Wednesday November 15, 2006

The Bridges of Madison County

Last Wednesday, November 8th, it was one of those rare fall days where the temperature was in the upper 70s, and it would've been just plain wrong to sit in an office the whole day. Fortunately, I rode the bike to work so mid-afternoon I headed south of I-35 and ended up down by Winterset. Despite having lived in Iowa my whole life, I'd never actually seen the covered bridges in this after. When I was headed into Winterset, there was a sign that pointed to the south saying that there was a bridge down that way. After heading down a number of miles of gravel roads, I found the Holliwell covered bridge:

Even better than the bridge itself, was everything that people had written on the interior of the bridge. Not the typical meaningless graffiti, but rather things like marriage proposals and memorials to loved ones that has passed away.

After stopping there for a little while, there was a sign pointing off to the south saying that there was another bridge nearby. After riding for what seemed like an hour (they really need to put the distances on those signs), I found the Imes covered bridge:

This one wasn't in its original location, instead its on the east side of St. Charles, right off the I-35 exit. A lot more geared towards tourists, it seemed.

After that, I headed back up to Grimes, and back to work. It was a good couple hours away from the office though, and a much needed break that day. I'll definately try to make it back down there when the weather is nice and check out the other bridges in the area. I'll also try to bring something better than the camera in my phone next time too.