8: See the Field of Dreams Field: CHECK
On Friday June, 23th 2011 I road tripped to Iowa. The next day my friend Jake and I drove from to Dyersville, IA. Where I completed #8 on my 15ish things I wanted to do before I turned 30. I got to see the Field of Dreams Field/Moive Site. I love watching the movie Field of Dreams. It's one of very few movies I could watch over and over and over again and never get tired of watching.
James Earl Jones' monologue from the movie adequately describes my urge to make this stop one of my Before 30 Bucket list... "Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come."
The Lansing family who owns the property takes very good care of the field and the property. I had heard rumors that it was a little run down which I happily found is not the case. I took a few pictures while there and have posted them on Facebook where most people can see them. My only regret about seeing the field on that day was that the corn was only about a foot tall. It didn't make for very good Ghost Player reenactments... :-/ It was still awesome to be playing catch in the outfield and watching other people from all over the US enjoying the field too. I picked up the obligatory souvenir t-shirt and bumper sticker. It was once again proved it's a small world when the lady running the Souvenir stand saw my Purdue shirt and told me her daughter lives in Dyer, Indiana...
This was only one small portion of my trip to Iowa but it felt good to finally check another thing off my list.
Go Here for Pics...
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