I am a simple man with simple wants and needs. And like most people I have a list of things I want to see or do before I die. My list is not long and it is not fancy.
And one thing I have always wanted to do was visit the very small town of Eldon, Iowa which is home of the "American Gothic" house as painted in 1930 by Grant Wood which has become a worldwide icon. In fact, it is the 2nd most recognizable painting or image in the world after the Mona Lisa. Not bad for something this young man sold for $300 and used the money to kick off his career.
Anyway, the house still exists and is owned by the county in which it sits and they have built a nice museum and parking lot near it where you can see all things Grant Wood. His other works are impressive too and are certainly to my style and tastes. But getting back to my "bucket list", I had always wanted to pose for a portrait in front of the house and I finally got my chance recently. I had been looking for a newer vehicle to replace my aging daily driver and Mrs. PF was able to find what I wanted on the internet in eastern Iowa along the Mississippi River. No problem there, as I love Iowa and a road trip would be fun whether we bought the GMC or not. Since we both had Friday off from work we left early that morning and headed east and north for the 480 mile journey that lie ahead. It took nearly 5 hours to get off the Interstate four lane highway and begin the last part of the trip on scenic 2 lanes of lovely rural Iowa countryside. And it didn't take long to see pleasant things like this nice old tractor for sale. It was even "modern" with power steering.
It had rained that morning and everything was clean and fresh with the promise of nicer weather later that day. And after we had eaten a quick sub sandwich for lunch we were back on the road going east when I saw the sign....."Eldon, IA 6 miles"
and the arrow pointed right which is the way I turned. The curvy county blacktop took us right to the nice little town and the signs led us to the famous house itself.....
It's not that impressive at first glance nor is it fancy. Other houses in that town might be more impressive BUT....it is history and it is an icon of all things Americana. We entered the modern museum first where the young gal that was the curator, office manager, and keeper of the flower beds was on duty. She was friendly and helpful and offered to take our photo. There was no charge although we made a donation in their box and bought a couple of small items from the gift shop. The most important thing was a chance for me to check an item off my bucket list of things to do before I die. As for Mrs. PF? I should mention that it was not on her list or even on her radar...but she was a good sport and played along with my wishes...
I had told her how to stand and where to look and I had been practicing my frown in the car before we got there. I didn't intend to look mean but that is how it turned out. Just know that I had fun in spite of how things appear...
Also worth mentioning is the fact that the house is rented to a gal who moved there from CA to write a book and has a blog I follow called "The World Needs More Pie" dot com...but she was not home as she had taken her RV to a shop before embarking on a nationwide book signing tour. So, we left the home of significance and right down the street I saw a very nice 1931 Ford Model A pickup truck in the yard of a home but the owner was not there either.
Real car enthusiasts will notice that this is a late 31 model with the all steel roof and the wide bed that makes it the same width as the cab. It shares these features with the 1932 Model B truck and is very desirable. The same guy was building a Model T Speedster too and I took a photo of that as well.
The small downtown are had some cool old buildings and we saw a young man driving an old tractor down Main Street and I tried and failed to take his photo as I was too slow or he was too fast...But I did see this old railroad locomotive sitting near their old depot and found it to be interesting.
It looked small or narrow to me but I do not pretend to know much about trains. There are plenty of folks who are good at that....
Meanwhile, we got back on the highway and continued eastward until we reached our destination of Burlington, IA later that afternoon. A deal was made for the newer SUV and we began the drive home ending up at Hannibal, MO for the overnight stay. We loved that area and arrived at their riverside park and museum before they opened and had the whole downtown to ourselves it seemed. This part of our trip will have it's on blog soon with photos.
Now back on the road again we were driving west on a different highway (never go home the same way you came) and after a couple of hours or so I saw one of those little signs with an arrow pointing right and mentioning "historic covered bridge".
Of course I was hooked and hit the brakes hard and turned right with no time to think it over....
That was a wise decision as we were now on a pleasant 1.5 mile drive down a gravel road past old farms and lovely scenery. We arrived at a gravel parking area and saw another sign telling us where to go...
It was a pleasure to walk across the little bridge over the roaring water underneath and begin the 1/4 mile walk down a wooded path that was damp from an overnight rain and listen to all the birds and see the blooms of spring. What a nice place! Soon we came to the covered bridge itself...
We walked thru the very long bridge and liked it very much...
I posed for a photo as did Mrs. PF...
Some of the info suggested that the wooded path was at one time a busy east - west highway and I imagined the Model T's and Model A's driving across the wooden planks and could hear them in my mind as they traveled thru the bridge and down the primitive road to farms, businesses, churches, schools, and etc in days gone by....
What a nice diversion from the long road trip that was. And not far up the gravel road we passed a pretty hay meadow of clover and orchard grass and so I stopped to see that.
I was glad I had made the sudden decision to turn at that sign on the busy highway and felt sorry for all of those travelers who had passed on by. It seems so often the best parts of a trip are the unplanned spur of the moments.
After that is was routine driving with very little stopping as we had to get home for a very important Kansas Basketball game that night. We did however pause long enough to eat a late lunch in the small village of Maple Hill,KS which is home to Puffy's Steakhouse and even though I only had a hamburger....I was impressed with the high quality and great taste. The menu said they used steak trimmings to make their own ground beef.
As I said earlier, it is the simple pleasures in life that matter most to me. And a spur of the moment 1,000 mile round trip in the spring like this will be one we remember. I look forward to the next trip to anywhere.....and thank you for riding along. ---PF.
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