The Bridges of Madison County

 June 5 2023 Monday

The majority of the day today was spent on a dusty road trip to the covered bridges of Madison County Iowa. There are six of them in and around the town of Winterest. That’s pretty commendable to the caliber of the folks that live here. Almost all the covered bridges back where I lived in Maryland were lost to floods, fires and neglect a long time ago.

The Roseman bridge was used in the movie.

Even before the bridges were brought to everyone's attention in the movie, The Bridges of Madison County." they had been bypassed and preserved. Several of the bridges even have foam fire extinguishing canisters installed inside the covering. Some have security camera protection.

Foam fire suppression canisters.

The movie is a chick flick about an adulterous affair between a National Geographic photographer (Clint Eastwood) and the local farm wife (Merle Streep). Even if they won’t admit it, most of us guys have seen the movie. We were duped into going because it had Clint Eastwood in it. Well, it was no spaghetti western or Dirty Harry film, that’s for sure.

All the bridges now have traffic bypasses and only one allows vehicle passage, all are open to foot traffic. This was nice because you could linger inside and study the bridge architecture or read the letters of lovers scrawled on the wooden beams, some written by those in the throes of passion and others left by the forlorn.

Reading the love notes!

After dinner Millie and I decided to walk the trail to the observation tower in the park. Its more than a trail, it is a two rut gravel path, which was nice because we could walk side by side. It follows the contour of the terrain so if we weren’t going uphill we were going down which we didn’t mind because we needed the exercise. The route was one and a half miles and I will admit towards the end we were looking for the tower around every curve in the road. 

The tower wasn’t very impressive. other than it was built by the Civilian Conservation Corp during the Great Depression It was made of cut stone by young men working for $30 a month, of which $25 was sent home to their family. Tough times back then. There wasn't much of a view from the tower, the town needs to cut out some of the trees. The walk back didn’t seem as long, I guess because we had walked it once.

June 6 2023 Tuesday

Today we drove to the Des Moines, the state capital. My original intention on this trip was to steer clear of the west coast, the southern border, and big cities. We justified this trip, not to tour the city, but to go to Wal-Mart. I’m not sure what that says about us.

We have been on the road for two and a half weeks and for the most part have avoided population centers and even interstate highways. When we got to the newly developed area on the southwest side of the city I was like a country bumpkin on my first visit to the city! At one point I actually said to Millie, “would you just look at those big buildings”. The buildings were about five stories tall. All I needed to add was “Gaulleee” and I’d be ready for the Andy Griffith show!

After Dinner tonight Millie and I went to a you-spray it car wash and cleaned the truck. It was covered in the white dust that is everywhere here. Even paved roads are dusty because the shoulders are the same white crushed stone. I've never seen as many gravel roads in a state before.

We started watching the Highlander, but quit about ten minutes into the film. We didn’t like the way it flashed back and forth between early Scotland and present time New York. We switched to “The Accountant” with Ben Affleck. We really enjoyed this movie; we gave it an 8 and 9 out of 10.

Tomorrow, we head north to Forest City Iowa.

PS: This new version of google blogger is very buggy and most of the time I am not able to add captions.

PSS: See the Just pic's from Madison Bridges.