The Bridges of Madison County

Denisa read the book, and later watched the movie entitled, "The Bridges of Madison County." So of course we were going to see as many of those covered bridges as possible while we were visiting Madison County, Iowa.

We started our evening tour taking the scenic routes, with many miles of gravel roads. But that also meant that we got to see some of the local wildlife--deer and pheasant and dove--and miles of corn and soy beans.

Our first stop was the Roseman Bridge, featured in the book and movie. This was the bridge that Clint Eastwood asked Meryl Streep for directions to in the 1995 movie. We found it without Meryl's help this day.

We were surprised at how many people were visiting covered bridges on this hot afternoon. Four other cars pulled up while we were at the Roseman Bridge. One vacationing couple offered to take our picture together.

The bridge had just been painted before filming began, but the director wanted a more rustic look. So it was repainted in a way to make it more worn for the movie. After Hollywood left, they paid to have it repainted like new again. Mark wore his covered-bridge-red shirt to match this day.

Our second Madison County bridge was the Hogback. While most bridges were named after the neighboring land owner, this one was named after the Hogback ridge of hills than runs around the valley.

It was originally built in 1884, but like most of these bridges, it has been refurbished since. 

It was 7:30 p.m. by the time we arrived at the Hogback, which is four miles northwest of Winterset. We downloaded the "Coverd Bridges Scenic Byway" audio tour before we left town, and it automatically started giving us information about each bridge as we approached it.

The easiest bridge to see, was the one inside the city limits of Winterset, Iowa. We mentioned it in our blog last time, because the Cutler-Dona Bridge is actually inside the city-owned park where we were camping.

The book, "The Bridges of Madison County" became an overnight success when it was featured on the Oprah Winfrey show. The Cedar Bridge was featured on the cover of the book in 1992, and it was the site of Oprah's show that aired in 1993. The steps that Mark was standing on were built for the television show and the locals still call them the "Oprah steps."

It's the only bridge that vehicles can drive through, so of course we did. But the reason it can still handle vehicular traffic is that it is a relatively new bridge.

The first Cedar Bridge was built in 1883 for about $3,000. When it burned down from arson in 2002, it cost almost a million dollars to rebuild it. When an arsonist struck again in 2017, it was rebuilt a third time. That was when canisters of fire retardant were also installed in its roof.

Besides the covered bridges, we got a bonus one-lane metal bridge on this evening drive in the country.

Our final stop of the day was the Holliwell Bridge.

The Holliwell covered bridge was situated over a lovely creek, and we were enjoying beautiful Iowa weather this evening.

This bridge was built in 1880, and was also featured in the movie. 

At 110-feet in length, it's the longest bridge in Madison County.

Our drive through the country roads in Iowa led us to a wide variety of animals. Most of our encounters were too quick to take a picture. But we enjoyed watching a pair of skunks (from a distance), a mother racoon and her 3 babies, a flock of turkeys, and 38 deer (in groups of 1 to 4). Every time we would feel safe to drive these narrow country roads, another deer or two would run onto the road in front of us. Obviously, drivers must exercise care when going down these roads in the evening. All those animals were enjoying the acres of soybeans and corn that Iowa is famous for.

The sun was setting as we made our stop at the fifth bridge of Madison County. What a peaceful view of the country. Why, that's pretty enough to inspire a book and a movie!

On the road again in Winterset, Iowa

We are so excited to be on the road again! We had lots of last minute chores to complete, getting the house ready to sit empty for the next two months. We must say that travel was easier when we didn't have a house and yard to worry about. But we were on the road before noon. We were very soon into Missouri, and two hours later we crossed the state line into Iowa--with freedom to flourish.

Our first Iowa stop was at the Maid-Rite store and cafe in Lamoni, Iowa. We were here to eat a maid-rite sandwich for lunch. It's a food made famous in Iowa, and we love trying the regional dishes around the country. A maid-rite is a loose meat sandwich. That means they brown ground beef with some seasonings and serve it on a bun. Not spectacular cuisine, but it was made famous here at the Maid-Rite Cafe.

More spectacular were the cinnamon rolls that can be purchased here. They were about the size of your face, and were still light and fluffy.

Our first day included a three-hour drive to our first campground, and we found a gem of a park in Winterset, Iowa.  We were glad that this park had electrical hook-ups, because it was 94 degrees inside the trailer when we got set up. We needed our air-conditioner, and we can't run it with just our solar power. The city campground had lost a few trees, but they have turned those losses into carved art throughout the park.

They also had an English hedge maze in the park adjacent to the campground.

We took several dead ends within the maze before we found the sun dial at the center.

While the hedges were amazing for someone shorter, Mark could cheat and peer over the maze. So he won the race to the exit.

Denisa is a fan of the flower gardens, and this public park also had a nice bloom of purple cone flowers . . .

and wildflowers. 

Winterset has a big public park, and a one-mile hike (or drive) takes visitors through the forest to Clark Tower. Denisa felt a little like Rapunzel, like she should let down her long hair from this stone tower window.

The native stone tower provides nice wondow views from the middle level . . .

and another set of steps provides even bigger sweeping views from the top of the turret.

Also within our park was this unusually large boulder with an unusually large inscription. We learned that it commemorates the discovery of a new kind of apple by a Quaker that moved here in 1856. Quite by accident, he propagated an unusually elongated apple with five bumps on the bottom that was so good it was named "Delicious." The Delicious became America's best-selling apple for over a century, and it started right here in Madison County, Iowa. In our lifetime we have eaten a lot of Delicious apples and now we know where they came from.

The other interesting part of our park is one of the famous Bridges of Madison County. The subject of a book and then a 1995 movie starring Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep, these bridges are sprinkled around the county. But the easiest to access is the Cutler-Dona bridge. It was built in 1870, and moved to this park in 1970--just in time for the first-ever Covered Bridge Festival. They are expecting thousands of people in Winterset for the festival this fall.

The town of Winterset's favorite son, Marion Robert Morrison, was born here on May 26, 1907. Most of us know him by his Hollywood name--John Wayne. His birthplace museum is in downtown Winterset.

The sidewalk out front is lined with granite tiles with the names of the 142 movies in which he had leading roles.

Adjacent to the museum is the four-room house where John Wayne was born. We visited town in the evening, when everything was closed. But the grounds were very interesting for a visit. . . and free.

Speaking of free, on the corner of this block rests Madison County's "Freedom Rock." An Iowa artist started this project to paint a boulder in every county in the state to commemorate the veterans from that area. This one was unique because it included pictures of John Wayne in his roles in military movies, while John Wayne never served in the military himself. On the other side of the rock were pictures of Madison County veterans that were POW's.

It was a good first stop on this first day of a two-month trip that will include eight states, two countries, five great lakes, and all the Six Flags parks in the midwest. We were back to our trailer in time for a cotton candy pink sunset. Have we mentioned how good it is to be on the road again?!?