Bridges of Madison County day
We had a quiet and uneventful night at Galesburg, a very
average breakfast put on by the hotel and hit the road about 8:15am. The area was covered in pretty heavy fog, it
was like pea soup (where did that expression come from, it’s neither green nor
pea-shaped ?) for the first half an hour’s drive, but fortunately it burnt off
pretty quickly and by 9am it was plain sailing.
No issues with the four hour drive to Winterset, however after a quick
exit to top-up with petrol and use the loo, Dora did send us on a circuitous
route back to the motorway, which she then seemed quite embarrassed about, and
was pretty quiet for the rest of the trip.
We arrived in Winterset just after midday, and headed straight for the
North Side café for lunch. This is the
café that was used for filming during the movie The Bridges of Madison
County. Clint Eastwood apparently parked
himself on the forth stool from the doorway when he met Lucy Redfern by chance
at the diner. If you’ve never watched
the movie you will have no idea what I’m talking about. But that does not matter, what matters is the
make an awesome range of pies. J had
Peanut Butter pie, and I had Pumpkin Cheesecake, topped with sugared
pecans. Both were delicious and not at
all necessary for our already round tums, but we ate them anyway. We waddled out of the café and decided to
find some accommodation for the night.
The only motel in town, the Super 8 was fully booked, so we tried plan B
which was a local B&B. Heavenly
Habitat was first on the list, so named because it is a converted church. It’s a lovely little place filled with very
nice furniture etc. Accommodation
sorted, we headed off to the first of the bridges in the area, the Holliwell
bridge. Alas there was a wedding in
progress at the time, and the bride & bride and assembled guests were
crowded at one end of the bridge and we couldn’t get a decent look in. We drove around to the other end, but that
wasn’t much good either. We did meet a
nice couple from Des Moines, who had lived there for many years and were on
their very first visit to the bridges.
Des Moines is the nearest big city, only an hour’s drive away. They told us it was unusually warm for this
time of year (we were just wearing t-shirts, no long sleeves or outer tops
required), and they often get snow settled on the ground from mid-November that
lasts right through to the end of March.
By the way, the bridge is actually no longer in use, it has been replaced
with a new roadway and modern bridge, so they are not used except as a tourist
attraction, and sometimes wedding venue.
Roseman Bridge was next on the list, similarly this is no longer in use
and has been replaced with a modern bridge.
We had better luck this time, no weddings in progress and while there
were about a dozen other sight-seers like us, we did manage to get photos
without other people cluttering them up.
Cedar Bridge was next, this one can still be driven over but that’s
because it was burnt down by an arsonist back in 2002 and has been
re-built. Same style and methods used,
but you can tell all the wood is new. Of
course, all of the bridges have had graffiti added, mostly of the “Barbie loves
Ken 1978” variety, and given it was a reproduction bridge rather than an
original, and that we had travelled such a long way to see it, J decided he
would add an inscription from us. Which
sounded like a great idea, until he dropped my pen and it fell through the
wooden trusses on the side of the bridge onto the ground below. Much hilarity ensued as he climbed under the
bridge to retrieve it. Unbelievable, he
did actually find it again, and the inscription was completed.
Next bridge on the list was Hogback bridge. Not one of the ones used during the filming,
but I’d overheard someone say it was worth a visit, so off we went. It was pretty spectacular, and nicely
reflected in the stream flowing underneath it.
All of these bridges had a tonne of flies swarming everywhere (we’re in
farming country now) and tiny black bitey bugs that were having a good old
feast on my arms. I expected to end up
covered in itchy welts, but so far so good, no reaction to them. Maybe they just had really tickly feet, with
no after-effects. By now it was about 5
o’clock, so we decided to head home and get changed to go out and find
something to eat. Not much on offer in
the tiny town, so we ended up back at the North Side café for dinner as well. At least they serve real food, we both had
salads for dinner, washed down with a slice each of the super pumpkin
cheesecake. Too delicious to
resist. I think I’ve mentioned this
before, but halloween makes much more sense here. In NZ, it seems a bit odd, like an excuse to
bludge sweets off the neighbours, but here, it’s a whole big thing with weeks
of build-up and decorations, and it’s as much about the change of season as
anything else. And part of the season
are pumpkins, and pumpkins make delicious treats when baked into things like
cheesecake. I also had a scrummo pumpkin
roll at Fallingwater, it was like a swiss roll filled with a cream cheese type
mixture to stick it all together.
Seriously good.
Iowa is crop country, and today we passed field after field
of corn. The land is mostly pretty flat,
sometimes gently rolling, so it’s quite different from the tree-clad hills we
saw in Pennsylvania. And we are at the
end of the autumn colours here, lots of the trees are bare already, and those
still with leaves are mostly dark yellow or brown about to fall off. Lots of wide open spaces for crops and then a
cluster of buildings. House, barn,
equipment sheds, plus silos, presumably for storing the corn. Quite a few of the local roads that we took
to see the bridges are all unsealed, so it makes sense that almost everyone
drives a big chevvie or GMC truck. The
town of Winterset feels very small and very rural, and it isn’t a stretch to
imagine it being the mid 60’s when the movie was set. It’s been good to see a small slice of
American farming life. And the bridges are
more interesting and picturesque than I imagined they would be, so it was
definitely worth the long haul to get here J
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| Inside the bridge showing the timber construction |
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| A common sight here in Iowa |
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