11 Things That Confuse Everyone Who Moves to Iowa

The USDA counts about 24.7 million hogs in Iowa, in a state of roughly 3.2 million people.

That ratio is the last thing out-of-staters expect.

These are the things that confuse everyone who moves to Iowa.

1. Fareway’s Carryout Service

Fareway, Iowa’s homegrown grocery chain, sends a bagger out to the parking lot with every cart. Newcomers notice the move fast.

The company calls it to-your-car service, and every store trains staff to offer it without being asked.

A shopper used to bagging groceries alone and hauling them out solo can find the offer catches them off guard the first few trips.

It’s not optional. It’s Fareway.

2. Casey’s Gas-Station Pizza

Casey’s General Store, a gas-and-convenience chain that got its start in Iowa, sells pizza many newcomers assume is an afterthought next to the fuel pumps.

Casey’s says its pizza sales make it the fifth-largest pizza chain in the country, with more than 2,500 locations selling pies alongside fuel. Trade press calls the exact ranking hard to pin down once revenue, not location count, factors in.

A newcomer who doubts a gas station can make good pizza gets talked out of that opinion fast.

An Iowan usually settles the argument by pointing at an empty pizza case on a Friday night.

Doubt it once. Never again.

3. Iowa’s Statewide Fireworks Law

Consumer fireworks are legal statewide in Iowa, surprising newcomers who came from cities that set stricter local rules.

A 2025 fireworks law lets residents set off fireworks on July 3, July 4, and December 31, and cities can no longer ban or shorten those windows.

A city council that wanted stricter hours lost that authority the moment the law took effect.

The state decided.

4. Iowa's Limited Retirement Tax Break

Word travels fast that Iowa stopped taxing retirement income, and newcomers who hear the headline assume it covers every retiree the moment they arrive.

Iowa eliminated that tax starting with the 2023 tax year, exempting IRA, 401(k), pension, and annuity income for qualifying taxpayers.

The governor's office estimated the change would drop the tax bill for nearly 295,000 Iowa taxpayers.

The break isn't universal the way the news coverage made it sound, and many newcomers assume simply being retired is enough to qualify.

Being retired isn't the same as qualifying.

5. Tax-Free Groceries

Grocery aisles work differently in Iowa than in states that tax every item at the register.

Iowa's sales tax exemption covers food bought for home, though candy, soft drinks, dietary supplements, and anything prepared for immediate eating still get taxed.

A cart of pantry staples rings up tax-free, while a rotisserie chicken from the same store gets taxed like a restaurant meal.

Read the receipt. It splits.

6. RAGBRAI's Rolling Party

Tens of thousands of cyclists roll across Iowa every summer, and newcomers with no context wonder what's going on.

The 1973 ride started with about 300 riders crossing the state from Sioux City to Davenport.

RAGBRAI's organizers now describe it as among the oldest and largest bicycle touring events in the world.

Small towns along the route plan festivals and food stands around the riders passing through for one day a year.

One day, one payday.

7. Iowa's Nickel Deposit

Grocery receipts across Iowa carry an extra line that confuses nearly every newcomer: A five-cent deposit tacked onto every can and bottle of pop or beer.

Iowa's Beverage Containers Control Law is known as the state's bottle deposit law.

It requires a five-cent deposit on carbonated and alcoholic beverage containers, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

The nickel comes back when the container goes back to a store or an approved redemption center.

The nickel isn't sales tax, and it doesn't work like the grocery exemption covered earlier.

It's a refundable deposit, and a newcomer who tosses the empties in the recycling bin instead of hauling them back to a store just gave that money away.

No return, no nickel.

8. Iowa's Move-Over Law

Drivers who move to Iowa usually know to slow down for a police car parked on the shoulder, and assume that's the whole rule.

Iowa's move-over law, covered under Iowa Code 321.323A, requires drivers to change lanes or slow down for a stationary vehicle with flashing or hazard lights on the shoulder.

The Iowa Department of Transportation confirms the rule reaches well beyond squad cars and tow trucks. Ordinary passenger vehicles with their hazards on count too.

A newcomer who only moves over for vehicles with light bars can end up breaking the law without realizing it.

Iowa treats a stranded minivan with its flashers on the same as a squad car under the statute.

Every vehicle counts.

9. Iowa's County-Based Addresses

A rural address in Iowa can stump a map app fast. The house number often doesn't match anything visible from the road.

Cedar and Jones counties, like many of Iowa's rural counties, assign addresses from a numbered grid, counting the distance in miles from a fixed corner of the county.

A house numbered 1400 on that grid sits about 14 miles from the corner where the counting starts.

The system exists for 911 dispatch first, and works as a mailing address second.

The mail carrier adapts.

See how many of these Iowa facts you'd have called right before you got here.

10. That Roadside Smell

Locals aren't joking about Iowa's hog count. The 24.7 million hogs the USDA counted across the state as of June 2026 is the largest inventory of any state.

That's roughly 7.7 hogs for every one of Iowa's 3.2 million residents, and Iowa currently leads every other state in hog production.

A newcomer driving a rural highway for the first time can hit a wall of smell with no warning.

The windows go up. For a second, it feels like something's wrong with the car.

Nothing is wrong. It's just a hog barn nearby, and in a state this full of hogs, that's part of the drive.

The hogs were here first.

11. Iowa's 99 Counties, Almost 100

Filling out almost any form in Iowa, a newcomer quickly learns the state counts things by counties more than many states do, all 99 of them.

A newcomer's county matters on almost every state form, from a driver's license application to a voter-registration card because Iowa organizes local government, courts, and elections by county lines.

Iowa has kept all 99 of those counties for more than a century, though the state came close to a 100th twice.

The legislature created a new county in 1870, and a court ruling struck it down the next year. A second attempt, in 1913, got voted down too.

The failed 1913 attempt would have created Larrabee County, named for Iowa's 13th governor, not for historian George Bancroft.

Bancroft's name belongs to a separate county that existed decades earlier, from 1851 to 1857, and survives today only as the name of a small Kossuth County town.

99 stuck. 100 never did.

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