After Nader and I bid a fond adieu to Willy and the Houby Festival we headed towards Monticello for lunch. But on the way to Monticello we stopped in Mount Vernon so I could do a little of the old street photography.
Here is a collection of images on the way to Monticello:
I don’t know if I agree with Budget Travel that Mount Vernon is America’s coolest small town, but it is pretty dang cool. It is home of Cornell College. Home of Iowa’s largest Madonnari Festival. It is called Chalk the Walk. This year that is on May 2 & 3. Unfortunately I won’t be able to go because I’ll be in America’s armpit… Orlando, Florida. Really, Florida is America’s armpit. Orlando is the worst part of Florida. So that would make it America’s Armpit’s Armpit. But maybe I’ll try to go over and checkout as much of the art as I can before nature takes its course with it.
The American Gothic Barn is just west of Mount Vernon on US-30. It is one of my favorite roadside oddities in Iowa. But it is on private property, so if you plan on visiting, you pull over on the side of the highway take a look. Ramble on. Sing your song. Go find your girl.
Mount Vernon also has a Solar System Tour. It is a to-scale display of our solar system. It begins at 221 1st Street W and ends west of town on Mount Vernon Road with… dwarf planet Pluto. The Earth part of the tour is in one of the pictures above.
Also, can we talk a minute about Mount Vernon’s sledding hill? I should have captured that better, but it is a street. That is a crazy dangerous sledding hill! I thought Boone set the bar for dangerous sledding hill when they put a bunch of concrete blocks at the bottom of Killer Hill. But Mount Vernon went full “hold my Moscow Mule” and put their sledding hill in traffic. I tip my cap to the good people of Mount Vernon for raising the standard for danger.
I’m efforting to include more info in these road trip posts. Hope somebody is appreciating it. Or not. I’ll sleep the same either way.
Next Wednesday’s Birthday Road Trip images will finish off the Mount Vernon images and then meander through Stone City and then end in Monticello. That’s right, on my birthday road trip I saw the homes of both famous slaveholders George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Well something like that.
I very much appreciate your road trip info! I’m collecting those I find particularly interesting for my next, extremely overdue, trip back to Iowa. Thanks Chris.
The new found interest in including information might be tied to the large amount of vlogs I’ve been consuming lately.
Want to go on a more ambitious road trip this year. Really been researching a Route 66 Road Trip. Maybe doing it in 2 separate chunks. Also been thinking of doing a North Shore road trip in Minnesota as well. But that would be more like a 4 day weekend type of thing.
But then gas prices started to go through the roof. But that is another topic.
Glad you appreciate it! And I look forward to your trip to Iowa. RAGBRAI is going to do an overnight stop in Boone. Throwing that out there as a potential date that might entice you to see something that is uniquely Iowan.
I’m here to second the notion that your info from road trips is awesome and we love reading it! Joe Duff loves data and trivia.
Thanks Joe! I also look forward to your trip to Iowa! You narrowed down any dates?
Chris,
Good question, the bad answer is no I haven’t.
Leaning toward right after Nathan gets done with school (May 21st) but after your post today I also thought the State Fair would be a great experience for him. As much as I would love to see RAGBRAI through Boone, the amount of people has me stepping back.
A bit depends on mom and how she wants to proceed, so I’ll start firming up the dates. Thanks for the incentive!
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