The US:Linda Wittstruck and her husband Thorne drove for four hours and sat in a traffic jam for a further two to join 15,000 Democratic activists eating grilled steak, baked beans and potato salad in a hot air balloon field in rural Iowa. But as Wittstruck explained, nobody came to Senator Tom Harkin's annual steak fry for the food; they came to take a closer look at six of the Democratic candidates for president.
"We're really proud of our Democratic candidates. I think there are lots of choices. I think it's exciting to see so many turn out. We had a long wait but it was worth it to hear them," she said.
Sitting on a makeshift stage in front of a row of hay bales, with four tractors in the background, the candidates waited their turn to make a pitch for the support of the most vigorously wooed voters in America. Iowa will hold the first caucus in 2008, giving the state political clout out of all proportion to its population of less than three million and the leading candidates are spending more time and money here than anywhere else.
Thousands of signs in support of the candidates lined roads for miles around the steak fry as the campaigns sought to advertise the strength of their organisation. Barack Obama bussed in 3,000 supporters, Hillary Clinton's campaign handed out plastic megaphones filled with popcorn and all the candidates gave their supporters meal tickets.
"We're surrounded by the faithful - we're here in the pulpit and we're ready to do some preaching to the choir," declared Harkin, a hugely popular figure among Democrats, as he invited Obama to make the first of six 15-minute speeches.
As the self-appointed "change candidate", Obama makes a virtue of fighting a different kind of campaign, hoping to tap into a fresh base of support among young voters. The placards held up by supporters in Indianola may have been an innovation too far - cardboard circles featuring a blue and red sunrise but with no words at all, not even the candidate's name.
"If we win an election but we don't change our politics, we're not going to be able to bring about the changes that we need," Obama said, warming up to a coded attack on Clinton. "It's not enough to look for who can play the game best. We need to stop the game playing."
The most gifted speaker among the candidates, Obama had the crowd on their feet by the end, chanting "Fired up! Ready to go!" over and over again.
Clinton's flat, mid-western cadences don't lend themselves to soaring oratory and her deeply ingrained caution makes her qualify almost everything she says, even when she is trying to fire up a sympathetic audience.
"Are you ready to end the war in Iraq and bring our troops home, as safely and responsibly as possible?" she roared.
Like the other candidates, Clinton attacked the Bush administration and promised to end the Iraq war if she is elected but she also promised to change the tone of America's foreign policy.
"I will not wait until I'm inaugurated. The day after I'm elected, I will have distinguished members of both parties travel around the world with a distinct message: The era of cowboy diplomacy is over, America is back," she said.
Pat Baxter-Rebal, who claims to have backed the winner in every Iowa caucus for two decades, was clutching a Clinton poster.
"Hillary is like a bran muffin - high nutritional content, high fibre content. Whether you like it or not, it's good for you. She is so good in every way," she said.
Clinton and Obama are in a three-way tie in Iowa polls with John Edwards, who is staking everything on winning the state. He has been cultivating Iowa voters ever since he and John Kerry lost the 2004 presidential election but he has not made much headway with Baxter-Rebal.
"He's a jerk. He's a phoney and a lot of us have seen through him. He's all foam and no beer," she said as he stood up to speak.
Dressed in blue jeans and denim work shirt, Edwards was on the attack from the start, questioning Obama's credentials as a candidate of change and portraying Clinton as a cynical insider beholden to big business and special interests.
"I don't believe you can sit at the table with drug companies, insurance companies and their lobbyists and negotiate an insurance plan for America," he said in a reference to Clinton's health care plan unveiled yesterday. "If you give them a seat at the table, they will take all the food."
Chris Causey is supporting Obama but he admitted that Edwards had impressed him with his passionate advocacy of a return to core Democratic policies to combat inequality.
Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden also spoke but few of the faithful at the steak fry doubted that the Democratic contest was a three-way race in which Iowa could play a huge role in determining the outcome.
"We interview them for the job of president," said Baxter-Rebal.