The Bridges of Madison County

Last Thursday, on our day off, the four of us took advantage of relatively decent weather, and toured the six remaining covered bridges of Madison County, which is just to the east of us here in Polk County.  As many of you may remember, a book by the same name, by Robert James Waller, was a worldwide bestseller in 1993, and was made into a 1995 movie starring Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep.  The movie was filmed here, with numerous scenes using the several covered bridges around the county.  The county also has a Covered Bridge Festival every October to further celebrate these historic bridges.
The original sixteen bridges were build in the 1870's and 80's and were covered to protect the large valuable bridge timbers from the weather - not for any artistic or esthetic reason.  As trucks and farm equipment became larger, they were unable to be effectively used, and several have been moved from their original locations.  Only six still remain intact, and they are now a significant tourist draw for the county, as people from all over the world come to see them.  In fact, the main plot line of the book and movie revolves around National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid (Eastwood) who travels to Madison County to do a photographic essay about the bridges, and has a four day affair with Francesca Johnson (Streep) while her husband and children are away at the Illinois State Fair.
In addition, Madison County has another claim to fame -- Winterset, the county seat, is the birthplace of John Wayne, and the house he grew up in contains significant John Wayne memorabilia and is open for tours.
With the help of Mark, our tour guide, and our Street Pilot GPS, we only made one wrong turn in finding and visiting all six of the bridges.  We'd noticed some pretty nasty weather to the north of us while we were in Winterset, and by the time we reached the Imes bridge on the eastern edge of the county, the rain started.  But when we got back to Altoona, the rainstorm was over, and we had an enjoyable barbecue -- the first time that we've been able to use the outdoor grill since we've been here.



As you can imagine, thousands of people come to see the bridges, and many come with their pen or their knife to leave some graffiti.  In all the bridges, the main timbers on the interior have been covered with both current and ancient graffiti, but the historical society has added white painted areas at each end of the bridge (you can see them in the pictures above) --  for people to leave their messages, as opposed to defacing the original bridge timbers.  I'd guess that these are painted over occasionally, and the whole cycle begins again.  Its an interesting approach -- here are a few samples of the notes that we saw --



The girls also took the guys out for Father's Day to Cheddar's for a big before-work lunch -- here are the three hungry dads . . . .


We also got good news from our son Kevin, and his wife Stephanie, that our new grandbaby -- due in November -- will be a girl!!  Congratulations Kevin and Stephanie!