This adventure begins on a cold, rainy, fall morning. It was September 28th, 2013 and my friend and I needed a bonding day. She has a hobby that she is very passionate about, as do I, needless to say. So we figured, lets combine the two and create a fun-filled day that would appease us both. So we left from my house early that morning with the coffee thermos in tow. We knew we were heading south of Des Moines but the exact plan had yet to be decided. The overall plan though was to hit a couple of wineries and the rest of the day would involve exploring the Bridges of Madison County and looking for letterboxes. Letterboxing is my friend's hobby. If you have not heard about letterboxing, it is basically a scavenger hunt that requires you to leave your mark when you find the box and then take their mark with you. I don't want to say too much about it but if you're intrigued, visit http://www.letterboxing.org/.
So anyway, it was a couple of hour drive but once we got close, we decided to start the day with looking for a letterbox at Roseman Bridge. It was our first hunt for the day and thankfully, it was a successful find. 
Our next stop was at Imes Bridge. Unfortunately, that letterbox was no longer there. The owner had left a comment saying he believed it to be gone but we figured we would try looking for it anyway. After about fifteen minutes of looking with no avail, we decided to move on. But to boost our spirits, it was just a short drive to the first winery of the day.
Just east of Saint Charles, IA sits Two Saints Winery. As we entered, we realized we were the only visitors. It was nice though, I prefer it to be that way just because its easier to have a conversation with the owners or the people working the bar. We glanced around and saw quite a selection of items for sale but we decided to start with the wine samples. We decided to try the sweeter side of their wine list because we felt it would best suit of taste preferences. I tried their Confessions, Rapture, Edelweiss, Frontenac Blush, St. Pepin, and Trinity. Confessions was very smooth and was a nice white that had subtle hints of a few fruits but I got the hint of white peach. I also really liked their Edelweiss because it wasn't too sweet yet very smooth and would pair well with just about anything. Their Frontenac Blush was very good. It had a slight cherry flavor, which I don't usually prefer, but it was so subtle that you barley noticed it. Plus you also got a hint of strawberry which worked quite well together. I also really enjoyed their St. Pepin. It had those more exotic fruit flavors that I have really come to enjoy. We had a great time visiting with one of their owners. We told our story for the day and gave her some insight about what letterboxing was. It was a great stop and it put us in a great mood for more wine.
Just on the west side of Saint Charles sits Madison County Winery and Twisted Vine Brewery. I believe the brewery side of this establishment is rather new but we decided to try both since we were already there. We started with wine though and we got to try five samples for free. I decided to go with their Gold, Hunter's Moon, Midnight Rain, Pink, and Strawberry Blonde. Their Gold was the driest of all that I tried there and was a bit too tart and acidic for my liking. Their Hunter's Moon was very smooth and was much more to my liking. Their Midnight Rain was quite dry too but I also picked up on the earthy smoky characters which were interesting but not what I go for either. Their Pink wine was a semi-sweet which was very good and very easy to drink. We finished up with the wine samples and then decided to try a couple of beer samples. We moved to the front window to sit and chat and sip on the brews. They had a great patio area that I bet would be awesome on a warm summer night. I had to get a couple of pictures because it was a beautiful view.
So that would end our adventure with wine for the day, but our day was far from over. We went to Holliwell Bridge next which we were able to find two different letterboxes at. We then went to Cedar Bridge and we found one letter box there. We had a good time at Cedar Bridge because it is the only covered bridge that you are able to driver over.
The next bridge we visited was Hogback Bridge, the one I wrote about when I visited Covered Bridges Winery with my husband in 2011. Again, we were not able to find the letterbox, but we did find the heart that my husband and I drew our names in on the inside of the bridge. I was happy to see it was still pretty visible but it had faded a little.
The last bridge would take us into the town of Winterset. Cutler-Donahoe Bridge was in the middle of a city park. There was obviously homecoming events going on in town because there were a ton of teenagers in the park taking pictures. Of course, we were not able to locate the letterbox on the bridge but we had a couple more to try. We ended up only finding one more letterbox in a cemetery just on the edge of town. In total, we attempted to find twelve different letterboxes and were only able to find five.
So by the time we finished our adventure, you can assume we were pretty beat. And starved if I might add. So we drove to Des Moines, got some food in our belly and then made our way towards home. All in all it was a great day and a very successful one at that. We got to see all the Bridges of Madison County, we found a bunch of letterboxes, and my favorite part, we got to try lots of great wine.
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