Sept. 16th-touring scenic eastern Iowa

                    





Bob drove us around for over 7 hours.  Ev is from the very northwestern corner of Iowa, which isn't very scenic., and Tom spent 7 years near Clarksville, in Waterloo.

On this drive we saw lots of pretty, country churches, old barns, and rolling hills.  We could see for many miles in every direction most of the time.  The corn is almost ready to be harvested.

Readlyn-small town with sign saying "857 fun people and 1 grump". They also have a grump festival.

Oelwein had a nice war memorial, with a marker for each of various wars.  It is close to Back Bone State Park, which we drove through.  Jan told us there are a number of nice campgrounds on this side of the state.

In the small towns many flags flew on houses and in yards and had a lot of nice buildings.

Strawberry Point has a statue of the world's largest strawberry and more beautiful Victorian homes.
A house in the country had a flagpole and a figure of a soldier in uniform out by the highway.  We passed Jan's childhood home, which her brother still owns - the Schmidt house.

The countryside was very pretty, with limestone cliffs and rolling hills.  Drove around the first round-a-about built in this part of Iowa-in the middle of nowhere.  It cost a small fortune, both for it and for the temporary road they built while it was being built, which was then torn up.  It is near a school, but the kids are brought by bus and everyone said a four way stop would have been sufficient.  Taxpayer money at work.

Clayton is a big grain distribution center, where trucks bring grain to boats on the Mississippi River.  Bob and Jan's favorite restaurant on the river was closed several days per week for the Fall and winter, including today.  So we had Mexican instead. 

Pike's Peak of Iowa is the highest point here, overlooking the River.  Everything is so green and they said this view is very pretty after the leaves turn color.  Standing at the overview we could see the town of McGregor on one side and Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin on the other.  We later drove across the bridge and through the downtown so we could say we entered Wisconsin on this trip!

 

Bob and Jan Longmuir

    Jan was one of Ev's college roommates

in 1967