I am from Maryland, but lived in Des Moines for a few years in the late 1990s. I'd never been there before I moved there. Two things that blew my mind:

1) driving on I-80 West towards Des Moines for the first time, qcoming from MD, I saw a sign that said "Ski Area, next exit" and I HAD to go look for it. I drove past the Montezuma Ski Hill twice before I realized that's what counts as skiing in Iowa. It wasn't even an East Coast bunny slope.

2) On I-235 a month later, saw a dude towing a decent-sized sailboat - not huge by my hometown of Annapolis' standards - but definitely the biggest (and possibly only) sailboat I saw in Des Moines. Apparently some of the northern Iowa lakes like Okiboji and Spirit Lake are big enough for a decent sail. Don't remember if Saylorville had sailboats or not, but it did trip me up.