I've wanted to hit the road and go on a road trip for a while and currently have several trips planned. For various reasons each trip had been cancelled or moved back but there was one I was determined to get in before the year was over. And it was a road trip to Iowa. Now every time people asked me where I was going they would give me a puzzled look when I answered Iowa, kind of like -why Iowa? What is there to do in Iowa?
Well the answer is there is a lot to see and do in Iowa. So much so that at some point I will have to return to the Hawkeye State for a second visit. During the trip we even made two detours because we saw signs for things we didn't even know about.
Now the problem with a road trip to Iowa is that from TN we had seven hours of driving before we even reached the state and another two on top of that before we reached our first destination. Here is a rough estimate of the driving time and mileage. That doesn't include stops to rest and eat or the two detours we added to the trip that took us off the path a bit but it is close enough to give an idea.
We left my house very early and made really good time by 7am we had driven in three different states and before 10 am we were passing St. Louis. St. Louis is a pretty town that I want to go back to as well. We had been there once before for a weekend to see friends from college get married. In that time Meghan, my Mom, and myself had squeezed in a lot of sightseeing but it all was very rushed.
For now we settled with the sights that we could see from the highway which included St. Louis' famous Arch, the new Busch Stadium, and this pretty neat Budweiser sign with a light up eagle flying proudly. It would have been even cooler at night when the light effect would have been more apparent.
Shortly after crossing into the south eastern tip of Iowa we saw a sign directing drivers to pull off at the next exit to go to the "American Gothic house." In case you don't know American Gothic is a painting by Grant Wood in 1930.
The house, it turns out, is in Eldon, Iowa. The figures in the painting were actually modeled by Wood's sister, Nan, and his dentist, Dr. Byron McKeeby. Wood said he drew the "kind of people who would live in that house."
In front of the visitor/information center was a statue recreating the depicted father and daughter who during the depression where seen as representing "the steadfast American pioneer spirit."
The painting has been one of the most parodied paintings in American culture whether in tv or movies. At the visitor center they have costumes so that visitors can dress up as the iconic figures and take their own American Gothic photo. In front of the house is a mark for where visitors need to stand to get the right angle.
After that detour we continued our path to Pella, Iowa and the Vermeer Mill. As we drove along highway 163 we saw signs in the fields along the highway about an airport that was planned for the area and the owners of the fields were clearly not in favor. Basically on both sides of the road was sign after sign saying, "Say no to the airport" and, "You can't grow corn in concrete." We figured that this was some kind of case of possible eminent domain and a little bit of research when I got home proved that. Apparently since 2012 there has been an ongoing battle over the planned South Central Regional Airport. Right now there are smaller airports in the towns of Pella (where we were going) and the town of Oskaloosa. The plan would close both of those airports and open a 583 acre airport along the highway in Mahaska county. An agreement was signed between the two cities and the county but earlier this year the county voted to leave the agreement and stopped sending their representative to committee meetings. I assume that is due to the unpopularity of the project with the farmers who could face losing their property. Several families have joined together and hired lawyers to represent them in this battle. Looks like the latest developments would be that with the attempted withdrawal of the county no entity would be able to actually claim eminent domain for the space needed. However a recent ruling has stopped the county from withdrawing from the agreement.
This is one of the neat things about a road trip like this we got a look into that area and what people there are feeling or doing. The roadside attractions give us destinations but it is the things we find and see and the experiences that make a trip valuable. Something like this kind of experience were we get a look inside life in that area is valuable because it helps make a connection. These days social media and the internet helps us stay in touch with people better and you would think that we are more connected but that doesn't seem to be true at all. So here it is. What do I have in common with people in Iowa? Or why go to Iowa, as I was asked many times? Well the answer is I am a home owner just like these farmers. Add on to that that for them that property is also their livelihood. I can imagine the anger and fear that they would feel at the threat of losing part of their farm/home. Or maybe for some it is excitement. Not all the property owners in the area are against it some might see it as an opportunity to get fair market value for their property.
We continued on the highway to Pella and eventually the Vermeer Mill. The mill is a replica of the 1850 city mill. The top was actually manufactured in the Netherlands and can turn 360 degrees to get the blades in the wind. From ground to tip is is the tallest working mill in the US at 124 feet and the blades are 82 feet in length.
As we were approaching the mill on all the street signs were little pictures of a Danish windmill. We turned from one small street into the town square and the mill exploded into sight. At the base is a statue of two figures skating, a gift from the Vermeer family in 2015.
Next we traveled to Des Moines along highway 80 where we passed a large wind farm and giant turbines. I know a lot of people don't like them but I find the turbines beautiful and mesmerizing; to me watching them spin at different speeds is very peaceful.
Since my Mom was with us along with her dog Domino we had found a LaQuinta Inn to stay at that night because they are good hotels and always dog friendly. We checked in and left Domino so we could get dinner and she could relax, she isn't the biggest fan of car trips. The hotel associate had recommended the Granite City Food and Brewery and so we went. We have one in TN that Meg and I have been to twice and always have had a good experience.
They had a special Oktoberfest menu that included an amazing Bavarian Pretzel. This pretzel was huge and could easily be split between four people. We also had their Oktoberfest beer which they were quickly running out of for good reason, it was delicious!
The rest of the meal was great as well as was the service and we left to continue exploring the sites on my list.
Next was an odd site of a "graveyard in the middle of a road." A traffic circle goes around the family cemetery. A fence surrounds the cemetery to keep out trespassers and signs direct cars around it because apparently there has been an issue of cars driving into the cemetery and tree.
As we left from there to head to Adair, Iowa I warned Meg and my Mom that we may not be able to find the next attraction. Reviews that I had seen online said it was hard to find and I knew we would be getting there after dark. I had used google maps before leaving to try and pinpoint where the sites were but this one had even been hard to find on the satellite image. So I planned to go there and try but not to spend to much time looking for it.
In Adair, Iowa is a plaque that claims it is the site of the notorious Jesse James Gang's first western train robbery. Now maybe the sign is new but about a half mile before we reached the site there was a sign notating that in 1/2 mile there was a historical marker. I had seen that earlier in the drive and laughed at the sign telling us there was a sign. But it proved very useful because sure enough on the left of the road was a raised pull off that brought us straight to the Jesse James Historic Site.
Encouraged by our ease at finding the James Gang train robbery site we set out for the next roadside attraction. Apparently on 350th street in Brayton, Iowa there is a tree in the middle of the road. Unfortunately we could not get there. We had traveled down a few dirt roads and Meg's poor Ford C-Max was being a good sport about it but I could feel its displeasure at the gravel road. However when we reached 350th street there was a sign that read "road abandoned" and basically an enter at your own risk type message. I did turn down it and drove about ten feet however there were deep mud tracks and the fact that there had been recent rainfall making the mud worse caused me to stop and back up. It's ok. It happens sometimes. On a trip in Florida Meghan and I had gone looking for a test rocket that was supposed to be near an industrial park. However we had been unable to find it. Sometimes directions are hard to follow and unclear, or these attractions can be moved to new locations, or like in this case roads could be closed or blocked.
A little sad but pretty sure I made the right call (my Mom was certainly happy with it) we continued on to the next location on my list which would be the last one of the night. In Elk Horn, Iowa there was another Danish Windmill. Unfortunately the blades of the windmill have been taken down.
After that we returned to our hotel and found Domino patiently waiting for us.
The next morning started with breakfast at the hotel to give us a good start for what promised to be a long day. Even though the drive time was only seven hours I figured there were a couple of spots that would take longer than the normal quick roadside stops.
Our first stop was the Pappajohn's Sculpture Park in Des Moines just a few minutes from the hotel. I was going there for one statue in particular but found some of the others pretty cool and amusing. The one we went for was the Thinker on a Rock by Barry Flanagan, a take on Auguste Rodin's sculpture The Thinker. Flanagan replaces the figure of a man with a hare which is an animal that is often used to represent a trickster. Flanagan choose a hare because of its popularity in pop culture and talked about how the hare's ears become an added appendage to show its attention.
I did like him and I think he was my favorite but there were some others that I really liked.
For example this playful duo by Ugo Rondinone are actually recreations of his clay sculptures. They are 2 in a series of 12 called Moonrise. The first sculpture with the wide grin is January and August is peering out behind him photobombing.
This next one is called Decoy and part of the reason that I really like it is because I fell for it. As I was walking over looking at it I thought "what a strange place to put a sewer cap and pipe" then I got closer and saw the wood grain under the bronze. There are many ways decoy can be interpreted but to me it was finding a piece of art hidden in what at first appeared to be an everyday object.
And the last one is Nomade by Jaume Plensa. The figure is a human made up of white letters. Plensa saw the piece as being open so that viewers can peer inside or even walk inside. He compares it to lovers losing themselves in the other and also once you walk inside it is like the figure is embracing you. In his own words when talking about the use of letters Plensa says:
"In Nomade, I was using only Latin letters, and it creates a certain mesh, like in construction. I remember talking with an structural engineer, and he said: 'Well that is the most strong way to do any structure in architecture.' To, to do a mesh like that, that all the longs are going to many directions and it's very resistant. I love it that image as a poetical metaphor. That, probably language, it's the best structure to hold us up."
Once we were back to the car my Mom pointed out the beautiful red color of some leaves on the far side of the park.
We left Des Moines to drive to Kelley, IA where two blocks beyond a water tower beside a bus stop and the tiny town's PO Boxes is a working phone and phone booth. And yes I 100% drove to Iowa to see a phone booth.
I read reports on the internet that someone in the town sometimes monitors it because some visitors have reported being at the phone booth and getting a call from residents asking how they are doing.
However I was there very early on a Saturday morning so I figured we would not be getting any calls because if I were them I would be sleeping still. I was going to try and make a call with it but the coin slot was filled in. However it does work. I closed the phone booth and Meghan called the phone to try it out.
I know the last time I used a public phone was easily at least eight years ago and I was in Brooklyn, NY. My cell phone battery had died and I needed to call my Mom to tell her something. For the record the phone booth has a Facebook page as well.
Next we went looking for the "World's Largest Concrete Garden Gnome." It is somewhere on the Iowa State University property. However they were having an event. I pulled up to two very nice young men at the University parking lot entrance and first asked them not to laugh at me. Then I asked them if they knew where the Giant Garden Gnome was. They didn't but one did say that to our left were the gardens and perhaps it was back there but I would have needed a parking pass to get onto the property. I thanked them and as I pulled away they called out "Go Yankees!" I was wearing a 1998 World Series tee shirt which was 1: a great great year for baseball fans and 2: I now realize probably a tee shirt older than the two young men that I was talking too. We drove around the side to see if we could see it from the road. Meg and my Mom were on lookout duty while I was obviously watching the road. We made two rights passed an amazingly beautiful home and then my Mom yelled out and scared the hell out of me. However just over some bushes and beyond a black iron fence she could see the very top of the gnome's hat. It looks like they were doing a bunch of construction on the garden and I imagine it will be beautiful when they finish.
Since we were about to start north we decided to stop for gas, something I tried to do once the car started getting down to a little over 1/4 tank. We stopped at a Route 66 Fill Station. What a great gas station! They had hand sanitizer at the pumps, the attendant in the store was very pleasant, and they had a cool selection of local craft beers. I bought two six packs to bring home and try. I bring a cooler with me on road trips just so that I can get growlers or local beers to bring home. I picked these two out and bought a bag of ice to keep them cold.
The next stop was at a house in Nevada, Iowa along the Lincoln Highway. We stopped when we got to the Lincoln Highway to enjoy the view.
The Lincoln Highway was dedicated October 31, 1913. It is a coast to coast highway from Manhattan, NY to Lincoln Park, San Francisco. The highway is the first national memorial to President Lincoln predating the Lincoln monument dedication in 1922. Here is a map of the route. Lincoln Highway
Like I said before I think the wind turbines are beautiful and peaceful. I loved looking at this one over the cornfield.
A few miles after we turned onto the Lincoln Highway we came to the house. Using a tree stump in his front yard the owner had carved a very impressive statue of President Lincoln.
Fantastic!
Next was a long drive north to Clear Lake, Iowa. However we made a detour before getting there. At the Dows rest stop in Franklin county along I-35 we saw a sign pointing to a Civil War Memorial in Hampton.
Outside the rest stop was a plaque with the Bivouac of The Dead quoted on it. I had first seen this poem when visiting Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, KY. (Cave Hill Cemetery Blog)
There are also small plaques that had quotes from soldiers and their families letters.
Apparently Franklin County has the only Civil War Soldier's Memorial Hall in Iowa. The building was built in 1890 in a Gothic Revival style. At the rest stop it specifically mentioned the battle of Pleasant Hill (April 9th, 1864) in Louisiana as a site where soldiers from Franklin county lost their lives. The building was closed so we couldn't go in.
Across the street from the Memorial Hall was the Franklin County Courthouse.
The large tree in front is a European Larch planted in 1876. It is now called the Centennial tree. As we were there the clock struck noon and the bells began chiming.
Near the public library across the street I saw another tree that had a beautiful yellow color.
And then we were on our way north again back on highway 35. I'm not sure what kind of concrete was used in paving it but it had an awesome red color to it. Also we noticed at all the ramps there were gates to actually close the highway in case of emergencies like inclement weather. I can't think of ever seeing anything like that before.
And so as we drove further north we began to see these awesome trees with silver leaves on them. I'm not sure what they were but we did not see them in the southern areas of Iowa. At this point we were getting close to Minnesota so I assume it is a cold weather tree and I wish I knew what it was.
We got off I-35 and began driving through small roads among corn and wheat fields. October is harvest time and every farm we passed was active with large machinery clearing fields. A few times we slowed for tractors pulling loads of their crops for storage. It was fascinating to see the hard work of the farmers. Then we reached our destination.
Meghan and I had grown up listening to music from the 50s and 60s on cd sets put out by Lifetime. One song we had loved from when we first listened to it was Chantilly Lace by the Big Bopper, J.P. Richardson. Another song I remember listening to over and over again was That Will Be the Day by Buddy Holly. And I knew that the two of them along with Richie Valens had lost their lives in a plane crash. I didn't realize it was in Iowa until I started researching this trip. But as soon as I knew that I knew we would be stopping there. On February 3rd, 1959 after playing a show in Clear Lake Buddy Holly chartered a flight for him and two others to their next show. The Big Bopper had gotten the flu so rather than take the cold long bus ride he took a ride on the plane switching with Waylon Jennings who was in Buddy Holly's band at the time. Apparently Richie Valens took the last seat after winning a coin toss with Buddy Holly's other band member Tommy Allsup. The farmer who owns the field they crashed in keeps it plowed from the road to the crash site and there is a small memorial to the artists and their pilot, Roger Peterson.
The Buddy Holly glasses mark the spot on the road to let you know where to pull over. Then a short walk brings you to the memorial.
The field was peaceful as we walked between the corn and there was a steady flow of other travelers also coming to see the memorial. When we pulled up there were already two cars there as we were leaving we passed two other groups walking over and a third car was pulling up. As we walked I took a video of the rhythmic sound of the wind through the corn. It made me think of the pattern of rolling waves off the ocean.
I also had Don McLean's American Pie in my head as I walked around after all he is the one who named the day of that crash as 'the day the music died.' That is a song that I know every word of actually when Meg and I were teenagers we used that long song as a timing method. We would sing that song walking to work at McDonalds or on long walks when we missed a bus. We also used it at McDonalds . . . little known fact it worked almost perfectly to the amount of time the fries were in the oil so instead of listening to a timer beep I had the words to American Pie going through my mind.
There are so many references and meanings packed into the song, some have been confirmed by McLean. Other references are left open allowing anyone to analyze the song and what it means to them. This is intentional on Don McLean's part as he once said:
"You will find many interpretations of my lyrics but none of them by me... Sorry to leave you all on your own like this but long ago I realized that songwriters should make their statements and move on, maintaining a dignified silence."
Then it was time to turn south and east in Iowa. We had a quick stop in Strawberry Point, Iowa to see exactly what you would expect . . . .
A giant strawberry.
Then we continued on our way to the next spot which was the one I had been looking forward to the most. See in Iowa surrounded by cornfields is a baseball field made for one of the greatest movies ever.
It was everything I was hoping for! The house, bleachers, and field were perfect. I walked up to the cornstalks and stepped into them to get a shot from them to the home plate and then walked out like the players had in the movie. I mean there isn't a bad scene in that movie and the baseball and movie fan in me was thrilled to be standing there. If you haven't seen the movie I recommend it highly. In 2017 the US Library of Congress added Field of Dreams to the National Film Registry for preservation as being "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant."
There are so many great quotes and scenes in this movie I couldn't narrow down any to say that is my favorite. I could go on for hours about the movie and the different characters and what each of the messages given could mean for the different characters. The movie is about bringing dreams and reality together, it is offering redemption, and about relationships between family. Visiting the field is free and attracts over 65,000 visitors a year. It was worth the whole drive just to be there.
To end the day we had two more quick stops and then we were going to meet a friend for dinner. The first quick stop was a giant wooden nickel.
The buffalo nickel is one of my favorite coins to collect so I wanted to see this giant wood version. Also very timely it urges everyone to get out and vote. . . . so do that. Seriously. It is something that everyone should do; register to vote, pay attention, and vote. You can vote early in some states (I did this year) or mail in ballots so please please please please vote.
Last stop of the day was to see the Black Angel in Oakland Cemetery. My Mom is the one who spotted her as I drove down the main path of the cemetery.
The black angel marks the grave of Nicholas and Terezie Feldevertova. She is striking because of her obvious dark color which has caused people to spread rumors that its color changed because it is cursed or haunted. The color change is because the angel was made of bronze in 1911and as that bronze has aged it has darkened. Also it is looking down as if peering at its visitors which has helped add to rumors of it being cursed. The reason it is staring down is because the half tree trunk next to it is the grave of Terezie's son, Eduard Dolezal, who passed away young at only 17 years old.
We tried to meet our friend at Backpocket Brewing but their limited Oktoberfest menu did not leave many options for dinner. So Meg got a half growler with their Oktoberfest and we added that to the cooler for the trip home.
The next day was really just the drive home with one stop. But that was a big stop. Apparently the town of Riverside, Iowa has named itself the future birthplace of James T Kirk, Captain of the Starship Enterprise. At a town council meeting on March 25th, 1985 councilman Steve Miller proposed the town name itself the future birthplace. Miller had been reading Gene Roddenberry's book The Making of Star Trek. In it Roddenberry said Kirk would be born in a town in Iowa but didn't name the town. Miller seeing his chance proactively proposed his town. It became Star Trek cannon in 2009 when the town was named in the movie.
And then we just had the long ride home which was pretty uneventful except for one stop at a gas station along the "Avenue of the Saint's." The station had on display wine bottles in the shape of musical instruments filled with 'Jazzberry' wine. They are from Stone Cliff Winery in Dubuque, Iowa. They are in the shape of a saxophone, trumpet, and guitar. My Mom picked up one of each and the saxophone is currently chilling in the fridge.
The highway nickname of Avenue of the Saints isn't just one road; it is a path that weaves through Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri connecting St. Paul with St. Louis. The highway we were on was I-61.
As we got closer to TN we did run into some pretty intense rain so we had dinner in Clarksville at Chicago Pizza for some deep dish pizza. And then our whirlwind trip through Iowa was over. We had spent the better part of three days driving through five different states and now Meg's car needs an oil change.
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