My sister and I decided to plan ahead what we would try to do when she came to visit.  She tries to come see us at least once a year, and we all really look forward to it.  We have had visits when we just hung around the area, and we both thought that we needed to have some ideas of what would be fun for the kids and educational, if possible.

So off to Winterset we went.  You might be wondering what would be of interest to make us go.  The town of Winterset is the birth place of John Wayne.  They have restored the house where he lived when he was young.  We left Weston, Missouri between 8:00 – 9:00 in the morning.  We went north on I-29 towards St. Joseph, Missouri .  As we got close to St. Joseph, we merged onto US-36, going east towards Cameron, Missouri .  Once we were at Cameron, we stopped at a McDonalds for a little breakfast and a break for coffee.  We then continued on with our journey going north on I-35, crossing over into Iowa .  This took us close to Winterset and as we got closer, we took the IA-92 exit, going west, towards Bevington and Winterset. 

We had thought this would be an overnight trip, but after checking MapQuest, realized it was shorter than we had first believed.  Once we got to the house we took some pictures outside in front of the house and then went inside the visitors building.  This is a house that you have to go through to get inside John Wayne’s house.  We had to wait a little while before the next tour, but during this time we had the chance to purchase our tickets and look at some memorabilia around this building.  Of course, we also looked over the different souvenirs we thought we might get to remember our trip, once our tour was complete.  The tour groups were small because the house is small.  There was a small kitchen, an entrance room, and two other small rooms.  We were not allowed to take pictures in here, but there were so many things to see!  There were items from his movies, pictures of family and friends, and lots of other things related to John Wayne!   We had such a great time.  Afterwards, we asked about a place close by to eat.  The volunteers at the center told us of a place in walking distance.  She also mentioned it being in a movie.  My sister and I were trying to figure out which movie she was meaning.  After getting there we looked at some pictures on the wall and realized which movie she meant.  This little diner was in the movie, The Bridges of Madison County.   It starred Clint Eastwood.  I didn’t go see this movie, so don’t really know much about it.  It was fun, however, to look at the pictures on the wall.  The folks said Clint Eastwood was real pleasant.  We finished our sandwiches and headed for home.  We just went back the way we came.  We did stop to get an ice cream in St. Joseph , and then went on home.  We arrived home about 7:00 in the evening.  We hope some of you will get a chance to visit John Wayne’s birth place!   He is one our favorite actors and we surely enjoyed visiting here, and hope you will, also.