Wine Time

A drive through Pammel Park was suggested by the lady at the Chamber so we drove through this park next.  The tunnel we drove through is the only highway tunnel in Iowa - per the Chamber lady. I actually googled that info to see if it was true and it is!!  It's a cool tunnel!!

Patty and I had been texting the guys off and on and even though the following picture IS a place that you can drive over, it looked a little deep to us as we were in a cadillac and the clearance isn't very high - nevertheless, we texted the guys that we DID drive over this waterway and it was a good thing we had the windows up as the water was higher than expected - ha ha!  They didn't fall for it!

We really kept our eyes open for the winery - and sure enough we found it easily enough - but the sign to turn on the road isn't very large!

The menu was cool since some of the wines were named featuring the movie!

We went ahead and did a wine tasting and also ordered a meat and cheese platter since we were rather hungry by this time!  We enjoyed the tastings and Patty ended up ordering a glass of regular wine while I ordered the slushy wine - it was delicious!!

The guys had texted us that they were going fishing out at the dam on our farm - somehow the rope came loose when the boat came off the trailer and it slid right out in the middle of the dam!!  So the guys had to wait till it drifted back in before they could climb on and fish!!

Glenn caught a nice one and the guys ended up grilling it that evening!

Back in Winterset, we decided to skip dinner since we had eaten at the winery - we did go back to the hotel and change clothes for our evening musical!   It was held in a theater - a lot like the theaters we used to go to growing up although this one seemed much smaller!  The small cast was singing songs from the Rodgers and Hammerstein collection of hits from old movies - the presentation was called "Some Enchanted Evening" and although we didn't know a few of the songs as the movies were older ones, we still thoroughly enjoyed it!

At intermission, I looked down at my pants leg and saw a bug on it so I flicked it off -unfortunately it landed on Patty and she flicked it off her pants but noticed that it looked like a tick!!!  GEESH!!!  Then we decided we had better find it since we didn't want it crawling back up our legs during the second 1/2 of the performance.  So I turned on the flashlight portion of my phone and we bent down trying to find this tick - sure enough it was there on my program (which I had dropped when I flicked the bug the first time) and it WAS a tick!!  Patty took it to the bathroom and flushed it away - we laughed and laughed!!!

Here is the cast from the performance.

Afterwards we saw a Tastee Freez so decided to stop for ice cream sundaes - yum!!!  The place was very busy and so reminded me of growing up in a small town and heading to Ute to go get ice cream - such great memories!!!

We were pretty tired after our busy day so our hotel beds looked very inviting that night!!

Of COURSE We Found Coffee - Cellar Coffee!

It was on to the Holliwell Bridge next - the longest bridge which measures 122 feet and was built in 1880.  It was also featured in the movie and it's where Clint Eastwood took the pictures of Meryl Streep!

Yes, that's me way at the other end!!

This bridge is right beside the Middle River.

And then it was FINALLY time to get coffee!  We had scouted out The Cellar the night before so we knew where it was at - it's lower level so you walk down to get into it and the coffee was not only great but we enjoyed talking to the owner also!

Next on our list was the John Wayne Museum - John Wayne was born in this town in 1907.  As you can imagine, the museum had a lot of props from his movies!

Although I wasn't a die hard John Wayne fan, I still remember a lot of his movies!

Along 2 sides of the museum are plaques with all of his movies - I took this picture for Glenn as How The West Was Won is one of his favorite movies and he's always joking around with the title of it!

This is the house where he was born - we took a tour through it and there were lots of donated antiques from the local historical society!

Outside is the county's Freedom Rock which has not been painted yet but soon will be!  The setting is perfect, right between the museum and the birthplace house!

Our favorite bridge came next - the Roseman covered bridge which was built in 1883 - this bridge is the most popular due to the movie and it was fun imagining the filming of the movie as we walked through it.

To the side of the bridge and across a wooden walkway sits a gift shop - we decided to go over there and check it out and were so glad we did!  We started talking to the gal running the shop and spent close to an hour in there, visiting with her and shopping!!  There's a TV playing in the gift shop and the movie "The Bridges of Madison County" plays over and over during the day!  We had fun picking out things to buy and I ended up with a sweatshirt, a Christmas ornament of the bridge (what a find!!) and a coffee mug with the famous saying "This kind of certainty only comes once in a lifetime."

The gal was kind enough to take several pictures of Patty and I!

Neat old rockers on the front porch of the gift shop - we could have spent a long time there.......

And once again, the river under the bridge!

Friday's adventures to be cont'd.........................

Friday Fun

After sleeping pretty good Thursday night, we were almost ready to head to the breakfast bar when the shrieking sound of the smoke alarm went off - REALLY???  Such a piercing sound and it just wouldn't stop - I opened the door and looked out as did other people on the first floor and we could see people at the far end running around.  It was all smoky at that end and a horrible smell - found out someone had started a fire in their wastebasket (probably not intentionally)..............after getting the air cleared out, we went on down to eat breakfast and luckily the room wasn't smoky.  We were definitely woke up for the day!!

Our plans were massive for the day - bridges, park, Clark Tower, John Wayne museum, winery and a musical for the evening!

The Cutler-Donahue covered bridge is set in the the Winterset City Park - built in 1871 it was moved to the park after it was no longer in use!

The park is beautiful and all the trees around the bridge made for a great picture!

The park has a loop that takes you through a heavily wooded area - just gorgeous!

We arrived at the Clark Tower which was erected in 1926 as a standing monument to the county's first pioneer family by their descendants.  It's constructed of native limestone and stands 25 feet high!

Of course we climbed to the top and had fun taking pictures out of the stone look-outs!

Then we circled around again and stopped to walk in this maze!

At the center of the maze (and no, it wasn't too hard to find the center - even for us old people!!) was a sundial!

Back in the car, it was time to see the next bridge BEFORE coffee!! 

Cider and Bridges

Patty and I checked into our hotel after lunch and planned our afternoon - we were going to see a couple of the bridges and go to a winery.

After missing the turn off for the first bridge and not even SEEING the sign for the winery, we ended up at the Winterset Cidery!  No problem - we'll do the cider place first!  It was a gorgeous building and we decided to take pictures outside first.  I was looking through my phone camera and told Patty to step down as she was in the shade and she immediately was NOT in my camera view - she had stepped down and fallen!!!  She wasn't hurt at all and we both were laughing so hard we could hardly talk - the owner of the place came out to make sure Patty was OK and oh my, how funny it was!!

I guess I was a little naive when I walked in there - I thought we were going to taste apple or cherry cider - duh - this was HARD cider - alcohol!!!!!  But of course we decided to go ahead and taste it since we were there!!  Good thing we shared!

I can't say I really like the hard cider at all - to me it had a beer taste and I'm not a beer drinker!  But we still had fun and ended up buying matching long sleeved t-shirts!

We found the Hogback covered bridge pretty easily - this bridge was built in 1884 and was named after a nearby limestone ridge!

No matter how many angles I tried, the bridge always looked like it was leaning!

I loved looking through the bridge and seeing all the rafters - and walking on those huge planks that they used for the floor!!  Many of the bridges had wooden pegs in them!

Next we headed over to the Cedar covered bridge which was built in 1883 - unfortunately this bridge was set on fire a few years ago - it was completely restored, only to have someone set it on fire again just a few weeks ago...................how sad!

We ate that evening at a Mexican restaurant - it was just OK, nothing special!  But we decided that we needed some chocolate to end our evening!  I had Patty pull up to the local drugstore since I was SURE that they would have dark chocolate but they didn't have ANY chocolate...............so we headed back to the motel as we were tired and guess what they had at the front desk - chocolate chip cookies - YUM!!  They tasted delicious with the coffee we made back in our room!

Guess I snapped a picture of the beautiful court house before we headed back to our motel - I love seeing that flag waving!

Time for some reading and relaxing - and we both put on our t-shirts for the rest of the night!!

So ended Thursday - and we knew Friday would be fantastic also!

Our Excellent Road Trip to Winterset

Winterset, Iowa - here we come!  Luckily  Patty was feeling pretty good so we headed out Thursday morning for our road trip!  We had decided we did NOT want to take the interstate but wanted to do the back highways to get there and see the countryside!!  First stop - Denison for our caramel frappes!

Patty had suggested that if there were any "Freedom Rocks" to see along the way, that we stop and see them!  Freedom Rocks are large boulders brought usually to a city park (one per county) and you commission a guy to paint it!  After Bubba Sorenson painted the first rock, several other counties hired him to paint their rock and it soon caught on to almost every county in Iowa!

Our first rock to see was in Manning - it was set in a lovely park and there's usually a place to read what the rock portrays and a signature book!  Very interesting!  Most of the rocks have 4 sides painted although I didn't always take a photo of each side!  And it was interesting to see the different sizes of the rocks also!

 We pulled into Winterset about lunch time and immediately loved this town - the main street is set around a huge square where the court house is - we knew we wanted to eat at the Northside Diner where a scene from the movie "Bridges of Madison County" was filmed so that's where we headed!  The food was delicious and I so enjoyed having an Iowa favorite, roast beef sandwich with potatoes and gravy!!

This is the setting in the movie where Clint Eastwood sat on the 2nd stool from the left!

 On the napkin holder in front of the stool is a picture from the movie!  I think I forgot to mention that Patty and I watched the movie at her house the night before we left to refresh our memories!

 Winterset is a beautiful town and we both loved all the hanging flower baskets that were on every street around the square and sometimes down a side street!

After lunch we went to the Chamber of Commerce to get a map of the bridges - the gal there was so nice to visit with us about different things to see and do - they have a nice gift shop too and I was thrilled to buy a bookmark that has the bridges listed on it!

And then we were off for our afternoon adventures............To Be Cont'd