Made it into Iowa today….
Went from Niles, IL to the Meskwaki Casino about 1 hour shy of Des Moines. The casino is open 24 hours and is a really good place to stop for the night. I have access to clean bathrooms at any time and I am sure security in the parking lot is good so feels very safe.
Got coffee at Flip Side Coffee in Rock Falls, IL which was a little off the route but wanted to support an independent rather than a chain. Good call. Cool little shop. “Flip side” refers to their albums collection and there were other cool collectibles on the walls and shelves. I asked if they had breakfast sandwiches and was told that today’s sandwich was a fried egg with sliced ham, provolone cheese, mustard sauce on a pretzel bagel. Excellent.
Found a disc golf course in Rock Falls 5 minutes from the coffee shop. It is located in a very small little public park. Wicked short 18 basket course…I could see almost all of the baskets! Didn’t bother bringing my bag… just two discs. Finished in under 30 minutes. Luckily I was the only one there. I can see this course getting congested.
Crossed the Mississippi River in Clinton, IA and entered Iowa. It looked like I expected Iowa to look.
Field of Dreams in Dyersville, IA
Turns out there is a short little nine basket course in Dyersville so decided to play it. I really liked this course. Wide open in a cute little town park. Very enjoyable round and nailed a really long shot. That was fun because an old buy walking by witnessed it and acknowledged it. (it was a hell of a shot!!)
This is were I noticed something only in Iowa… a tractor parallel parked! HA!
At one point, as I continued on, I saw a cornfield (there were ALOT of corn fields). But this particular one caught my eye because there was an old cemetery carved off in a corner of it. Oddly… my GPS had me turn off the main road onto a gravel road (turned out to be a little shortcut). This gravel road went past the cemetery. I slowed and looked at it as I drove by but had to stop and walk around when I noticed the date on the one tombstone that was readable…
It was very quiet. I thought it was kind of cool that I was standing there with no one else around on a beautiful day, in the middle of a cemetery, in the middle of a cornfield, in the middle of Iowa.
I continued on but pulled over when some ruins caught my. Turns out to be the Hurstville Lime Kilns in Jackson, IA built in the 1870’s.
From online… “In 1870, Alfred Hurst came to the area, having heard of the limestone formations along the banks of the Maquoketa River. He then found what he considered the best quality limestone rock to produce the whitest, purest, and most adhesive lime in the marketplace. He constructed a small pot kiln and started producing powder lime. He then erected the first draw kiln in 1871, with the other 3 following soon after. In the 1st year, production reached 100 barrels a week, with a total of 3200 barrels for the year. At the company’s peak, the kilns would produce 8000 barrels of lime a day!”
Looking in from the top through the fence.
(You can see my legs on the right)
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I was on the last leg of my initial trip to get to Des Moines. It was still somewhat early and I had no definite plans for the evening. I started to debate in my head whether I should find another golf course or not. I had played two rounds and I was getting tired… but I had nothing to do the rest of the night. Should I look for a course? What else would I do? But I’m only somewhat interested in playing a round. Then I thought, “if I actually see a basket, I’ll stop to play”. Not 10 seconds later (NO exaggeration!) …. is that a basket?!! Why yes it is!
What I saw!
Was a really nice course! Another city park with alot of open space. Very quiet. No one else around. Was really perfect.
Made it to the casino around 7 ish. Did not originally plan to stay there but saw it and pulled in. Was a great decision. Although the poker room was closed… very sad.
THAT was a full day!
