Today we left Iowa City and got to Lincoln, NE, where we stayed with our friends Jack and Dottie. Jack and I met in the late seventies while we were both teaching high school in neighboring districts in Northern New Jersey. Jack left Jersey and headed south to Mississippi State, and I left Jersey and headed north to Yale. We met up again in the mid nineties in Florida—he as director of the School of Music at the University of Florida and I as dean of music of the New World School of the Arts in Miami. Jack left Florida and headed west to Nebraska where he is now dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and I headed north and west and am director of the school of music at the University of Illinois. Through the years we played concerts together and consoled each other during difficult times. Jack is the only pianist I ever met who actually enjoyed playing the Hindemith tuba sonata.
Sitting in our mirror for 30 miles along Route 92 in Iowa, the Mormon Trail, this image reminded me of “Duel,” Steven Spielberg’s first feature-length film of 1971 starring Dennis Weaver. That movie scared the begeezus out of me when I was 16 years old and just learning to drive. Luckily, this trucker was harmless.
Iconic Iowa--need we say more?
In Madison County, we encountered Cedar Bridge, built in 1883 and one of the six remaining covered bridges in Iowa. In Robert James Waller's novel The Bridges of Madison County, Cedar Bridge is where Francesca Johnson goes to meet Robert Kincaid to help him take photographs. Clint you were sooooooo sensitive and Meryl you were soooooo hot! Cedar bridge was destroyed by an arsonist on Sept. 3, 2002. A replica of the original bridge was built from the original plans and was dedicated on October 9, 2004.
