Visiting the American Gothic House

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Geo: 39.9356, -91.3958

We did some extra driving today just to get into Iowa since we have never been there. We will see several other states new to us on this trip, too. We went northeast from Lawrence around Kansas City and up to Iowa making a line across the southern part of the state through Radar O'Reilly's hometown of Ottumwa then down to Eldon to see the American Gothic House, the house in Grant Wood's painting. We dressed up in garb identical to the characters in the painting and posed for our own photographic portrait. The volunteer working was happy to help us find the right size costume and show us where to stand then take our picture using our camera. If you didn't have a camera, they would take a photo and sell you a copy, but you didn't have to buy one from them. That was a refreshing change from many sites.

Leaving Eldon, we drove to Quincy, Illinois for the night and had dinner at the Riverside Smokehouse. We could smell the aroma from it as soon as we stepped out of the car at the hotel and walked to it just a little more than a block away after we checked in.

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