The Road I Grew Up On is a two-volume anthology self-published by Helen Gunderson, a fourth-generation, septuagenarian Iowan who grew up on a farm in Pocahontas County, Iowa. After earning an undergraduate degree in physical education and masters degrees in instructional technology and theology and having a diverse career that took her to other states, Helen relocated to central Iowa, where she eventually established her home on an urban farm in Ames. Her anthology, written from a liberal perspective, consists of regional and neighborhood history, personal memoir, spiritual insights, opinion, and photographs. The project, started in 1989, includes photographs, video footage, recorded interviews, other research and writings by Helen about the neighborhood and culture where she grew up.

Volume 2 consists of chapters written in 2019 on local history, death, land stewardship, agricultural issues, state and federal politics, family dynamics, and hospitality, as well as an additional chapter about living in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.