One day while in Iowa, Conrad and I headed to Winterset, Iowa to see The Bridges of Madison County. No, not the movie - we saw the bridges where the movie was filmed. We started out walking around the Square. It really is a beautiful square with lots of old buildings and a courthouse. Loved poking around the old Ben Franklin store!
Winterset Square
Madison County, Iowa Courthouse
Walking down the street, we came across John Wayne and stopped to say hi! This is the new museum that just opened in April. The house where he was born, sits just behind the museum.
Conrad and John Wayne
John Wayne's Birthplace
After that, we headed off to find the bridges. This first bridge is the Holliwell Covered Bridge that was featured in the movie. The bridge was built in 1880, and at 122 feet, is the longest remaining Madison County covered bridge. It remains in its original site over the Middle River.
The next bridge was the Hogback Covered Bridge. It was built in 1884. It is 106 feet long. It was built with steel pylons to support the main span. Originally there were 19 covered bridges in Madison County; now there are six remaining bridges.
Hogback Covered Bridge
Inside the bridge - amazing how sturdy they are!
Typical Iowa farm
It seems that farmers remove the metal roofing
from the barns and then just let them fall down.
On our way back to Des Moines, we decided to drive through Indianola. My aunt, uncle and cousins lived there years ago. My Uncle Bob owned a bowling alley there and it is now a restaurant called Crouse Cafe. Since it was lunch time, we decided to eat there. The building looked kind of familiar inside and I could imagine the bowling alley still being there.
Crouse Cafe
From there, we drove out to Lake Aquabi State Park near Indianola. My family used to go there for swimming and picnics and that is where I learned to swim! The school furnished transportation there for a week or two after school was out for summer and we took swimming lessons. It didn't look the same at all. The beach is still there and there are changing rooms but they are all new. It was fun to see it though.
Lake Aquabi Beach
We also made a stop to visit my 82 year old, blind cousin, Snookie. She is in great shape for her age and so much fun to talk to. She still lives on her own (her husband passed away in the 1980s) and has friends who take her where she needs to go. Wish we could have spent longer with her.
You can't spend time in Des Moines, Iowa without seeing
the state capitol building! The dome is covered with
23 carat gold.
This is the church my family attended when we lived
in Des Moines. I would love to have gone inside but nobody
was there. They merged with another church so now another
congregation meets here.
We had dinner with my niece Cathey and her boyfriend
at Noah's Ark in Des Moines. It was so good to catch up with
what is going on in her life now.
It's about time to wrap this up and get to bed. We are now in the Eastern time zone. We have driven over 2,000 miles. I know that without GPS we couldn't find half the stuff we've done! Tomorrow we are heading to Munising on the Lake Superior shore. Hopefully, we'll have WiFi again and I can catch you up some more. We have some awesome scenery pictures to share!
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