Come fall, Midwest garden centers bloom with mums, asters and ornamental kale. Farms open to the public for pumpkin picking, hayrides and corn maze navigation. It’s rare to find both combined and with a restaurant on the premises, to boot, which is what you get at Pinter’s Gardens & Pumpkins in Decorah, Iowa. “…with the restaurant and the garden center and the pumpkin patch, the closest would probably be Chicago, that has all what I have,” said Elisa Pinter, who co-owns Pinter’s Gardens & Pumpkins with her husband Shane. Read more
Attractions & Events
Fantastic Caverns: The Only Drive-Through Cave in the U.S.

Stalactites hang tight to the ceiling. Stalagmites grow from the ground up as calcite from dripping water builds up. When the formations meet in the middle they become a column. I’ve heard how cave formations build every time I take a cave tour. Yet, I never tire of touring the underground beauty of a cave. Each one is different in its own way, with unique formations, history, and in the case of Fantastic Caverns in Springfield, Missouri, its mode of transportation. Read more
Marshall Carriage Company Ghost Tour in a Horse-Drawn Buggy

The young couple that moved into the Oliver Comstock House had a notion to name their new baby Hannah. Within days of Hannah’s birth, strange events began occurring. The piano keys were banged on in the middle of the night. The name “Hannah” was written on the wall in pencil. Doors opened and closed on their own. The couple soon discovered that the home’s original owner, Oliver Comstock, was married to a woman named Hannah. The Comstock House is just one of several haunted homes we stopped at during our horse-drawn Marshall Carriage Company ghost tour of Marshall, Michigan, the only such tour in the United States. Read more
Historic Bridge Park: 5 Restored Truss Bridges in One Location

Fans of old bridges will love Historic Bridge Park, appropriately named given that it’s the retirement home for five restored Calhoun County, Michigan, metal truss bridges, plus a historic stone arch railroad bridge, all integrated into a footpath that winds through fields of black-eyed susans, queen anne’s lace, cow vetch and cattails. Read more
Driving through the Wild Animal Safari

Driving through the Wild Animal Safari park near Springfield, Missouri, I never expected the animals to run right up to the car, but that’s exactly what they did. Read more
Nottawa Stone School: A One-Room Schoolhouse

Imagine being a school teacher and having to teach five grades or more at one time. One-room schoolhouses were common in rural areas of the United States all the way into the 1960s, some even later. Earlier this year we visited the Nottawa Stone School in Nottawa, Michigan, a one-room schoolhouse that served grades one through five, which has been restored for historical purposes. Read more

