day tripping in Iowa

Holla from a McDonald's ~1 hour from The House on the Rock. Got a wee breakfast and got on their wifi and plugged in my devices. Got about an hour to hill till I can leave to get to THonR till it opens.

Iowa was fun! I had a nice scenic drive across to Iowa City and down to Riverside and then up to...uhh this place and then further up to McGregor. Though I suspect I would have hated it if I had had to spend ~6 hours driving to any of these locations, as it was I only had a little over an hour between each place, and it was lovely golden corn fields at top, which finally started rolling up and down after two states of flat.

I swung by a rest stop/visitors center and picked up a map and a pamphlet for the Hobo Museum which used the Hobo typeface, because I find that kind of thing funny.

First up: Riverside. The proper Riverside, because there are many across America. This Riverside is the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk. You know, from Star Trek.The town has a carved stone sign commemorating this event. It's tucked behind a building, but there is a sign on a telephone poll pointing which way to go. As I left, a family showed up to grab photos. I wonder how many Trekkies/Trekkers come through every day to gt a photo? I continued up and east to the Field of Dreams filming site. And on a Monday afternoon in the middle of summer, there were plenty of people at the location and some were playing baseball! How long ago did that movie come out, and people still come? I walked in the corn a while, and talked to this older guy Jack who was from California and also a roadtripper.

Onwards to Effigy Mounds National Monument. There are these mounds across America that were made by the indigenous people centuries ago, and some have managed to preserved. I did a little hike, though their definition of "steep switchbacks" needs to be revisited. The mounds were lovely, and it's great that they were able to be preserved. I got rained on a little during the hike, but what's rain to a Washingtonian?

I drove on up back to Wisconsin, so that I wouldn't have to drive far to The House on the Rock. I found a Walmart and read in the parking lot till I dozed away. Woke up early and wet to McDonald's and refreshed. Now the Montana Christmas episode of King of the Hill is on the tv and I couldn't be happier.

Fun is abound today, too bad the weather is a bit dismal. Oh well, I'll be continuing west later on. Hopefully Minnesota has nice weather. There is a chance of storm Thursday - Monday.