After visiting Sam’s grandparents in Le Claire, the next stop on our tour through Iowa was aunt Co and uncle Bernie’s place just outside of Decorah – a wonderfully quaint small town up in the northeast corner of the state (see banner pic).
The journey to Decorah was a quintessentially “Iowa” road trip along meandering two lane highways with cornfields on either side – even including the Field of Dreams, just outside Dyersville. And outside of the iconic ballfield, I would say the other main attraction along the route was the Saint Boniface Catholic Church in downtown New Vienna. Although we just drove past, I was blown away by the beauty of this little church in the heart of an unassuming small farm town.
Once in the area, we drove through town and made our way to Co and Bernie’s place, which is about 10-15 minutes outside of Decorah city limits. Co and Bernie lived in town for many years, but had only recently built this house out in the country on a beautiful property right along the Upper Iowa River where the were nice enough to allow us to park for the week. As you can see, we were arriving at the perfect time of year – the spring flush was fully upon us and everything was so dang green!
As I hinted in the previous post, Decorah may just be the spot that most exceeded our expectations among all the places that we have visited in the RV. Not only is the land beautiful, but the town itself has a certain charm that not many other places have – at least anymore. From all the beautiful churches to the active downtown area to the local malt shop, Whippy Dip (where Co happens to work), it really has that small town feel which once was so prevalent throughout this country. The only way I can describe it is “Americana.”
While we were downtown, we stopped by the local cidery, Convergence CiderWorks, with a cool location within a repurposed lumber yard complete with a kitchen and party games before we made our way up to the bluff which overlooked the town and had to snap a few pics!
The next day, Co and Bernie treated us to an awesome canoe trip down the Upper Iowa River. Once again, we were blown away by how beautiful this area was – between the greenery, crystal clear water, abundant wildlife, great weather, and towering cliffs.
For our last evening in Decorah, we decided to just chill out at Co and Bernie’s and enjoy a nice campfire while overlooking the river. I can’t think of a better way to end our stay than to take in the amazing scenery while roasting marshmallows with the best hosts ever!
