Sunday, January 31, 2021

Trans Iowa Stories: A Prank Entry And Registration Madness: Part 4

  "Trans Iowa Stories" is an every Sunday post which helps tell the stories behind the event. You can check out other posts about this subject by going back to earlier Sunday posts on this blog. Thanks and enjoy!

This entry will show off some of the Trans Iowa post card entries I saved over the years. There are a LOT more than I am showing off here, but in order to keep this post somewhat less long than the "Iliad" , I have shaved down what I am showing here to about a dozen. I tried to show off cards by thematic means. Cards that are representative of what most cards I ever got were like. So, with no special order, here they are.....

Many cards had a theme of suffering and death. Now.....why would THAT be? (Card from B. Lichter for v10)

Ben Oney sent this macabre entry for v11. He was from Northfield MN, so.....

I got a ton of homemade cards with captions and everything. This is a compilation of the TDF 'devil', my face, and a scene from T.I.v2 from Craig Irving.

Level B roads played heavily into the subject matter for a lot of homemade cards I got. This one from Don Daly.

A rookie decides life isn't worth more than getting into Trans Iowa v8. This from A.W. Dutton.

The humor and references here make this a classic. From Maciej Nowak for T.I.v8.

This card sent in by Charles Showalter for T.I.v8 gives you a hint as to why the first artwork for v8's site was taken down due to a cease and desist letter I received.

Speaking of site headers- John Mathias made this collage of site headers for his v10 entry.

Trans Iowa was perhaps one of the most 'Lo-Fi' events around, and many sent cards reflecting that.

Jennifer Barr went the other way with this ultra-creative effort for T.I.v11

I got "cards" that weren't really cards, and therefore those never made it as an entry. None more elaborate than this solid wood plaque with engraved acrylic overlay. In fact, I got two for two different people!

Some folks, like Jim Phillips, who sent in many creative cards, made their entries look like court orders and the like.

This is - if not the #1 favorite- it is one of my favorite cards. A five layer card sent in three phases from Emily Broderson.

Okay, so that was not easy! So many great cards had to be edited out or this post would have gone epic length. I have had a lot of people ask about a showing of cards or a book of them, but after so many years I had to whittle down what I kept to a small box that I have here. Some are not anything fantastic to look at but have meaning for me. So, trust me- you don't want to see all of what I kept either. 

Next: The story of the prank card that sparked a huge debate about doping riders and Trans Iowa. 

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