Dyersville Iowa – Learning and Wandering around the U.S.

Hello, thank you for joining us. If you’re new to the blog, we are a husband and wife team that travels the country and wants to share our travels with you. So welcome to the blog! If you are returning, welcome back as we traveled north from Springfield, Illinois to Iowa. We stopped at Spoon River rest area for a few hours so Andrew could get some work done before we crossed over the Illinois river and into Iowa.

We stopped at our Boondockers Welcome in Muscatine, Iowa. This is a lovely farm that has ponds that are run by the fish and wildlife service. It was wonderful to listen to all the frogs chirping and making music with the crickets during the daylight hours. Over the trees is the mighty Mississippi River. It was a great stay for one night.

Shortly after getting on I80, we traveled by the World’s Largest Truckstop. We didn’t stop this time, but it definitely looks like someplace we should stop next time. It makes me think of a Buckee’s, if you’re familiar.

Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

We started off our day early due to storms coming in later in the day. We were able to spend about an hour at the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site. There was a lot to see, and we had to go briskly. It is definitely a stop along the way worth visiting; how could you not stop if you haven’t seen it! I would definitely plan for a bit longer than an hour next time.

As a former schoolteacher, I always want to see the school room and try to imagine teaching students of different age levels in one classroom. Times were definitely different back then. The only source of heat was from a potbellied wood burning stove at the back of the classroom.

This school room was also used as the town’s first Quaker meetinghouse and later a meeting house was built. The building was divided in half with the men sitting on the right of the partition, while the woman sat on the left. The Quakers didn’t have a paid minister and they didn’t use music either. They had a practice of “silent waiting” which was worshipping in silence. If the spirit moved them, they could share their insight or prayers. Herbert Hoover described this practice as a “strong training in patience.”

Inside the presidential museum, there was so much to see and not enough time. The highlights for me were:

His oval office looks about the same as every other president.

I can’t even imagine trying to get thread around these pins since the pins are so close together.

A little information about the Hoover Dam since we have been there a few times now. If you ever get the chance to take the tour of the dam and go inside of it, it is very worth the money.

We made the walk up the hill to see the resting place of our 31st. president. President Hoover passed away at the age of 90 in 1964 in New York City. Five days later his body was interred on this hillside overlooking his birthplace and presidential library. His wife Lou Henry Hoover died in 1944 in Palo Alto and was moved to rest beside her husband as this beautiful location.

We then landed in the northeast corner of Iowa just before the storms were due to hit. Luckily, we only had rain and some wind but thankfully no tornadoes. We were there visiting family in the area. As we were traveling to our destination, we came across a town named Winthop, Iowa. A little voice in my head told me I know that city. Do you know that voice that talks to you, no? Okay, maybe it’s just me. Well we couldn’t stop because of the storms so we drove there a few days later after the storm. I wanted to go the cemetery. We pulled into the small town cemetery that had maybe 100 plots. There was nowhere to park other than along side the plots. The first plot we saw turned out to be my great grandparents on my father’s side.

As I walked around the cemetery, I found my second great grandfather, a great aunt that died in infancy, a great grand uncle, and my 3rd great grandmother. This was such a huge find for me since my genealogy is like Swiss cheese. I have been on this journey for 50 years to learn who I am and where I came from.

When we were in Iowa about 15 years ago, we came across a grocery store called Piggly Wiggly. My daughter didn’t believe that was the name of the store, so we went inside and got groceries. As a souvenir, she got a bag with the name on it. Now, every time we are in the area, we have to stop.

Where to stay?

We stayed in a small American town called Elkader. There is a county park and an RV resort called Deer Run Resort. We didn’t get any pictures because it was stormy while we were there. If you are ever in the area, check out Deer Run Resort at https://www.bing.com/alink/link?url=https%3a%2f%2fdeerrunresort.net%2f&source=serp-local&h=P1heZC1nXl%2bHuJXHTWxcxDhfQjFj9qk0PQEimUbIJQM%3d&p=lw_gb&ig=84140244D2B04B369F3AC8498677A777&ypid=YN248x4938912 You do have to call to make a reservation instead of booking online, but it is a great place to stay.

What to see and do around town?

We visited the small town of Garnavillo, Iowa which is where Andrew lived until he was 18. It’s always nice to go back and see where he came from.

We drove around the Guttenberg Historic Rivertown. It’s a nice place to walk around the Great Mississippi River.

A lot of history in this small river town. The town was originally named Prairie la Porte, in 1883. In 1844 the Western Settlement Society of Cincinnati was an organization that was founded to aid German immigration. The society purchased 300 acres, and a town was born. Later the name was changed to Guttenberg.

Guttenberg’s architectural landscape is the large number of limestone structures, the majority of these date from before the Civil War and some were perhaps built as early as the mid-1840’s. https://cityofguttenbergia.gov/index.asp?SEC=683FA5D8-881B-4814-9752-6D26ECC67B67