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Published: September 15th 2008
This set of blogs are another of the Group Vacations. Our 2008 trip was from KC up and around Lake Superior into Canada and then a slight detour to Milwaukee for a few days for the 25th and 105th celebrations for HOG and Harley Davidson. The blogs are broken into sections, each being a day in the trip. The first blog of this trip is here
08 Group Vacation Day 1 - to Iowa.
23 AUG 08 - Saturday -- A tour of SW Iowa.
I wanted to be on the road by 9am. We had all shared a room last night. Jerry showed up around 8am and joined us for breakfast. The hotel had the hot thing going with waffles and such. No protein, just carbs. As we were gassing up the bikes we noticed the Amish sales stand was back again at the corner. Willy went over to see what was for sale. He came back and reported that Jellies and Baskets were being offered, so I went over and checked out the wares. I ended up buying a $4 jar of Strawberry Rhubarb jelly, thinking I would give it to Darrel for watching my house while I was gone. But I ended up
Imes Covered Bridge
One of the many covered bridges of Madison county.
eating it myself when I got home. The day was a full one, or busiest for planned stops of the whole trip. We didn’t leave Iowa but covered a lot of the southwestern part of it. The first stop was for a Viking that is no longer there, so it didn’t take too long to not notice it. We got off I-35 and headed west as we got to Madison County. The covered bridges (2 of them) were on the adgenda. We stopped at the Imes bridge first. It wasn’t busy and we had it all to ourselves. While we were there I told the group about the small town close by that is the home of the Red Delicious apple. (It came from a fluke tree that the orchard owner noticed.) After the Imes bridge we went to Winterset. In the city park there is another covered bridge, but I wanted to go by the stone tower, it was not visible from the road, so we didn’t see it. There was a plaque about the red delicious apple though and Mel got a picture of it.
After the park it was on to John Waynes birth site. The
house that he was born in is a museum or historical site in town. They have a second house that is beside it that they use as a welcome center/gift shop. I had been through the house before so I watched the bikes as the rest went on the tour. Even the gift shop is worth the time it takes to go through it. After the house we went up to the Madison County courthouse to get Presidential Race pictures for Marcia and I and ABC’s of Touring picture for Mel. Then to the post office to get the Winterset and Iowa pictures for ABC’s of Touring. It was around 11:30am, this would be my first regret of the trip. We should have had lunch at the café that was used for the movie, instead I headed out of town. Our next destination was Stuart IA, which is off of I-80. Stuart’s Police station is in an old bank building. The building has a huge sign that tells the viewer the bank had been robbed by Bonnie and Clyde on April 16, 1934. No tour of the building or anything, just a quick stop for a picture. It is now
afternoon and everyone is hungry. We cross the interstate and eat at a café there. Following lunch we head west to Freedom Rock. Its this big rock that was a site for graffiti, then Ray Micheal Sarensen II started painting his patriotic murals on it. It is a common destination for a day ride even from Kansas City. We all took pictures and read the stories posted in the shelter. One of the murals has ashes from 10 Vietnam veterans in it. Every memorial day he repaints one of the sides of the rock. The freedom rock was followed by a Jesse James historic marker, they pulled the first train robbery. The site along side the highway has the original tracks that were pulled to stop the train. It was really pretty cool, but times is a wastin and we have a long day so we head out to Tree in the Middle of the Intersection. Its not far, the tree is in the middle of an interection, but we find its about 5 miles by gravel, so opt not to go see it. A detour back to the interstate and we are heading to the Plow in the Oak
park outside of Exira IA. The story goes that the hired hand while plowing the field was overcome with patriotism and laid the plow over on a young oak tree so he could go join the war (Civil War). He died in the war and many, many years later the plow was discovered having been swallowed up by the tree. The other story is that he laid it down because it was busted and he didn’t want to use it anymore. Years and years later the highway was cut through the field and and while traveling it one day the hired hand decided to try and find the plow. He discovered it imbedded in the oak. There wasn’t anything fancy about the park, but it was interesting seeing the plow sticking out of both sides of this oak tree.
Our next stop was the only working Danish Windmill in the US. It was export from Netherlands than they passed a law that no more could be exported. The windmill was interesting and the gift shop and a horde of really fun stuff. Butt the neatest part of the windmill was the Viking reenactors that had built a time period
home on the lot the windmill. There were 4 or 5 of them there for the weekend, doing projects on the home. It had a strange name that I will never remember. One was doing carving on the treshold another was giving tours through the house explaining all its parts the others were deep in conversation as Mel and I went through it. They had really gone all out with the house. The roof had examples of all 4 roofing styles that might have been used at the time. It was really interesting. The reenactors are mostly from Omaha. Reminding the group how close we have come to it and how far west we have gone on our northern trip. The windmill is in Elk Horn IA. Our last official stop of the day was the worlds largest bull. Albert the Bull located in Audubon IA. The bull was a lot of fun, built to scale of a perfect Hereford bull, most of our time was spent in group shots with Albert’s nads, they were huge.
We got to the motel around 7:30pm and unpacked immediately, then looked for some place to eat. Now the whole group is hungry
for a salad bar. We are in Clear Lake and there does not appear to be any salad bars in the area. We do not want to back track 15 miles to a Ponderosa. A steak house in town is recommended, but by the time we get there its closed. We at a local Italian resturant right around the corner. While here the waiter asked us if we had gone to the Surf Ballroom. Cat was out of the bag, that was the last place that Buddy Holly played before his plane crashed. The surf ballroom has a monument out front. After we ate we rode by and stopped out front. We will stop again in the morning, before heading to the crash site.
Now its back to the hotel for showers and bed. Tonight I stay with Mel and Willy.
Here are links to all the blogs for this trip:
1.
08 Group Vacation Day 1 - to Iowa 2.
08 Group Vacation Day 2 - John Wayne, Albert the Bull and Freedom Rock 3.
08 Group Vacation Day 3 - Buddy Holly, SPAM and the Joint 4.
08 Group Vacation Day 4 - Aerostitch and Canada 5.
08 Group Vacation Day 5 - Canada and Mackinac Bridge 6.
08 Group Vacation Day 6 - Yoppers, Pasties and outa gas John 7.
08 Group Vacation Day 7 - HOG 25th are you kidding me?? 8.
08 Group Vacation Day 8 - Vinnie and Cody from American Chopper 9.
08 Group Vacation Day 9 - Last day of the 105th Anniversary Party 10.
08 Group Vacation Day 10 - Heading Home 11.
08 Group Vacation Day 11 - Snake Alley, Worldest Largest Pecan
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