Bridges of Madison County

Since I stayed in Iowa for Thanksgiving with Josh, we decided to make the most of a few days off by taking two day trips. I had gotten it into my head that we needed to see the covered bridges in Madison County (yes, the ones from the movie), so we took a drive to Winterset, Ia on Friday. It's a somewhat typical small town in this part of the state, with a town square built around the courthouse, though it also boasts the birthplace of John Wayne and of course, the bridges.

There are 7 left from the late 1800s, though at this point you can only drive over one of them. Above was the first one we saw, which wasn't even over water—interesting to see how much has changed since the bridge was built.
It was a fantastically sunny day with temps in the low 50s, so it was really fun to drive around and check things out. We took pictures (of ourselves using a timer, which had mixed results!), had lunch at a local cafe and I got to get a better sense of my new state.

Oh, also, this is unrelated, but when we got home that night we had some of the leftover tart with mashed turnips and potatoes, which was delish. And I sauteed apples in a bit of butter and maple syrup which we ate over vanilla ice cream. It was so good and simple that I just needed to make sure to tell you about it. I made a similar thing about two weeks ago to have over pancakes and I think both options are stellar.