Leon, IA

January 27

We celebrated the holidays at Hilary’s house two days before Christmas. That evening, her son, Ryne, unexpectedly asked what size shoe I wear. I said, “Fourteen, and depending on the shoe, I wear wide.”

He told me to try on his shoes (apparently he wears a 14 as well, but doesn’t need a wide).

He was wearing Twisted X moccasins. Brandy liked the way they looked on me so this weekend, we went to Long Creek Outfitters in Leon, IA, to get some for myself.

Incorporated in 1858, Leon is a small town a scant 17 and a half driving miles from Missouri. The population as of the 2020 census is 1,822 and is found at the crossroads of Iowa state highway 2 and US Route 69.

We left the house just after 9:30, stopping for gas at the Hy-Vee before getting on the road.

The drive to Leon was a mostly westward drive on highway 34, then we cut south in Lucas, on highway 65. We took that a few miles to Iowa 2 then continued west for a few more miles before hitting Leon.

There’s not a lot in Leon. We did pass by a Hy-Vee that still had the OLD logo on the street-side sign and as we passed the store, I remarked about how small it looked from the outside. I drew a comparison to the Safeway in Gunnison.

We continued down highway 2 until we were almost out of town when we happened upon our destination.

Long Creek Outfitters is a blue collar worker’s dream. They have a huge variety of Carhartt, Ariat and Carolina boots, to name a few. They have five HUGE aisles of boots and shoes on one side of the store.

We found the Twisted X section and found a pair of mocs that I liked in a dark brown, what Twisted X calls a chukka driving moc. I tried them on and they fit well and were comfortable. I boxed up the shoe I’d tried on then we headed over the the women’s side for Brandy to browse around.

Brandy didn’t see anything that caught her attention so we headed to the 40% off room. She tried on a couple of shoes in there and, again, wasn’t thrilled. She did, however, find a t-shirt that she liked so we grabbed that and headed over to the other side of the store.

Past the saddles and bags, and past the jewelry and the registers is the store’s clothing side. We headed to the small rack of big and tall jackets that we were directed to “under the horse’s head.” Nothing on that rack fit me so we headed over to a room with mostly Carhartt stuff in it. They carry my size in Carhartt, which runs a little larger anyway, so I picked up a hoodie and a few shirts. I really was after a raincoat, but the ones they had there were either too small or too expensive. I did find a Columbia rain jacket on sale on their website for $60, in my size. I think I’m just going to pick that up.

Anyway, we gathered up all the stuff we were getting and headed up to the register. The shoes, which were $100, a hoodie and a handful of shirts, one of which was Brandy’s out of the sale room, and the total was a little over $200, and most of the stuff we got for me was Carhartt.

I was surprised at how inexpensive it was.

As we were paying, I asked where a good place to eat was. The cashier told us the only place that would be open would be La Bota. A customer waiting in line behind us chimed in and also recommended The Barnyard, a little bit further west from where we were. The cashier advised that she thought they were closed on Saturdays but we were welcome to try.

So we did.

We headed west into the next town, Decatur, and quickly found The Barnyard. They were indeed open. We walked in to a stark casual barn building. Sparse decorations and the ones they had were straight out of the heartland (Iowa Beef – It’s the BEST!, John Deere, etc.) They had a row of toy tractors on a shelf behind the counter.

We sat ourselves at a four-top in the middle of the floor. There were not a lot of tables in the place, but only two other ones were occupied when we got there.

A server came over and gave us some menus. We glanced it over, quickly made our decisions and ordered: two orders of corn nuggets, a chef’s salad for Brandy and a chili cheese burger for me.

It did take a while for our food to come out. While we waited, people slowly started to show up. A group of men, clearly working on a farm, in muck boots and coveralls and hi-visibility jackets and hats. Families made up of a blue collared dad, a mom and two small children. Groups of older people.

After some time, our food was delivered. Brandy’s salad was a typically presented chef’s salad. My chili cheese burger was covered in a chili that had beans in it, which, while I was expecting a meat-only chili, was fine. I’ve had chili cheese burgers and dogs with bean chili so I didn’t complain.

The burger was cooked well done, brown all the way through, not a spot of pink in it. As I ate it, I was overwhelmed with a feeling of understanding. This was exactly how these people live. I guarantee every single person in that establishment eats their burgers well done. I know with a great degree of certainty that everyone in that building knew everyone else there. I knew that once they were done eating, that group of farmers was going back out to whatever field they were working in before they took a break for lunch. I know that every muck boot would be stripped off on the porch or in the mud room before coming anywhere near the carpet that had just been vacuumed or kitchen floor that had just been mopped.

I ate the burger and completely overlooked the normal food-snobbery with which I would have normally eaten it and instead enjoyed it with a whole new sense of appreciation for where I was and who was truly being catered to.

After finishing the best well done burger I’d ever eaten and perfectly serviceable corn nuggets (sorry, nothing will beat Front Runner’s corn nuggets), I walked up to the register where there was a pile of handmade fry pies (think, Hostess fruit pies, but made by a person instead of a machine.) They were wrapped in wax paper and labeled with the contents of the pie. They offered blackberry, raspberry, strawberry and more. I picked out a strawberry rhubarb pie, paid the bill and we walked through the now completely full restaurant to leave.

As we left, I noticed the parking lot was full of mostly pickups, all of which were completely caked in mud. Sure, our car had some mud on it from the drive into the parking lot of the eatery, but these trucks were covered.

We headed back up highway 2 toward Leon and as we passed through, I noticed a sign pointing off toward “Historic Downtown Leon”. I made a quick detour to the ubiquitous town square and the war memorial rock that seems to be in every small town’s historic district. Sure enough, it fit the bill.

A turn to my right only solidified the small town nostalgia I was experiencing: a look down Leon’s Main Street, including an old movie theater, a Hy Vee pharmacy and off in the distance, the Leon water tower.

After the run around the courthouse, we made an uneventful hour and a half drive back home.

I really appreciated this trip to an even smaller town than the one we already live in, where the collars are even more blue. Being immersed in an environment I’ve never really spent a lot of time in really made me appreciate the diversity of the country and I look forward to exploring and seeing more of it.

Up next, I will be posting a “nerding out” post, just a little something talking about the stuff I do that makes my ADHD brain happy. Shortly after that, we will be on our way to Colorado, so stick around. This is going to be a great trip!

-Phil