Visiting Eldon, Iowa has been a goal of mine for the past few years and despite having been in the area more than a dozen times, I never made the journey. There was always some sort of reason not to go … the most convenient of which was always that it was “too far out of the way.” That changed today when I decided to go on the drive and play dress up at the house that inspired the famous painting by Grant Wood, American Gothic.

Was it worth the drive?

As silly as it might sound to drive three hours through the cornfields of Iowa just to put on costumes and strike the same parodied pose as countless others … yes. Yes it was.

The one person staff seemed genuinely happy to see us and even helped us into our outfits. She  followed us outside to take our photos; a photo which she’s obviously taken hundreds, if not thousands (millions?), of times before.

We spent the rest of our time fooling around outside of what is quite possibly the most famous house in America (except, of course, the White House). After taking some goofy pictures of us pretending to attack each other with the pitchfork (a real pitchfork, I might add) we visited the little museum and gift shop before getting back into the car for the long drive back home.