On our way home from Minnesota (after the Minnesota-Wisconsin-Iowa TRIO conference in April), we spent some time in wholesome, farmy Iowa. Knowing we'd be driving through Des Moines on our way through the state, which happens to be in famous Madison County, we made a date with some bridges. Perhaps you've heard of the book or seen the film. You know the one, right? The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller? It's a classic love story that takes place in this part of Iowa, centered around the historic and picturesque covered bridges scattered throughout the county. Of course we did our homework and read the book before the trip. Let's just say read it if you wanna, but without a doubt go check out the stars of the story: those amazing covered bridges!

It should come as no surprise that for us two ARKANSAS girls, the first bridge on the "must see" list was HOGback, constructed in 1884. What remains of Iowa's covered bridges in Madison County can be found throughout the countryside, pretty far off the beaten path. So far, in fact, we lost cell reception and had to wing it off some notes on the whereabouts of the bridges. A few sign postings helped, but it was easy to see why in the book Robert Kincaid needed Francesca's help finding these bridges! Have you still not read the book yet? It's so short and sweet, you could probably read it in the time it takes you to read this blog post. Although the bridges seem rather romantic (especially when tied to the story of Robert and Francesca) they were built to provide refuge from winter weather and protect the big timbers of the bridge floor from ice and snow. Madison County had 19 of these bridges, but only five originals remain. Built between 1870-1884, the bridges slowly succumbed to arson, floods, and accidents, diminishing the number of these quaint pieces of Iowa history.

In addition to Hogback Bridge, we visited Roseman (this one plays a prominent role in the book/movie), Holliwell, and Imes bridges. It took some time to drive around, but was totally worth every minute of gorgeous country scenery and adorable, well-preserved historic small towns. The town square of Winterset is just about as picture-perfect as you can imagine. This town is also the birthplace of THE John Wayne. The tiny white house where he was born is available to tour. The Duke was actually born as Marion Robert Morrison in 1907 and you can see his film memorabilia in the museum across the street from the home. Full disclosure: we spent so much time bridge hunting, we didn't have time to tour JW's home and birthplace. But we made sure to do a drive-by and snap a quick photo.

One last highlight of our time in Iowa... we made it to Iowa State University in Ames! We drove around and through campus several times admiring the buildings and clean campus with the pretty ponds, ducks, and blooming flowers. It was a beautiful spring day and we couldn't have been more impressed with this big university (a public flagship institution founded in 1858). But the real reason we drove around campus like stalkers? We were hunting for the World's 2nd Largest Concrete Gnome which lives in the gorgeous Reiman Gardens on campus. We found him (at 15-feet tall and nearly 3,500 lbs., he's hard to miss) and snapped his photo from behind (not a great angle, even for garden gnomes). The gnome is not ISU's mascot; that honor goes to Cy the Cardinal. Overall it was a beautiful campus visit with a little quirky fun for good measure.

Time to cross those covered Bridges of Madison County off our list! It was a peaceful day of driving through rural Iowa and just about as close to heaven as we could get... no time to talk about Field of Dreams; we should probably stick to only one movie reference per blog post. But if ever we venture near the actual Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, it will be on our list!

Hey, Is This Heaven? (No. It's Iowa.)