We started the day in Madison County, Iowa and checked out all of the covered bridges and John Wayne's birth place. We also found an old one-room school house made of stone. The bridges are in very poor condition, except for one that was fixed up. Young adults clutter the bridges with graffiti. It was pretty sad. I thought maybe it was high school kids but locals told us it was young adults.
What surprised me was how many gravel roads are in the area. That meant driving a little slower than usual so 1. a rock didn't flip up and hit the windshield; and 2. we didn't kick up a lot of dust. It also surprised me that most of the covered bridges looked very similar to each other; I thought maybe they would at least be different colors.
In the photo of DH at the John Wayne statue, he's trying to pull the rifle away from him. I told DH that would be funnier if it were a statue of Charlton Heston.
I the pic of DH in front of the outhouse at the stone school, well, that was DH trying to be funny (neither the school or the outhouse are operational).
While we did not make it to Dyersville in time to see Field of Dreams before the site closed for the day, it's the first thing on our list for tomorrow morning. We did drive past it so we knew exactly where it is in the morning and I got a couple of pics so I didn't have to worry about it tomorrow when traffic will no doubt be slightly heavier.
There are 3 hotels in this town. One that got very poor reviews; another that the characters Earl and Randy from My Name is Earl would be proud to live in; and the third from a national chain that's slightly above "budget" and "economy" type hotels. We joked it's the premier hotel in Dyersville, lol. Well, it beats driving an additional 20 miles to Dubuque. We were actually lucky to find a room (totally winging it until we get to South Dakota) because there are a bunch of helicopter and airplane pilots here tonight; we got the last room. They're getting ready to do some crop dusting. Didn't know helicopters can do that. There's 4 helicopters parked behind the hotel on the grass!
Tomorrow (Tuesday): Field of Dreams, a giant strawberry roadside attraction, Burr Oak, IA (another Laura Ingalls Wilder site), the Spam Museum (Austin, MN). If we have time Pepin, WI (another Laura Ingalls Wilder site).
Below are some pics:
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