Hey Howard, my wife is from Des Moines, her Mother and Brother both live in the City. They are over on the eastside, it is a lovely City, I thoroughly enjoy visiting - it takes a wee while for folks to get the hang of my accent, but once they get used to it, I find that we have a lot in common.
I especially like to get out and visit the small Towns, this is the 'real' America, away from the glamour and glitz of the tourist routes.
The people are - as I said in my post, friendly and polite, and even the ones who have never heard about Scotland are keen to find out about my wee Country.
The kilt has enabled me to speak to people, who I otherwise might never have broke breath to, and as I hope they have learned something of interest from me, equally my own knowledge of America and its people has also grown and developed.