June 18 Bridges of Madison County and John Wayne

   With our trusty map in hand, the driver and navigator drove across country roads and through poke and clean towns (I read that in a novel this week.  The town is so little that by the time you poke your head out you're clean through it!) in search of the bridges.  There were originally 20, but only 6 remain.  The County ordered them built with covers to preserve the large flooring timbers which were more expensive to replace than the lumber covering the sides and the roof.  Most of the construction work was done by farmers to pay their poll taxes.  (A tax levied on adults, linked with their right to vote.  Never heard of that in history lessons, that I can remember.)  The bridges were usually named for the nearest resident.  We drove to 4 of them. 
    There are 2 styles of roofs.  Many have been moved from one location to another and some have been restored with costs ranging from $32,000 to $225,000.  This is a major tourist draw to this county.  One was destroyed by an arsonist in 2002 and a replica was dedicated in 2004.  One now sits in a city park in Winterset.  The Holliwell one is the one used in the movie.  It is the longest at 122' and was renovated in 1995 for $225,000.
    Next stop was John Wayne's birthplace in Winterset.  It was pouring and blowing so hard that we sat in the truck for 35 minutes before going into the visitor's center.  Watched electrical employees remove branches that were falling onto wires in a yard.  The town has a nice downtown with lots of locally owned businesses, plus a Pamida and Ben Franklin.
    Off to the city park to see one of the bridges and then we passed the house from the movie.  It was partially destroyed by fire a few years ago and sits way back on the acres and has a huge fence around it so we couldn't pull in.  It and all the bridges have electronic surveillance cameras.  We didn't see anything that suggested this fire was arson, but don't know.  Continued to one more bridge.  The corn is much higher here and we heard they got it planted early.  Again, fields are full of water.  There are miles of a tall weed with blue flowers along the country roads.
     The last bridge we saw was in St. Charles.  An old Presbyterian church has been renovated as the visitor's center.  People paid $1000 to restore each of the stained glass windows.  Then hail broke part of one so they had someone make a piece showing the bridge to fill the spot.  That congregation had become so small that they merged with the Methodist church many years ago.  A woman bought the building and used it for storage for 30 years!  It has a nice basement even.  After her death her family donated it to the city.  They solicited funds for the windows, replaced the roof and did lots of interior work.
    We were surprised at the number of very large, newer homes scattered all over on small acreages everywhere we drove today.
    Drove back to Adel and visited a cute quilt shop and saw a Breadeaux pizza place.  On to Panora again, where Tom's brother, John, lives.  Had a nice evening with he and his friend, Janelle.  We saw lightning bugs in their yard and watched an electrifying lightning show all the way home on those dark country roads, since you could see forever.