Some people consider the midwestern United States to be “fly-over country” – deemed uninteresting - because they’ve never taken the time to visit that area on their flying treks from one coast to the other.
Calling any of our states inconsequential places might just make me see red though. When someone utters that, I envision him/her jumping from the frying pan right into the fire.
In other words, it burns me up. I don’t appreciate any part of our country being disrespected sight unseen. Why? Because you don’t know unless you’ve been there.
And if you’ve never been on the ground seeing some fascinating places in so-called “fly-over country,” you don’t know what you’re missing.
On today’s Tuesday Tour, let me show you one quirky spot Papa and I found on our trek homeward through Iowa, sometimes called a boring, fly-over state, on our western road trip last summer.
It would be difficult for anything to jump out of Iowa’s Largest Fryin’ Pan located in Brandon. The claim to fame for this tiny little town is a giant-sized frying pan modeled to scale after a 10-inch cast iron skillet.
Why on earth? I’ll tell you why from the information I gleaned from a placard displayed at the site, which is located at the Brandon Area Community Center just off Main Street.
Back in 2004, local volunteers constructed the giant-sized frying pan. The purpose was to promote the town’s Cowboy Breakfast, a fundraiser that has been held every year since 2000 to benefit the construction and maintenance of the community center.
The pan, which took volunteers 41 hours to construct, weighs 1,020 pounds and is 8 feet across its base and 9 feet, 3 inches at the rim. The handle measures 5 feet making the entire length of this frying pan 14 feet, 3 inches.
That is one whopper of a pan! We actually use a regular sized 10-inch cast iron skillet here in Mama’s Empty Nest’s kitchen but at most, we could probably cook five or six eggs at a time in it. But if someone wanted to make eggs in Iowa’s largest fryin’ pan, it would take 14 dozen (528 eggs) to fill it up.
Likewise, a 10-inch skillet could hold four pork chops, but 352 half-pound chops would be needed to fill this giant. And when it comes to bacon, we can fry a pound of bacon in our skillet, but this monster pan could fry up 88 pounds all at once!
Lest you think I’m mathematically or spatially inclined, I didn’t just figure all of this out myself; that info is posted on the display sign to the right of Iowa’s biggest frying pan.
Papa’s and my church holds fundraiser breakfasts once a month January through March, but we don’t even come close to the crowd turnouts that Brandon’s Cowboy Breakfasts serve – an average of 1000 people each year.
The Cowboy Breakfast is held annually on the third Sunday of September and includes scrambled eggs, ham, sausage, pancakes, fried potatoes, sausage gravy, and baking powder biscuits (yum, yum) all cooked over open fires outside in cast iron frying pans or Dutch ovens.
Now that sounds like a breakfast worth stopping for instead of flying over, doesn’t it?
While we were enjoying our short little visit to Iowa’s Largest Fryin’ Pan, of course I was taking photos of the pan and six-foot-tall Papa standing in front of it to give perspective on how big it was.
We were the only sightseers there and since Brandon’s a quiet little town, there wasn’t much traffic. Suddenly, a car pulled in, a man hopped out, and volunteered to take a photo of both of us standing in front of this fun little find.
He was pleasant and kind and didn’t mind taking some time from where he was going to stop and assist us. As we chatted a bit with him, he shared with us that he helps at the Cowboy Breakfast every year.
Those are the kind of friendly folks you can find in “fly-over country.” They’re the type of people who make visiting some of our more rural areas enjoyable.
And often it’s not just the grand sights we see but the out-of-the way little moments that make life fun.
“Now it’s the little moments that stop me in my tracks because that’s what life is all about.” ~ Joanna Gaines
©mamasemptynest.wordpress.com 2024
Mama's Empty Nest 
😋 Yum Yum!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know, right??
LikeLiked by 1 person
Of course, there’s another side to that flyover coin. As long as the people from the coast think the midwest or other ‘far away places’ are beneath contempt, they won’t go there: leaving the residents to live in peace.
The influence of Californians on Texas has been less than salutary, and far too many previously delightful little towns have been bought up by property speculators intent on making big bucks. One especially beautiful area, known for decades as the best place to see spring wildflowers, has been purchased and ruined. The day I drove through and saw dozens of majestic oaks toppled and the land scraped clean for development is a day I was moved to righteous rath.
As for the midwest proper, something needs to be done to stop the purchase of farmland by foreign entities: many of whom are less concerned with responsible farming than making those dollars.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, yes, and YES! You are absolutely correct and I stand with you in your righteous wrath.
LikeLiked by 1 person