This is the second collection of “other” images I took while harvesting the town signs of Madison and Union County. This was the last town sign harvesting trip I ever took with my Mom.
All of the pictures in this collection were taken in Madison County. St. Charles, East Peru, Truro, and Macksburg.
Truro
East Peru
Macksburg
There is one more collection of pictures from this road trip still to come.
After laying my pick down for the week (cue Loverboy) on a recent Friday, I cruised up to Grundy County and harvested their town sign. I didn’t have my ritualistic Hardee’s breakfast due to the time of day, but I did have Hardee’s for supper, which was technically a loss, because I was hoping to have Godfather’s pizza from a gas station off of Highway 20, but it was sadly closed by the time I discovered it. However, it was still a successful road trip.
Here are some facts about Grundy County:
+ Population is 12,299 (2019 estimate), the 62nd most populous county in Iowa. Behind Union and ahead of Chickasaw.
+ The county seat and largest town is Grundy Center.
+ Formed on January 15, 1851.
+ Named for Felix Gundy and Tennessee politician and the 13th Attorney General of the United States.
+ Major highways are: US-20, IA-14, IA-57, and IA-175.
+ Adjacent counties are: Butler, Hardin, Franklin, Black Hawk, Marshall, and Tama.
+ Population peaked in 1920 at 14,420.
Grundy County has a gorgeous courthouse:
The Grundy County Freedom Rock is located in Conrad:
With Grundy County conquered, here is the updated Photography 139 Conquest Map:
25 counties completed. 25.3% of the Cyclone State conquered.
Here are the town signs of Grundy County:
Grundy Center, Iowa – Back
Reinbeck, Iowa
Reinbeck Est. 1876
Population: 1,664
Dike, Iowa
Welcome to Dike
Population: 1,209
Conrad, Iowa
Welcome to Conrad – A Main Street Community
Population: 1,108
Wellsburg, Iowa
Wellsburg
Population: 707
Holland, Iowa
Welcome to Holland – 2 Miles West
Population: 282
Stout, Iowa
Stout Astrodome
Population: 224
Beaman, Iowa
Welcome – You’re not dreamin… You’re in Beaman
Population: 191
Morrison, Iowa
City of Morrison City Hall – Est. 1877
Population: 94
The worst town sign in Grundy County is pretty obvious. There are actually 2 of them. Stout didn’t even have a sign on their City Hall that said their town name. Best I could find is a sign that if was in a different competition, would be pretty sweet. But this is a town sign competition. Morrison is a tiny town, but it should be able to do better than the DOT sign. After all, it is home to what looked like a pretty successful restaurant and the Grundy County Museum. They have a sweet orange chair that sits in their park with the town name on it. If it was closer to the main drag, I would have counted it, but it was under a shelter a block away hidden behind picnic tables, so no dice.
The Best in Show for Grundy County is also a no-brainer:
There were a couple of towns with alternate signs:
Reinbeck Alternate
Beaman Alternate
Here is the current list of Best in Shows:
Best in Show – Audubon County
Best in Show – Benton County
Best in Show – Boone County
Best in Show – Carroll County
Best in Show – Clarke County
Best in Show – Crawford County
Best in Show – Dallas County
Best in Show – Franklin County
Best in Show – Greene County
Best in Show – Grundy County
Best in Show – Guthrie County
Best in Show – Hamilton County
Best in Show – Hardin County
Best in Show – Jasper County
Best in Show – Madison County
Best in Show – Marion County
Best in Show – Marshall County
Best in Show – Polk County
Best in Show – Poweshiek County
Best in Show – Story County
Best in Show – Tama County
Best in Show – Union County
Best in Show – Webster County
Best in Show – Wright County
Next time we check in with THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT it will involve Lucas County.
The theme of COMMUNICATION did not communicate to a tremendous amount of people. That is fine. Maybe this week’s theme will be more popular.
But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates. You came to see the submissions:
Andy Sharp
Andy Sharp (This was actually Andy’s submission for WHITE that I missed, but it also works here.)
Shannon Bardole-Foley
Kio Dettman
Tamara Peterson
Kio Dettman
Kio Dettman
Christopher D. Bennett
Carla Stensland
Micky Augustin
But enough dwelling on the past. Time to look to the future. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future! This week’s theme:
ADVENTURE! What a great theme for Year 8 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.
But what is an ADVENTURE image? An ADVENTURE image is simply any image that was taken while on an ADVENTURE or preparing for an ADVENTURE or going on an ADVENTURE. The theme reveal picture could qualify for all 3. The twist to this picture is that YOU have to figure out what you consider to be an ADVENTURE.
DON’T FORGET THAT INDEPENDENCE DAY IS SUNDAY, THEREFORE MANY PEOPLE HAVE MONDAY AS A VACATION. BUT PHOTOGRAPHY 139 DOES NOT TAKE HOLIDAYS. PLAN YOUR SUBMISSION ACCORDINGLY!!
Also, meditate on this quote before thinking about your ADVENTURE photo:
As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was about to happen.
-Winnie the Pooh
The picture has to be taken between 12:01 PM today and 11 AM next Monday. This isn’t a curate your photos project. This is a get your butt off the couch (unless you are taking your picture from the couch) and take pictures challenge.
You can send your images to either bennett@photography139.com OR you may text them to my Pixel 5.
That is all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will all be sharing our idea of ADVENTURE in this place that is just a record of my ADVENTURE(s) next Monday.
Here is the final collection of pictures from the Stenslands 2020 family photo shoot:
These were the last pictures from 2020 that I had yet to share. I might start taking Sundays back off from “An Artist’s Notebook”, but I will need to take a look at where I stand with the backlog before making any kind of rash decisions.
There were large collections of images in the folders 2010-09-20, 2010-09-21, or 2010-09-27 so I combined them into one post. These include pictures of an Iowa State-Kansas State football game, pictures taken shortly after Evie was born, and pictures of Elainie playing football.
By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:
Next Saturday’s post will involve a picture I really wish I remember why I took it. Plus pictures of Foster Q. Bunny.
This collection of images is cleaning up some random photos from January and February. The highlight and the majority of these images are taken from when Logan brought Dahlia over see Mom and Teresa.
That was a good day!
This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is COMMUNICATION:
COMMUNICATION! What a great theme for Year 8 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!
But what is a COMMUNICATION image? It is simply any picture that shows a type of COMMUNICATION or people COMMUNICATIONing or things that are used for COMMUNICATION. For example, in the theme reveal there are several things being COMMUNICATIONed. The business is a carwash. The phone number to reach the proprietor is 515-890-1900. Somebody fears the commercialization of Christmas. They also must like fish. Signs are a great form of COMMUNICATION, as just an example.
Happy photo harvesting!
Here is another collection of flower pictures I took in my Mom’s yard. These pictures were taken on April 14. There are tulips, daffodils, and a peony in this collection.
So many more flower picture photos to share!
This is the first collection of other images I took while harvesting the town signs of Madison and Union County. This was the last one of these trips I took with my Mom. It also includes the last picture I ever took with her. It was at the John Wayne Museum, next to the John Wayne statue. She was a big fan of John Wayne movies. His westerns. She didn’t care for his war movies.
All of the pictures in this collection were taken in Madison County. Mostly in Winterset. A few were taken in Bevington and Patterson.
Patterson – Patterson is one of the dumpiest towns I’ve ever been in, in my life (but not the dumpiest town on this day), but it did have this fascinating WWI Memorial.
Note that there are two different dates here.
These two soldiers wrote their own names in this cement slab, which held a flagpole in the Salsbury front yard, with the inscription “Shot in France”, before they left for WWI.
The story is here, but it is hard to read from the condensation, but both soldiers were killed in France, during a gas attack. Salsbury is buried near Patterson and it is believed Downs is buried in Illinois.
Winterset
The last picture I took of my Mom.
There are probably 2 more collections of pictures from this trip left to share.
I recently took a Friday off from the Computer Mine and Jesse and I spent the day tooling around Poweshiek County (and Benton County) harvesting their town signs. It was a very enjoyable trip, because it included ice cream! As all great road trips should.
Here are some facts about Poweshiek County:
+ Population is 18,388 (2019 estimate). The 38th most populous county in Iowa.
+ The county seat is Montezuma.
+ The largest town is Grinnell.
+ Formed in 1843.
+ Named for Chief Poweshiek (1791-1854) of the Fox tribe who signed the treaty ending the Black Hawk War.
+ Home of Grinnell College.
+ Home of the Brooklyn Flag Display.
+ Major highways are: I-80, US-6, US-63, IA-21, IA-85, and IA-146.
+ Adjacent counties are: Tama, Iowa, Keokuk, Mahaska, and Jasper.
+ Peak population was 19.910 in 1920.
Poweshiek County has a beautiful courthouse:
The Poweshiek County Courthouse is located in Montezuma:
With Poweshiek County conquered, here is the updated Photography 139 Conquest Map:
24 counties completed. 24.2% of the Cyclone State conquered.
Here are the town signs of Poweshiek County:
Brooklyn, Iowa
Brooklyn – Community of Flags
Population: 1,468
Montezuma, Iowa
Welcome to Montezuma
Population: 1,462
Victor, Iowa
Victor
Population: 893
Malcom, Iowa
Malcom – In the Middle of It All – Next 6 Exits – Est 1872
Population: 289
Deep River, Iowa
Welcome to Deep River – Est. 1884
Population: 279
Barnes City, Iowa
Welcome to Barnes City – Home of Lake Hawthorn
Population: 176
Searsboro, Iowa
Searsboro – Est. 1876
Population: 148
Hartwick, Iowa
<- Hartwick 3
Population: 86
Guernsey, Iowa
Est 1884 – Guernsey
Population: 63
The worst town sign is obviously Hartwick. They didn’t even have a city hall with their town name on it. They did have a spot that looked like it was destined for a town sign, but maybe it was just a very sparse flowerbed. Victor also has a terribly boring sign and Searsboro doesn’t try very hard either. However, by far the biggest disappointment is Montezuma. How do you have such an awesome town name and such a boring sign?
But who gets Best in Show for Poweshiek County. I love Guernsey’s sign. Grinnell has a solid sign as well. Brooklyn has a decent, although corporate art looking, sign. Barnes City’s sign has a great folk art look to it. However, I’m going to give Best in Show to Malcom.
The only town in Poweshiek County with an alternate sign is Grinnell
Here is the current list of Best in Shows:
Best in Show – Audubon County
Best in Show – Benton County
Best in Show – Boone County
Best in Show – Carroll County
Best in Show – Clarke County
Best in Show – Crawford County
Best in Show – Dallas County
Best in Show – Franklin County
Best in Show – Greene County
Best in Show – Guthrie County
Best in Show – Hamilton County
Best in Show – Hardin County
Best in Show – Jasper County
Best in Show – Madison County
Best in Show – Marion County
Best in Show – Marshall County
Best in Show – Polk County
Best in Show – Poweshiek County
Best in Show – Story County
Best in Show – Tama County
Best in Show – Union County
Best in Show – Webster County
Best in Show – Wright County
Next time we check in with THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT it will involve Grundy County.
It appears that WHITE was not a super popular theme.
But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates. You came to see the submissions:
Christopher D. Bennett
Micky Augustin
Angie DeWaard
Kim Barker
Angie DeWaard
Kio Dettman
Kio Dettman
Cathie Raley
Elizabeth Nordeen
Carla Stensland
Mike Vest
But enough dwelling on the past. Time to look to the future. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future! This week’s theme:
COMMUNICATION! What a great theme for Year 8 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!
But what is a COMMUNICATION image? It is simply any picture that shows a type of COMMUNICATION or people COMMUNICATIONing or things that are used for COMMUNICATION. For example, in the theme reveal there are several things being COMMUNICATIONed. The business is a carwash. The phone number to reach the proprietor is 515-890-1900. Somebody fears the commercialization of Christmas. They also must like fish. Signs are a great form of COMMUNICATION, as just an example.
Think on these lyrics by Led Zeppelin while you are thinking about subjects for your COMMUNICATION image:
Hey, girl, stop what you’re doin’
Hey, girl, you’ll drive me to ruin
I don’t know what it is I like about you, but I like it a lot
Won’t you let me hold you, now, let me feel your lovin’ touchCommunication breakdown, it’s always the same
Havin’ a nervous breakdown, a-drive me insane
Meditate on these words any you will no doubt, create a phenomenal COMMUNICATION image.
The picture has to be taken between 12:01 PM today and 11 AM next Monday. This isn’t a curate your photos project. This is a get your butt off the couch (unless you are taking your picture from the couch) and take pictures challenge.
You can send your images to either bennett@photography139.com OR you may text them to my Pixel 5.
That is all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will all be sharing our idea of COMMUNICATION in this place that is just another form of COMMUNICATION next Monday.
