A Man's Got to Do What a Man's Got to Do

Winterset, Iowa
Winterset City Park Campground

Sandie Dixon suggested I put the temperature on my blog along with the city.  I started this blog and went to get my phone to check the weather and discovered somewhere during the day I lost it.   This resulted in back tracking everything we did today.  Why do we cram so much into a day?

We rolled out of Victorian Acres RV Park in Nebraska City around 9 am.  After crossing into Iowa we took highway 34 to highway 169.  

Winterset City Park is where we are spending the night.  They have 50 amp service and it costs $16 for a pull thru.  

We drove the 7 blocks to John Wayne's birthplace.  

This the site of their new John Wayne museum.  The house is the white one.

We entered through the gift shop and had to wait about 15 minutes for a tour.  The tour wasn't much, just the 4 room house where he was born in 1907.  The stained glass and the woodwork and wood floors were probably the only thing original in the house.  Photos were not allowed.

They had the patch John Wayne wore over his eye in the movie True Grit.  It had black mesh over it so he could see out of it.  




We rode a block to the town square where they had a beautiful county building.

All of the streets had beautiful flower baskets that were all flowers and no leaves.








I went into the Chamber of Commerce to get a map of the covered bridges.  Did I mention that we are in Madison County?

This is the Roseman Covered Bridge where Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep were starred in the movie The Bridges of Madison County. All of the bridges had romantic writings on the walls.  

Built in 1883, 107 feet long, and it sits in its original location.

This is the Hogback Bridge which was built by the same builder, Benton Jones.  It was built in 1884 and was renovated in 1992 at a cost of $118,810.

As we were driving over these dirt roads we passed this old stone school.

According to the plaque it was built in 1874.  This was one of the best built schools we've seen.  It was locked but we looked in the windows and it was fully furnished.

Cedar Covered Bridge was built in 1883 and was the last bridge open to vehicles.  It was moved to this location in 1921. Cedar Bridge was on the cover of the book "The Bridges of Madison County."  This bridge was destroyed by arson on
September 2, 2002.  A replica was built and dedicated in 2004.

Bill had to drive the truck over  this one.  I walked across it.

The Cutler-Donahoe Bridge is located in the city park where the campground is located.  It was moved here in 1970.

The Winterset City Park is an attraction in itself.  Besides the covered bridge their is a stone foot bridge that was a movie site. There is also a maze.  Further down this very narrow dirt tree lined

road was the Clark Tower.  We discovered after we drove the treacherous windy road that there is a shorter 2 mile hike to it. 

Of course, I had to have a look from the top of the tower.  

The steps were very crude and not uniform in size.

This was on the side of the tower but there wasn't anything else to tell you more.

I was very happy to be off that "road".  It was a one way and there was a sign that said nothing larger than 20 feet but I think they should have restricted long bed trucks.  One interesting sign we saw as we entered the park was that no smoking or tobacco products were allowed.

This cabin is also in the park right near our campsite.




It was a good day except for the loss of my cell phone.  Bill never complained, we just retraced our steps trying to find it.  

Did I mention that all the roads in Iowa are gravel?  You know how Bill likes a clean truck.  

Have you ever seen his truck this dirty besides the Mud Escapade Rally in Sedalia?

Turtle Safely......