I've never been to Iowa, but what I've read and seen on TV looks nice. Every time I turn on the Outdoor channel lately, they're shooting big deer in Iowa. Anybody on Texags ever lived there?

The weather during the spring, summer and fall is awesome. It got to the low 80's a handful of times, maybe, this last summer;usually in the 70's, though. The winters can be brutal. I've been here for 4 yrs now and each winter has been worse than the last.

The hunting, though I haven't partaken myself, seems to be quite fruitful. Many times coworkers come in with deer jerky and the like. The fishing is good, too.

Cedar Rapids, and most of Iowa I'd imagine, are ideal places to raise a family. That is, as long as you don't crave lots of "adult" things to do other than going to a bar and drinking.

I haven't lived there, but I have visited the GF's family in west central Iowa several times.

It's nice. Mostly small towns, but they're not isolated like small towns in west Texas are. They are not too far from Omaha, and not too far from Des Moines.

People are more private than they are down here, but are friendly one-on-one.

As far as hunting goes, according to the GF's brother-in-law(who runs the family farm), people there don't really care who hunts on their property as long as you go to the house and ask first. They have a lot of pheasant.

Drove up to Ames for the game last year, nice campus. West side of Des Moines seemed nice enough also.

Lived in Okoboji, Iowa for a couple years. Nice folks, mostly small towns. Pheasant hunting is good but not as good as SE South Dakota. As far as hunting for free on other people's land, there's less and less all the time because there's money to be made there. Most guys I knew had small parcels of land that they used to raise pheasant cover. Fishing was good, but I worked for the largest fishing tackle manufacturer in the world...had all the toys to take out on the weekends...product testing rules!

Lived in Cedar Rapids until I came to A&M for school. (Which by the way was a great decision, I love it) They're definitely feeling the economic recession a lot more up there than we do down here, but other than that, it's a great place to live. I loved pretty much every part of growing up up there, opportunities for anything you want to do.

After comparing my education to many down here (not everyone, but I live with a 2 guys from LA), it's definitely first class. If you're looking for a great night life/stuff for new grad age, not much at all.

Best part of it all is the weather. Fall in Iowa might be the greatest thing ever. And winter is bearable compared to minnesota or such.

Hope this helps and let me know if you have any other questions about a specific area or anything. If you can't tell, I love Iowa...



[This message has been edited by iowaggie10 (edited 2/2/2010 1:24a).]

Can anyone tell me anything about Burlington, IA?