Hugh Calloway

In one Iowa diner, a slice of pie goes straight into the blender with soft-serve and comes out…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 17

Some Iowa Halloween attractions do not really get interesting until the sun disappears. That is when thousands of…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 17

One haunted house on this list raises money for 4-H, and it sits inside an old abandoned county…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 16

Nothing is impossible. That is the slogan of one taco counter on this list, and I honestly can’t…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 16

October road trips in Iowa get better the moment dessert becomes part of the route. A country road…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 15

Some October drives in Iowa make it surprisingly hard to keep moving. You round a bend, spot a…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 15

Fall lunch cravings hit differently in Iowa. The minute the weather cools down, I start looking for places…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 14

Some Davenport restaurants are the kind of places people grow up with. You go as a kid, come…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 14

Eating Sunday lunch inside an 1878 grist mill was enough to get my attention. Then I learned the…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 13

A pizza score can get my attention, but a place still has to earn the drive. Centro did…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 13

A town can keep the same courthouse, Main Street, and familiar faces while quietly becoming a very different…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 12

Some Iowa towns make me want to park the car before I have even figured out what I…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 12

Iowa back roads get dangerously distracting in October. I have missed more than one turn because a hillside…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 11

I used to think the stretch of I-80 between Des Moines and Iowa City was mostly something to…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 11

People really do drive into Marshalltown just for this little burger spot. That claim sounded slightly ridiculous to…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 10

There is something about an Iowa diner on a cold fall morning that makes me want to stay…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 10

Some of Iowa’s best BBQ spots are surprisingly easy to miss. I have driven past places that barely…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 9

I know I am in trouble when a plain roadside sign in rural Iowa says “bulk foods” and…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 9

A full parking lot on a random Tuesday night usually tells me more than a billboard ever could.…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 8

The first cool Saturday in October is usually when my Iowa map starts collecting circles. A park I…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 8

The Iowa breakfast stops I remember most are usually the ones I nearly drove past on an October…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 7

By October, some Iowa trails barely look like the same places I passed earlier in the year. Leaves…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 7

The car is packed, the cooler is wedged in the back, and somehow nobody remembered to book a…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 6

A great thrift trip rarely goes according to plan. I might walk in looking for one thing and…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 6

Somewhere between a scenic overlook and the next small Iowa town, I usually start thinking about where I…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 5

You know a road trip is going well when the next stop is being decided by cheese. That…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 5

You know a pumpkin patch feels different when the family running it has been working the same Iowa…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 4

I walked in expecting a quick grocery run and started changing my lunch plans before I even reached…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 4

By October, an Iowa back road can make a warm diner booth look better than almost anything else.…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 3

Cold air, crunchy leaves, and a stack of pancakes waiting somewhere down the road can get me out…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 3

Eastern Iowa can make breakfast feel like a destination. A quiet highway, a river town, and one promising…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 2

A cold Iowa morning feels a lot easier to deal with when there is a fresh donut waiting…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 2

By the third Iowa diner, I had stopped judging breakfast by the size of the plate alone. I…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 1

I have learned not to judge an Iowa restaurant by the size of the town around it. Some…

By Hugh Calloway · Oct 1

I knew my October calendar was in trouble the moment I started comparing festival weekends. One date had…

By Hugh Calloway · Sep 30

Cold fall mornings are a lot easier to appreciate when there is a cinnamon roll waiting somewhere down…

By Hugh Calloway · Sep 30

The familiar Nintendo beeps reached me before I had even finished looking around. A few steps later, I…

By Hugh Calloway · Sep 29

I knew this little Iowa pizzeria had a loyal following, but I was not expecting so many people…

By Hugh Calloway · Sep 29

I thought I was ordering a pancake. Then the plate showed up, and suddenly that description felt a…

By Hugh Calloway · Sep 28