Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I have always wanted to explore the Midwest (that´s the part where everybody I tell this to gives me a funny look). It reminds me of where I come from, little pockets of awesome tucked into a city of mostly blah, surrounded by a whole lot of nothing. And so it happens that I will find myself in Texas come July, and will need to bumble my way back up to Canada somehow. I figures that it is the perfect opportunity to bounce around the middle of America for a while, especially considering I may have a ride lined up to get me to Iowa. My scribble of a plan includes Oklahoma City (Andrew Jackson Jihad show!), Omaha, Iowa City, Minneapolis and Fargo. I wish to venture further East, but the variety simply gets overwhelming and I can´t decide. PPK sell me your city!

What kind of stuff do you want to do/see?

All I can say is if you stay on the interstate it will get boring very quickly. I live in Iowa and have traveled around the Midwest a lot, but mostly on back roads in small towns. I was mostly looking for photo ops and weird town quirks instead of good food or entertainment. Omaha, Iowa City, and Minneapolis are the cities I've been to and am familiar with and they are all great. Omaha and Minneapolis have a lot of vegan food, museums, cool parks, etc. Iowa City has those too, but on an obviously smaller scale. Omaha to IC is a straight shot on I-80, no real way around it unless you want to go out of your way a lot, but you could stop in Des Moines for a bit. I do love Des Moines but it's nice in a cozy city kind of way.
My biggest piece of advice is to take part of the Iowa Great River Road from Iowa City up towards Minneapolis. You don't have to the whole way, but it's beautiful and will dispel any myths that the Midwest (and Iowa) are flat and filled with fields. NE Iowa is full of trees, old farms, and limestone cliffs. I'm originally from Decorah (another cool college town in Iowa) and it's my favorite place in the world.

Minnesota is also really nice. I haven't explored there are much but there are a lot of cool towns around the lakes up north, they can be really touristy though. Lots of good camping if you like that.

Omaha and Minneapolis are definitely good places to stop- good food and stuff to do. I've been to Fargo and there isn't much to do (or eat), unless you already have something planned, I would just swing through Iowa on your way up to Minneapolis.

I don't know why anybody would give you a funny look, the midwest is freaking fascinating for it's people and accents and eccentricities.

Milwaukie! Madison! Chicago! Ann Arbor I guess?

Ann Arbor's pretty cool, but if you can make the journey up to Northern Michigan (think Traverse City area) it's absolutely beautiful. Especially this time of the year.

I'm from New England and live in LA now, but I spent most of my time between the ages of 22 and 30 in Ohio, particularly Columbus and Athens. I think Columbus is a pretty neat city, but if you're going to other cities, I don't think it's entirely necessary to go there. I would recommend Athens and southeast Ohio, though. Athens is a liberal, outdoorsy, hippie-type college town surrounded by hills, coal mines, and hillbillies : ) There's also great food and beer there. Southeastern Ohio and West Virginia are pretty unlike anywhere else in the country, in my opinion. There's some great outdoor beauty, like Hocking Hills in Ohio and everywhere in WV, a lot of ecological diversity and some serious "Americana".

I really like Ann Arbor, MI (is that even the midwest?) although it might not be what you're looking for in terms of "midwest flavor." There's also a restaurant I really like in St. Louis, MO.

Have fun on your trip!

Also, if you go to Omaha, you might as well hit up Lincoln! It's about 45 minutes south and has some great thrifting and veg eats, as well as North America's largest wooly mammoth skeleton.


Omaha counters this with the world's largest ball of stamps.

Bloomington, IN! We're way cooler and cheaper than Ann Arbor.