Cows

Many readers of The All-American King have expressed curiousity about the location of the restaurant owned by Jesse King, the father of the main character. Actually nobody asks me about that, but it's fun to pretend. Anyway, the restaurant is called The Royal Court and it's located on the east side of Des Moines, Iowa. Though The Royal Court is fictional, I placed it at an actual location on Hubbell Avenue, just south of the intersection with University Avenue. When I started writing my novel in the summer of 2006, this site was a vacant lot. In 2008, a Taco John's opened there. Des Moines residents may remember that there was once a Sambo's restaurant at that spot decades ago. I have faded memories of eating pancakes there when I was a kid.

A stone's throw north of the site of the fictional restaurant is the Anderson Erickson Dairy, and the famous AE cows. Annie, the larger of the two bovines, took up her post in front of the dairy in 1966. Eleven years later a calf named Eric joined Annie. The two cows are still there today watching the traffic pass by on Hubbell and University. Visit the Anderson Erickson website to learn more about Annie and Eric.

Moo.