Day 21: June 28, 2014
Dream On
Comment via blog
 		Previous Day
Prev
 Next Day
Next
 		Site Home
 Trip Home
Before leaving home, I noticed that the Field of Dreams movie site was very close to one of my possible routes home. Yesterday afternoon, I started zeroing in on it. From the SPAM museum in Austin, Iowa, I headed south on US-218 to Waterloo where I spent the night. This morning I turned east on US-20. The site is just a couple miles north of US-20 near Dyersville. Except for the souvenir stand and the corn being a little short, the place looks pretty much like it did in the 1989 movie that blends the American dream, the American pastime, and an American fantasy. Somehow the place continues to fuel dreams. I watched the very young daughter of a couple carrying an even younger child, have a blast running around the field. Shortly before I left, a family with three boys walked to the field. Dad caught a few pitches from the oldest boy before he and a younger brother took off on the base paths. The other brother wasn't far behind.

This is the film's twenty-fifth anniversary and some of the actors and a crowd of about 11,000 celebrated the milestone over Fathers Day weekend.

I continued on US-20 to Dubuque then turned south on US-52 with thoughts of taking it all the way to Cincinnati. The silo is on Fifty-Two. I crossed the Mississippi at Savanna, Illinois, on this 1932 bridge. It's scheduled for replacement next year and will be available for free but it must be moved. You're probably going to need a bigger truck.
US-52 goes through Dixon but so does the Lincoln Highway and I briefly left the former for the latter. When the two split on the east side of town, I stayed on the LH to Franklin Grove. Franklin Grove is where the Lincoln Highway Association Headquarters are located. Lynn Asp, the manager, had been at the conference in Tooele. Within hours of the conference end I wanted to kick myself for not providing Lynn with some signed copies of By Mopar to the Golden Gate for the gift shop. As soon as it occurred to me that US-52 went through Dixon, I checked to see how far away Franklin Grove was. At less than ten miles it was hardly a blip on a 5000 mile road trip. After giving Lynn, who had only been home a couple of days herself, the books, I snapped a photo of the building and a proof-of-presence picture at the mural up the street. I then drove south on back roads to reconnect with Fifty-Two near Sublette.
I've driven US-52 between Joliet and Cincinnati twice before and both times I've taken a picture of this barn. Therefore, I did it -- not very well -- again.
[Prev] [Site Home] [Trip Home] [Contact] [Next]
democrat