So, I figured out where the hay smell in my rental car came from. Turns out the airport at Cedar Rapids is surrounded by… corn.

I mean, here is the view when you step out of baggage claim at the airport : (click on image for full size version)

And all you hear around you is the rustling of corn and the chirping of crickets.

It is FLAT!

Anyway, so, day two in Iowa found me finishing a good day of training and then picking up Igor at the airport. I took that picture when I got to the airport, and on a whim I took my camera into the airport with me. As I am strolling around, I happened to notice THIS interesting sign:

Fancy that! In Iowa!

Meanwhile, Igor’s flight was delayed, so I wandered into the airport gift shop and started browsing through the various postcards, wanting to find some I could write “home” about. Now, Cedar Rapids has this strange slogan that’s plastered everywhere - “City of Five Seasons” - but nobody around here actually seems to, technically speaking, know what the hell the fifth season is. When I asked about it, they often replied that they liked to call it the “City of Five Smells”, seeing as the city is also home to Quaker Oats, corn industries, paper factories, and a wastewater treatment plant.

So, sure enough, at the airport gift shop I spotted a typical Cedar Rapids postcard, with “City of Five Seasons” on it, and I thought I would send it to Alexis’ brother Eric, with the note “Yeah, nobody around here knows either”. He’d get it.

So I asked the lady at the counter if SHE knew what the fifth season was, and she of course didn’t remember.

“I do know we call it the City of Five Smells though!”, she said brightly.

“Oh? And what’s the fifth smell?”, I asked, investigative reporter that I am.

“Let’s see, there’s the oats, the paper, the sewage treatment… gosh, I’m forgetting the smells…”

“CORN SYRUP!”, yelled an older gentleman who was ambling by, adding his contribution to my cultural expansion.

“Oh yeah! Corn! How could I forget, right? But, gosh, what IS the fifth smell? Gee…”

So, there you have it folks - this here is the city of five seasons, but nobody really knows what the fifth season is, seeings as they’d like to know it as the city of five smells… except that nobody knows what the fifth smell is either…