WEST UNION, IOWA: If This Page Doesn't Convince You, Nothing Will

August 4, 2016

Just before sunrise on the mighty Upper Iowa River. I might as well get up now.

Decorah has a nice downtown area and a deep Norwegian heritage. In order to experience both of those features I rode downtown to the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum this morning. I can't say I've ever considered the Norwegian culture to have the dynamic aspect that would warrant a visit to a museum before today, but I figured in Iowa even Norwegians could be interesting. Unfortunately, the museum was not yet open and I didn't think Norwegians--even Iowa Norwegians--were worth a half-hour wait.

I moved on from Iowa's Norway to Iowa's Czechoslavakia. The little town of Spillville has what I consider to be the greatest museum in the world. If not the greatest, certainly the most underrated and least famous of the world's great museums.

I'm going to keep you in suspense about the museum for a minute and change the subject to Spillville's most famous former resident--the great Czech composer, Antonin Dvorak. Dvorak didn't think Iowa was boring when he decided to ride his bike from Czechoslavakia to little Spillville, by way of New York City, soon after composing his masterpiece"The New World Symphony." [citation needed] For informational purposes [citation needed] is Wikipedia-speak for "we can't verify if that is true or not." In this case, the bike riding part is probably NOT true because I just made it up. The idea of a distinguished, big-bearded, classical composer riding his bike to Iowa in the 1890's was just too whimsical not to include here.

The part about him living in this Czech community, however, is completely true. Sure, Dvorak only spent one summer in Spillville before heading back to his homeland, but he didn't leave because he was bored. No, he left so he could spread Iowa love and Iowa spirit all over Europe. [citation needed]

Back to the world's greatest museum. The Bily Clocks Museum is very small, but the works of art inside are truly amazing. Brothers Frank and Joseph Bily hand-carved a collection of wooden clocks with almost unreal craftsmanship, creativity, intricacy, and attention to the smallest detail. That's right, clocks. Huge clocks. Clocks that took up to three years to carve. Clocks like nothing you've ever seen before. And you won't see them here either because no photography is allowed inside the museum. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Had Dvorak lived in Iowa BEFORE he composed "The New World Symphony," it would have been an even GREATER masterpiece. [citation needed]

Six miles beyond Spillville is the town of Ft. Atkinson where an actual fort from the 1840's is preserved atop a big hill at the edge of town. Originally built to monitor the movements of the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Nation, nothing important ever happened at the fort. There are no stories of Indian uprisings, no westward bound settlers seeking military protection, no cannon shots fired at British or Norwegian armies, nothing. It's an entire state historic site dedicated to nothing.

Does the fact that nothing happened here make it boring? Absolutely not! I wasn't bored, and I believe the site simply demonstrates the happy, peaceful, and non-boring nature of all Iowans. [citation needed.]

Time for some more pictures.

Not much traffic on this county road from Spillville to Fort Atkinson.

The cycling on these rustic county roads was some of the finest I've experienced, and I'm not just saying that to bolster my attempt to debunk the Iowa myth. I'm also not trying to claim it was as scenically spectacular as, say, Glacier National Park, but for pure rural riding pleasure, this route provided everything I could want: Rolling hills that gave me the opportunity to use all my gears, cows, horses, eagles, little churches and cemeteries, corn, streams, very low traffic, etc.

Not much traffic on this road from Fort Atkinson to Festina either.

Cows can't help but stare at me. That's what they do.

A nice climb took me to this point overlooking Eldorado, Iowa. I think I recall a story about a different El Dorado as being the legendary City of Gold.

It's party time inside a West Union motel while a thunderstorm rages outside.

Today's ride: 34 miles (55 km)
Total: 190 miles (306 km)

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