The hills

I spent today exploring the southern end of the Loess Hills Scenic Byway, a route that stretches over 200 miles through the Loess Hills along the western edge of Iowa. It's an interesting drive, winding through and along the edge of the bluffs that rise above the Missouri River valley. I discovered a couple of places that I am sure I will be revisiting at a later date.


For those interested in traveling the Byway, be advised. The route can be frustrating to follow with signage that seems to just disappear from time to time. To see the best parts of the Byway, there are several loops that require driving for many miles on gravel roads. The loops meander through the Loess Hills far more than the main route.

The top photograph is from the Waubonsie Cemetery in Mills County. The Waubonsie Church and Cemetery stand alone along a quiet country road along one of the Byway's loops. Below is a photograph from an old mural painted on a building in the town of Tabor.

I plan on traveling the northern section of the Byway in the coming weeks.

Also visited: Pony Creek, Pacific Junction, Thurman, Sidney, Waubonsie State Park and Hamburg, Iowa. Star School Hill Prairie and Rock Port, Missouri. Brownville and Peru, Nebraska.

Eastern Iowa, Day Two

There's just not too much to report from today. The highlight of the day was the classic Maid-Rite that I had along Interstate 80 near Amana. I always forget how good a loose-meat sandwich with all the fixings can be. Maid-Rite is pretty much exclusive to Iowa, dating back to the 1920's and small towns along the highways before the arrival of the interstate. Yesterday's entry mentioned my Great Grandmother's cafe, which also served Maid-Rites to the travelers along Highway 6 in Ladora.

Pictured is St. Michael's Church in a little bump in the road called Holbrook. The old stone church was built in 1867 and still stands today, albeit it has seen better days. I can't figure out why someone has begun patching the structure with common red bricks, as you can see in the photograph.

Also visited: Oxford, Kalona, Wellman and Lake Hawthorne.

Revisiting eastern Iowa

There are days where a person sets out to photograph, only to struggle to come up with anything that really catches the eye. Today definitely was one of those days. To make matters worse, the weather made things difficult, with fairly bright gray skies and very little sunshine to balance them out. Around six o'clock, it was dark enough that nightfall seemed imminent.

I revisited many of the places that my grandparents and I traveled to last summer, spending some more time exploring, hoping to find details I might have missed. There are a few promising photographs, and I'm sure I'll find more after I spend more time going over them in the coming weeks. Sometimes I'll look through a series of photographs a hundred times and still find something new.

The photograph above is of the Ladora Savings Bank building in Ladora. The building's history can be found here. On the same website, there are photographs of my Great Grandma Calvert and the 24-hour cafe she operated during the 1950's across the street from the Savings Bank.

Also visited: Malcom, Brooklyn, Carnforth, Victor, Marengo, West Amana, South Amana, Williamsburg, Parnell, North English, South English, Keswick, Thornburg and Barnes City.