Day 12 - So that's where Madison County is...

I have never seen the movie, never mind the book The Bridges of Madison County. I didn't know that it starred Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep. And for some reason, I always imagined the Bridges of Madison County to be in Wisconsin. When I drove through Madison, WI what seems like a month ago (really 10 days), I realized that I was not in Madison County, but I was uninterested to find out what state the infamous county was in.

Fast forward about 6 days when I was planning stopping points a few days in advance. The KOA Directory boasted that the West Des Moines KOA was a short drive away from the Bridges of Madison County. We ended up staying at the Newton, IA KOA on the east side of Des Moines, but still made a minor detour to see some of the bridges.

Only 6 of the original 17 bridges remain, and several of the remaining have been moved. The first bridge we saw was the Hogback Bridge. This was perhaps my favorite of the three we saw.



One of the interesting things about the bridges is that they have an incredible amount of graffiti inside of them. For some reason, I did not expect this. Of course, I looked for an example that stood the test of time. While not as old as I was hoping for, I did get a shot of one woman who carved her name back in 1977. Christine's Mom will surely appreciate it.



From there, we went to visit the Cedar Bridge, which was the only one of the three we saw that you could drive on.



On the way to I-35 to get back to I-80 in Des Moines, we stopped by perhaps the most convenient bridge to see, the Imes Bridge.




Tomorrow, it's on to one of my favorite cities, Chicago! I haven't been there during the summer before. I wondered what it would be like to go there in the summer. I shall see very soon. Too bad the Cubs are out of town, then it's the All-Star Break. What a bummer! It still shall be an awesome time, provided I don't have a St. Louis incident a la the Griswolds. More to come...