There are sights and then there are sights. The rest stop  on East I-80 right outside of Iowa City is really worth a stop. It is a clever tribute to  Iowa Writer’s Workshop at the U of I, the oldest graduate creative writing program in the country.

Celebrating its 75 anniversary this year, the workshop can boast of 17 Pulitzer prize-winning authors and thousands of remarkable writers. This public works project is one that really works for that public.

A giant pen stands guard; it rests in a pool of ink after writing IOWA across the front of the building with a flourish.

Literary quotes are everywhere — in steel cut-outs that form the wind and shade buffers for the picnic tables, updated on an electronic message board that circles the generous lobby and inscribed on inside walls.

On the floor is a quote from Jack Kerouac from what else but On the Road? I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future.

Way to go, Hawkeyes.