The Bridges of Madison County.
We’ve been through Madison County, Iowa about 8 times over the years, and have never gotton off the interstate. So today, we decided to try and find those covered bridges made famous by the book, “The Bridges of Madison County”.
The little town in the middle of Madison County, Winterset, is also the birthplace of John Wayne! So of course we had to take Lucas’ picture in front of The Duke’s house. Lucas discovered John Wayne in the outtakes from “Back to the Future”, and was very happy to see something with Mr. Wayne’s name on it.
We had great fun tracking down the Roseman Bridge, which played an important part in the book. I called my aunt from it, and she got a huge kick out of getting a call from the Bridges of Madison County! Lucas liked the way it looked, too.
As we were leaving the bridge, a local gentleman asked us if we had seen “Freedom Rock”. I guess the looks on our faces told him that we hadn’t, so he explained that “the Rock” is a large boulder in the middle of nowhere, Iowa, that a local artist has painted each year since the late ’90s as a tribute to patriotism.
I had read an article about this rock, and since we were already in the middle of nowhere, of course we went to see Freedom Rock:
What an awesome tribute to our armed forces. I was truly humbled by both the effort this young man made in painting this rock each year, and by the sacrifices portrayed on it, sacrifices that have been repeated throughout the long history of our country, and that have kept us free. God bless America!
We encountered a very large and strong storm tonight, so opted to stay in a motel. When traveling with autism, one does not take lightly the idea of setting up camp in a thunder storm!
Lucas was excited that he would get to watch TV. Ironically, out of over 100 channels, including Disney, Nickelodean, the cartoon channel, etc. (things he doesn’t get at home), he chose to watch “Ernest Goes to Camp”, in honor of our camping trip! (I did switch to “Hill Street Blues” during commercials, though!) So ends a very full day on the road.
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