June 22 - Winterset

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Bridge to Nowhere

Our 10K walk today started in City Park in Winterset, Iowa.  Shortly after starting our walk, we came to the Cutler-Donahoe Covered Bridge, built in 1870, and one of the 5 remaining covered bridges in Madison County.  It is a lovely red-painted wooden bridge.  You can walk across it, but it doesn’t really go anywhere now; it is just part of the park.  

 Other attractions in City Park include an English-style hedge maze, the 25-foot tall Clark Tower overlooking the Middle River Valley, the restored Bennett log cabin, a stone commemorating the development of the Delicious apple, and a stone bridge used in the movie “The Bridges of Madison County.”

Clark Tower

The walk route also included the John Wayne birthplace, a 7-foot statue of the “Duke,” the Madison County Historical Complex, a Civil War monument, and buildings appearing in “The Bridges of Madison County” and “Cold Turkey.”  

Winterset also played a role in African American history. The building that currently houses the Winterset Art Center is linked to the Underground Railroad.  In addition there is a park memorializing George Washington Carver – scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor.  Carver was employed in Winterset before going to college in Indianola and later in Ames.

Follow the pink arrows

The heat wave has ended and today was cool and pleasant, like a humid summer day in Anchorage.  My knees and ankles are much better.  Maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s the break I took yesterday, or maybe it’s the glucosamine chondroitin I have started taking.

After the walk we drove to the Convention Complex in Des Moines. I attended the second half of a workshop on AVA (American Volkssport Association) Club Tax and Accounting Issues.  It wasn’t that interesting, but I got some handouts to bring home to my club.

The second workshop I attended was an AVA Town Hall Meeting.  The main issues discussed were:

•  Lack of a location for the 2013 convention
•  Whether “free walkers” should be eliminated
•   IT issues such as a “bulletin board” and using Facebook to publicize events

The first AVA General Session followed.  The keynote speaker was Tim Lane, a former fitness consultant with the Iowa Department of Public Health.  He was an excellent speaker.  One of the issues he adressed was the lack of safe pedestrian infrastructure in the US.  He said that 1.2% of our transportation spending goes to pedestrian improvements and he would like to see that number doubled.  Des Moines, with 6 pedestrian bridges over its rivers, skyways connecting downtown buildings, and other pedestrian amenities, is setting an example for the rest of the country.

We also heard from the candidates for AVA’s national officer positions.  Due to some controversial events during the past few months, this election is contested.  There were two candidates each for President, Vice President and Treasurer.  The conservative contingent wants the AVA to remain pretty much as it is; the other contingent thinks the AVA will need to reinvent itself in order to survive. 

Rating:

Walk Route: B+

Walk Documentation: B+