rivers, towering canyons, Amish people, casinos, spectacular churches, and down-to-earth folks probably best describe our recent trip to the Midwestern heartland.
One of the fun parts of the adventure was driving 3,000 miles in an electric car, a journey I detailed last week in Cowboy State Daily.
Nancy and I both grew up in Iowa, but under far different circumstances.
Our kids know bits and pieces of our backgrounds, so we decided a trip back to the heartland would be a great opportunity to revisit our childhood haunts and introduce two of our daughters to the places where we grew up.
I grew up in northeast Iowa near the mighty Mississippi River. Nancy grew up in southwestern Iowa near the Missouri River, the longest river in North America.
Both rivers were on our bucket list for this trip.
Marquette, Iowa
We rented a wonderful cabin from Water Street Cabins right on the banks of the Mississippi River in the little town of Marquette.
We could sit on the deck and watch enormous barges go by, traveling up and down the big river. There is something mesmerizing about watching those huge vessels move along, carrying their loads through the heart of America.
We also drove north along the Great River Road and visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe near La Crosse, Wisconsin. The fall leaves were beginning to turn, and the scenery was beautiful.
This corner of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin is known as the Driftless Area. Unlike much of the Midwest, it escaped the flattening effects of the glaciers during the last Ice Age.
That helps explain its unusual landscape of rolling hills, deep valleys, old hardwood forests, extensive cave systems and towering bluffs overlooking the river.
Even though I now live in one of the most mountainous parts of Wyoming, I have always maintained that the country where I grew up was more hilly than Lander!
Marquette is also home to a Bally's riverboat casino and sits beneath a massive bridge connecting Iowa with Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.
While we were in that part of Iowa, we also visited the famous Field of Dreams movie site near Dyersville. Love that place and the movie is one of my all-time favorites.
Also there is the gigantic Dyersville Basilica, which is a amazing old church with world-class carvings by those old-time German immigrant artists.
Our daughter Amber, who lives in Dallas, joined us for these visits to our old haunts, including my hometown of Wadena, Iowa. It was fun showing her the places that shaped my early years.
The giant Mississippi River can be a dreary place on a rainy day. (Bill Sniffin) 
Amber Hollins enjoyed hiking across the Missouri River on the Kerry Bridge connecting Omaha with Council Bluffs. (Bill Sniffin)
Council Bluffs, Iowa
Then despite a driving gully washer rain, we drove from the Mississippi to the Missouri across the entire state of Iowa.
While passing through Oelwein, we bumped up against two horse-drawn wagons pulling families of Amish people. My dad always called these folks “hook and eye Dutch,” because they considered buttons too modern.
We spent two nights at Harrah's Casino in Council Bluffs, just across the Missouri River from Omaha, Nebraska. Our oldest daughter, Alicia, joined us for the western Iowa portion of the trip.
One highlight was a pizza dinner at the famous Big Fred's Pizza in Omaha, where we gathered with 15 of Nancy's Nebraska-based relatives.
That pizza might have been the best I have ever tasted. Amazingly good!
The two girls also spent time hiking across the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge over the Missouri River, despite chilly weather and bitter winds. That bridge connects Iowa and Nebraska, offering some great views of the river and the two states.
We then spent three days in Nancy's hometown of Harlan, Iowa. That town holds a special place in our family history. It was where I got my first newspaper job, where Nancy and I met and fell in love, and where we married and started raising our family. Our first two children were born during those early years.
While we were there, Amber was listening to a podcast about a famous exorcism associated with St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Earling, Iowa. Naturally, we had to make a visit.
The church is a solemn place, but the interior is absolutely beautiful. I expected it to be dark and gloomy. Instead, it was bright and welcoming, with magnificent sculpture and an altar unlike any I had ever seen.
In 1928, Earling was the site of a widely discussed exorcism that has since attracted considerable attention. Some accounts have linked the episode to the background of the famous movie The Exorcist, although the precise connection is debated.
Western Iowa is hillier than the central part of the state, although its landscape is nowhere near as dramatic as the country around my hometown in northeast Iowa.
As you approach the Missouri River, however, you encounter the Loess Hills, a remarkable landscape of steep, wind-deposited hills. The area is so unusual that it even has a small ski area.
I could not go to Iowa without enjoying a big Pork Tenderloin sandwich. A unique restaurant called The Buck Snort, served up a big one that Nancy and I shared. Yum.
While in Nebraska, we munched on a Runza, which is a burger enclosed in a bread roll. Also, yummy.
Bill Sniffin hams it up at home plate at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa. (Bill Sniffin) 
The ominous exterior of the church in Earling where a famous exorcism took place in 1928. (Bill Sniffin)
A Long Way Apart
Although Nancy and I are both native Iowans, we grew up about 325 miles apart.
I came from a large Irish Catholic family of 11 children. Nancy came from a large German Catholic family of seven children, with an astonishing 100 first cousins and 20 double first cousins.
Think about that for a minute!
We met in Harlan, fell in love, got married and began our family there. Our lives eventually took us far beyond Iowa, but those roots have always been part of our story.
For years, I liked to say that Iowa was always in my rearview mirror. I had moved on to Wyoming, and I was perfectly happy about that.
But taking this trip with our daughters gave us a fresh look at the places that shaped us. We revisited old memories, introduced our kids to our past and enjoyed the rivers, hills, small towns and friendly people that make the heartland special.
Wyoming will always be home to me. But after this trip, I have to admit something I might not have said quite so enthusiastically a few years ago.
Iowa really is a pretty nice place, after all!
Bill Sniffin can be reached at: Bill@CowboyStateDaily.com
