Off Topic - The Big Nib - I-80 Rest Stop

Back in March of 2015 I ran a photo of the big nib and said I would post the whole story. Then I lost all the photos. Recently they reappeared.

David B. Dahlquist is a local artist who works with one of the architectural firms that designs the theme rest stops on Interstates 80 and 35. He contacted me about the one they were working on that would be built just west of Iowa City. The University of Iowa (in Iowa City) is world renown for their writer's workshop (think Kurt Vonnegut and a host of other famous writers). David was curious about dovetailing some of the tools of writing with authoring and offered to pay me for my time just to chat. In addition to talking about pre-typewriter era tools, I wrote the words --  Iowa - the beautiful land --  many times using many different tools and gave him a stack of random writing in many styles. Some time later, I heard about the BIG NIB at an I-80 rest stop. It was fun to stop and see it and even better to see my name on the plaque on the wall thanking the people who contributed to the project.

I have no idea if that is my handwriting on the IOWA. For all I know, he went out on the internet and found a font. It doesn't really look like my penmanship at all. But, it might be.

Same with the the words "the beautiful land" on the nib. It's not what I would have chosen. If he took something I wrote that was about 1/2-inch by 3-inches and enlarged it - it might have ended up looking like that. It's pretty hard to get the power of veto on these kinds of projects. Since the whole point of the rest stop is to honor the Writer's Workshop, it is probably fitting that they did not feature fine penmanship. Maybe someday we will get our own penmanship rest stop.

LOL

Below are more shots from around the rest stop and inside the building.