Event Coverage My trip to rural Iowa on the roads less traveled

Ken, it is the simple things in life that really make you happy. Good friends, good food, and a good laugh. Thanks for reading my stuff.

 

Sorry Cal....maybe next time.

 

The Junction Cafe on the Northwest side of BedFORD has the best Strawberry Shortcake desert in southern Iowa. Don`t you love driving on those old brick streets in downtown Bedford. There`s a good little ice cream shop there too. A guy told me when he was a kid in the late 70`s, every kid in town would get a free ice cream cone on the last day of school. The school buses stopped there after school so the country kids could get a free one to.

 

Nice work Paul, you sure seem to have a talent for conveying a good story.
Well done buddy.

 

Thanks Russ!

 

Hey! Thats the Peach Pie I used in my Birdsville thread!

Another thread that makes me want to see this area next June. Thanks PF

 

thank you

 

I'm hungry!!

 

That's cool Sam. See you later this week in Joplin.

 

This is kick ass, I want to do this someday
hope you have a great trip, if you end up lost and in the south east corner of Michigan I'll buy beer and dinner

 

Thanks for sharing you road trip with us. Nice to see that there are still places like that out there. I sure like that meal your wife fixed when you got back home...yum yum yummmmmm..... ;o)

 

Thanks. I'm originally from Mason City, Iowa. Still have best friends there. Heading back for my 50th high school graduation in a month. After living in Texas all these years it's amazing just how green things are in Iowa! I don't miss the winters. I remember driving home from the Minneapolis auto auction in an old CJ 5 Jeep with a battered cloth top and the wind chill factor was -95!! Haven't had a really good steak since I left.

 

Stanlow69 told me about this thread. I was raised there amd still live here. Thanks for the kind words, this is a great place to live.
Notice your pics of the town. the second pic ( the Mural) is the same street and courthouse as your first pic, but it was how that street looked in the early 30's.
I love that Mural. I positioned my 56 Chrysler mild custom (Hemi) and got the right camera angle to make it look like I was driving down that street Turned out great! . If ever this way again, I am the Bedford un-official tour guide, look me up!................................MO

 

PF,
Thanks for the pics. My wife was just in Iowa last weekend visiting a friend from college in Sioux Center.
I'd love to do the same thing, a tour to nowhere in particular, eat at random places, and see thing I woulda normally never seen.

Thinking about all the fresh corn made my mouth water. We were just introduced to fresh sweet corn a week ago by some local farmer friends here in Earth. We used to eat alot of sweet corn in so cal we'd buy at the grocery store, but it honestly doesn't hold a candle to the fresh right off the farm stuff.
I asked my buddies wife tyo give my wife the recipe for the corn she made, and she laughed and told me it was just corn that was cut off the cob and had a lilttle butter mixed in it.mmmmmm

 

I like aimlessly roaming the back roads of Wisconsin...one time I wound up in Illinois, then on to Iowa. LOL

 

In July 1982 I did a transfer from Jax, Fl. to Mare Island, Ca, (USN) my ex and I did an extended cross country in a t-bucket w/ trailer and stopped for a rod run in Pella, did a tour of the Dam road, etc. pretty country, Bologna capital of the world, hog farms on one side of road and cornfields on the other. All the locals looked related to kid on Dutch Boy paint can.

 

Cool, thanks!

 

Best way to do it and most fun. Of course I wouldn't try it during holidays because of motel room shortages but otherwise I recommend it highly.

 

I remember that! I lived there from 7th grade (1974) thru high school (1980). coming from calif, and being a kid, after high school had to get back to calif. had some great times there and would love to go back someday to visit. now getting older the "peaceful" life calls to me! ha ha ha

thanks for the memories!

 

Iowa is a great place to live. I left when I was younger (like most), but came back to raise a family. You begin to realize the great childhood you had growing up in Iowa the older you get.

 

Flats, Enjoyed your trip. For the last 14 years my wife and I have taken a tour of Iowa and the surrounding states. A four day trip in the spring and a weeklong trip in the Fall. Check out motormemories.com. Its a group of friends, no clubs but we just enjoy these "tours". Its very relaxing, lots of fun and get to see a tremendous amount of interesting sites like you had in your "tour'" of Iowa. We really look forward to this type of event...we'd rather drive them....like you did and see the midwest.

 

kool thread, thanks for sharing

 

Pov.......your my hero!!!

 

I am not from Iowa nor have I ever been there, but I would consider myself someone who grew up in a small town on the midwest border. I have bailed hay and gone to the fair, been to a country western bar, even square danced when I was a kid, among other hokey things.

Because of this, any time spent somewhere where things are new, highways are wide, and things move fast, I feel like I am on some twilight zone. It's very uncomfortable, even after living in the city for a few years.

My fiance and I have been tossing with moving back to somewhere like where we grew up because we have great memories of small town USA. Corny, but true.

 

mine too.

 

I've seen your posts on the HAMB about your trips. We were travelling through Wisconsin on Interstate 94 and stopped in Hixton, WI to buy gas. While driving through town (pop 484) looking for open antique stores we saw this sign and it had your name on it! Had to share. Saw this other mural on a nearby building and thought it was just wonderful too.

 

OMG--I see a trip to Hixton, WI in my future for sure!! Thanks for posting.

 

do you really think Paul is the first one to use the moniker "Povertyflats"?

 

yes

 

Everything posted on the HAMB comes from righteous dudes...