OK, so we aren't so great at early morning starts from home on the first day of our travels. We were out of the house by 10:30, although, after a stop at the bank and the post office, we realized we left our passports at home, so we trekked back to pick them up - Canada beckons.
Finally on the road around 11:00, headed along highway 92 towards Winterset, Iowa, our first goal of the day. This area of west central Iowa is Deb's ancestral home and we were off to explore her roots, especially since she is no longer coloring them (joke, dear!).
A wonderful day to drive, good company, lovely weather, cloudy but calm, and a route that is not flooded with semi-trucks hauling goods and crowding the rest of we travelers from the road. Iowa is looking green today, corn and soybeans flowing from all sides of the road spreading over the hilly undulations to the horizon. Through the familiar sounding small towns, Tryenor, Carson, Griswold, Massena, Fontanelle, Greenfield and finally Winterset, county seat of Madison, home and namesake of "The Bridges of Madison County," and birthplace of John Wayne, née Marion Morrison. We arrived quickly at the town square surrounding the courthouse. Wonderful pink and purple flower baskets hanging from all the light posts and all the shops open.
As in most other county seats, there were the usual law offices, accountants, real estate and title company offices populating the four sides. But something else - row upon row of little shops boasting home decorating, gifts, restaurants, antiques and more. All were open and busy. Almost every building surrounding the square has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and all have plaques outlining the history of each building. We spent time wandering in and out of shops, making an occasional small purchase and spending an inordinate amount of time in a real Ben Franklins 5 & dime. A real step back in time. Everyone was friendly and quick to tout their town.
As we were heading out around 4:00, they closed off one side of the square for a vintage auto show. The other outstanding events of the day were a miniature car show with all these small cars from throughout the Midwest driving around town, and a genealogy seminar, which was our original goal, but which was over by the time we arrived.
We found both Deb's maternal grandparents home here in Winterset, Beverly's well-to-do father's large, two story brick home, and Roger's mother's small, two room run down home. We then headed out to track down some graves and other locations in neighboring Peru, Iowa.
Eventually, following our 15 minute exploration of the dilapidated Peru, and 30 minutes wandering the hills of the Peru Cemetery, we headed north towards DesMoines and our Hampton Suite for the evening. We arrived and settled into our room around 6:00, broke out some red wine and dined on cheese, crackers, oatmeal cookies. We watched the Thomas Crown Affair (Renee and Pierce, not Steve and Faye,) and a number of episodes of Criminal Minds while reading our Kindles. Lights out around 10:00 on our first day on the road.
