All American Turf Beauty, Inc.

About All American Turf Beauty, Inc.

Van Meter sits low in the Raccoon River valley, and on a cold morning the fog off the water climbs the bluffs before the sun ever clears them, the same hills the Raccoon River Valley Trail follows past the edge of town. All American Turf Beauty, Inc. works the driveways and lots along those hillside streets, where an overnight snow tends to drift twice as deep against a north-facing garage as it does out on the flat cropland just beyond the city limits. The town's few blocks of brick storefronts, built back when the railroad ran through, still need their walks opened before the first customers arrive, same as any farmhouse lane a mile out of town. The crew works the grade carefully on the steeper streets near the river, scraping down to solid ground so a driveway doesn't turn into a slide the next time the temperature climbs and drops again. By midmorning, the valley fog has burned off and Van Meter's short main street sits bare and salted under a hard blue sky.