Oh sure, if you’re not from Iowa, you probably imagine that everybody who lives here is a grizzled old corn farmer with six million shares of Monsanto stock stashed under the mattress. But Iowa has its tough, hardscrabble side, too, with lots of people moving here to work in the bowels of the banking and insurance businesses, where they slave away to help other Iowans stash their own Monsanto stock.

Life’s not just a bowl of soybeans here in the heartland, no sir, no matter what you you might imagine from your ivory towers in New Yorkistan or Chicagobon or Lost Angelfire or wherever. Here are some images just show you just how tough things can be in Iowa sometimes, because when the going gets tough, the tough often have to drive more than five miles to the mall for a pedicure.