I ventured out of my niche here in SE Iowa to partake in the second annual Okoboji Writers’ Retreat on the opposite corner of the state. This area contains glacier carved lakes and the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, the location of the conference.

I went with my sister, a journalist. We are both freelancers now as we embarked on the four hour drive across mostly rural Iowa.

The retreat was both fun and inspirational. I got ideas about new projects and for better or worse, encouragement to keep using social media. I learned how to make my sex scenes more sensual and met great people, including the owner of this farm and BNB.

Here’s more about the retreat.

And more.

Fortunately, the camera didn’t capture me in the links above, maybe because I was sneaking off to buy beer.

After getting much information and meeting people who enriched my life, we headed back to Pella and made a few stops along the way.

How often do you have a chance to see the world’s largest popcorn ball in Sac City, Iowa?

It’s right along highway 20 and you can glimpse it from the road. We stopped and parked behind it. The signage was confusing but it looked as if we were in a little park.

The popcorn ball was made all in one day–June 18, 2016. It weighs 9,370 pounds. This includes 2300 lbs of popcorn. It’s 12 feet in diameter.

We continued on our journey, stopping for mums.

And watermelon.

Not willing to let the experience go, I made popcorn balls. It was messy and required vinyl gloves.

In case you were wondering, besides popcorn, a popcorn ball is made from confectioners sugar, corn syrup, marshmallows (optional), butter or margarine, and a small bit of water. I used around 2-3 cups of unpopped corn, weighing maybe half a pound (I’m rounding up to avoid having to use scientific notation or decimals). Think about it before you attempt to outdo Sac City.