The 'Rus vs. Townies

In Fairfield, Iowa, there are two types of people: the 'rus and the townies. The 'rus are the gurus, the followers of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and they have taken over the city of Fairfield. They come from near and far to practise the art of transcendental meditation at the Maharishi University of Management.

Zandy and I rolled into town in our white Pontiac G6 and immediately caught the cool new agey vibe right from the town square. Look around, there's the Health and Wellness shop, the Indian Ayurvedia Cuisine restaurant Mohan Delights, and art gallery here, hippy shop there. It was kinda like being back in Kitsilano, Vancouver. And in the middle of the mid-west, seeing such establishments was a real shock b/c driving thru Nowhere, USA, I really began to realize how different and special Vancouver is from the rest of North America.



We spent a lot of time checking out the exhibition on The Study of Man Arabian Expedition at ICON Gallery but when we came out of the gallery, the entire town shut down. Well, almost. Seems a lot of the restaurants stop serving food at 3 pm. I guess they go off to the golden dome or wherever and meditate. Word on the Fairfield street is some folks meditate 8 hours a day. Doesn't anybody work round here? Anyhow, I did eventually find a place that was serving and it was pretty obvious walking into the bar/restaurant that is was the domain of the townies. I was hankering for some healthy fare, so went with the Rock Wedge Salad. Hands down, the most disappointing and odd salad EVER. It was a head of iceberg lettuce hacked in half, sitting in a pool of bacon grease w/ a tablespoon of bacon bits and a teaspoon of crumbled blue cheese. What on earth? Where am I? Somebody get me a Coors Light, stat. I think they were trying to be fancy or something. Suffice it to say, they failed. It wasn't even cheap - I'm getting fleeced in Fairfield! Next time: just order the burger.

David Lynch, the director, is a frequent visitor to the town, as is a number of other Hollywood types. The Maharishi is a rock star! There are all these houses around town that are built following the Stapathya Vedic principles and in rural Iowa, it's a funny site to see. There's the Fairfield water tower and looky there, Jeb, there's another mansion with a gold dome.

Didn't see any flowing robes and didn't see any mediation. People were generally nice but not that warm or friendly like in Minnesota. Did I mention I love Minnesota?

Okay, onward...



Right next to Fairfield is the town of Eldon, famous for the little white house in the background of Grant Wood's painting, American Gothic. We arrived at the house right around the time the local councilmen and women and Roger, the town mayor, were holding a meeting. Very nice folk who grabbed a pitchfork for us so we could recreate our own American Gothic pic.