Towers, Steeples & Nose

On Saturday, during morning chores, Husband announced that he wanted us to go visit our newly-wed son and daughter-in-law, who live 2-1/2 hours away. Years ago I learned to never suggest going anywhere........Husband must come up with the idea himself, in order for me not to be considered a nag. Call me anything you want........but don't call me a nagging wife......that's the absolute LAST thing I ever want to be thought of......because I AM NOT ONE! I'm a blogger, not a nagger!!

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After chores were done, I hurriedly packed a cooler of snacks and drinks and off we went, heading south to catch four-lane Highway 20. As we motored east, the sunlight filtered soothingly through the clouds and into my passenger-side window. Ah-h, very relaxing......

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Along the way, I zoomed the camera and blindly snapped at watertowers, steeples, old barns, trees........you name it! The following photos show some of the results. As you view these pictures, remember we were sailing along at 70 miles-per-hour, thus there was no way to plan the composition of the photos.

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First of all, the patriotic Independence, Iowa, watertower, backed up by the Mental Health Institute's spooky buildings. MHI was built back in the 1800's.......it was probably known as an "insane asylum" then. Its a big place......there must have been alot of crazy people around then, and it would probably have been my abode, had I lived at that time! Years ago, when I was in LPN school, our class toured MHI.....even the dungeon-like basement. My parents referred to MHI as, "the silo", a corruption of the word, "asylum". They would speak of so-and-so being "in the silo". And, sometimes my mom would yell at us kids: "You'd better straighten up, or you'll drive me to Independence!" To us kids, "Independence" was not a town......it was the place where parents ended up after their kids drove them crazy!

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Next we have the Manchester, Iowa, watertower. "Adventuregirlwannabe", this photo is for you, because you once lived in Manchester:

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Slowly, slowly......the sun made itself known across the landscape, but with clouds casting long shadows here and there. As for a farm harvest report: the majority of corn remains in the fields and we noticed many soybean fields not combined yet, either.

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Ok, these next twin church spires belong to a very famous landmark in Iowa........

The Basilica of St. Francis Xavier in Dyersville. (Its by complete chance that the DQ sign ended up also in this photo.) There are 52 basilicas in the U.S., and this is the only one located outside of a major metropolitan area. A few years ago, I had the privilege of touring the Basilica with a school group; it is gorgeous inside and is probably as close to a cathedral as I will ever experience. Somewhere in my shoebox archives are photos from there; maybe I can find a few to post someday. A few miles northeast of Dyersville is another famous spot........

The Field of Dreams, where the Kevin Costner movie of the same name was filmed (rhymsie, that's for you). I've also been there several times on school trips.

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A few miles east of Dyersville is Farley, Iowa. My sincere apologies for this random encounter between Husband's nose and the church steeple. I guarantee it was entirely unintentional! A large car-racing stadium exists at Farley, too, on the south side of the highway.

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Not far down the road is the town of Epworth, home of Divine Word Seminary. The scenery there went by too fast; I couldn't get a photo. This part of Iowa is definitely Catholic country, and traditionally Democrat, though who knows how things will turn out with next week's election. We saw many political signs promoting Democrat candidates, state and otherwise.

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This next photo, obviously, shows the Peosta watertower. Let's see.....what else is at Peosta? The Northeast Iowa Community College, I believe.

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This next scene came along later, on Highway 61.......the old Hurstville watertower. Someday, I hope to be able to explore the historic Hurstville lime kilns built into the hill below this landmark.

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Just past Hurstville on Highway 61 is Maquoketa, Iowa. Years ago, when our first two children were very small, we spent a day here in Jackson County, touring Maquoketa Caves State Park and artist Patrick Costello's renovated grist mill/art gallery.

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This final photo is my favorite of today's post........it was snapped along Highway 61 and I don't recall the name of the place. I like the random combination of the steeple, the leafy tree branches and dead trunks, plus a spindly evergreen tree. If you click the photo, you will see that the bellfry louvres are in need of a paint job! Maybe they'd hire Husband to do it.......he painted the cross on top of our church's steeple once. Seeing him up there scared me half out of my mind.

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Now your day is complete, right?! You've seen some really exciting sights from along Highways 20 and 61 in Iowa. Yeah, right. Like Kate the Country Girl states on her blog's header......"Try not to get too excited!!"

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