My scary adventure trying to cover Kamala Harris in Iowa

BUCKINGHAM, Iowa – Janet and Mike Shock sat on deck chairs while trying to write the first sentence of this story.

Janet offered a literal interpretation of my misfortune: "Stranded in Buckingham, Iowa," she said.

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Mike turned to a more universal opener. "Failed in the middle of nowhere," he said.

We met by chance a few hours earlier. The Shocks have welcomed me to their home, my teeth slamming after slamming my rental car into snow on a road closed a few hundred meters away. The walk from this Californian native to their door – in blizzard conditions of 12 degrees – was brutal: I wore a slim jacket, no boots nor gloves.

I was going to see Kamala Harris shaking hands with people like Shock at a Waterloo cafe; then to a nearby Baptist church and to a town hall in Bettendorf. Janet was not surprised that the election campaign erased coffee and church from her Sunday schedule because of poor roads.

The journey from Buckingham to Bettendorf is 140 miles; and the street where my car was stuck – the only way out – was blocked by a head-on collision on one side and a reverse-turned street on the other. As we got to know each other in their kitchen, Mike put on several layers of clothing, warmed up the truck and prepared his snow plow.

Shortly after, Janet started eating chili and cookies. She joked that we were watching all the Oscars together. It was 9 o'clock

Those who know Iowans will not be surprised by their generosity. More than 12 hours, they fed me; pulled my Nissan Maxima from the middle of the road and into their driveway; and gently refreshed a website that monitors closures. Mike taught me some farming concepts, from maize barns to the process of "disassembly", eliminating immature pollen producing bodies, or acorns, tops of corn plants. .

The Iowa caucuses being in less than a year, the non – political debates seem appropriate, I have prudently moderated what I learned through a periodic confrontation between the shocks: the best sandwiches to eat with chilli.

He went to school in the nearby town of Traer, where it is customary to have cheese sandwiches with the meal. But she, a product of the Waterloo Schools, keeps a tradition of peanut butter, hence the JIF pot beside our butter and our cookies. We also talked about their family and they faced my wife and baby.

I tweeted about their kindness and many other people, politically or otherwise, told that they had been helped by strangers from Iowa during a scary adventure. .

Even Harris weighed after her staff informed her of my first contact with Iowa hospitality. In a voice message that she left me, the Californian compared the support I had received to the Iowa version of the American Automobile Association.

"It's a good thing you have this" chili friend, "Harris said." We'll miss you at Bettendorf, but I'm glad you're safe. "

Shocks do not consider themselves politicians. They voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, although they were not particularly excited about her candidacy. "I figured if I did not vote, I could not complain," said Janet.

With Donald Trump as president, that would have been problematic. They do not like his wall, calling it expensive and useless. They are convinced that he has made a myriad of promises of employment and government reform that he has not kept. Shocks are not about to pick a candidate for 2020, but they want someone who can restore the sense of decency in the country.

Janet was preparing a goulash and corn dinner when the Oscars started. I told her about tweets and she made me write something about it.

"I want people to know that there are good people in the world who could welcome a stranger," she said. "We are all people. We are all human beings. God put us on this earth for a reason. We should all take care of each other. "

Before leaving their lane around 9 pm, I told him it was not my thing to write about myself. She suggested that we talk about her condition.

"I want people to understand," she says, "what Iowa is all about."