Thursday, May 10^th

Come join the Country Bumpkins and have some down home fun!  As we depart Central Wisconsin this morning heading for the wide open space of the state of Iowa!  Our first day of travel will be filled with some games of Bingo, maybe a Beanie Baby Race and certainly a movie or two and any other surprises that your Tour Director can come up with.  We will make rest area breaks when needed along with an included lunch stop in La Crosse and our included dinner stop at The Branding Iron in Ames, IA. Ames is just a hop, skip and jump away from Des Moines where we will hang our hats for the next three nights!  The Comfort Suites at Living History Farm will welcome us with a down home welcome! A beautiful pool area awaits us here!

Friday, May 11^th

After our included hot breakfast at the hotel we will be off and running today! The first visit of the day will be at the Des Moines Botanical & Environmental Center, with beautiful indoor and outdoor gardens for our group to enjoy.  Time in their very interesting gift shop will be a must as well.

Then on to the The Blank Zoo – the name certainly does not match what is inside. Our visit will include the train ride so we are certain that we won’t miss a single area of the zoo.  For the brave ones – you can even try a camel ride or maybe feed a giraffe! While we spend a leisurely time at the zoo we will have our included lunch with the animals as well. Late this afternoon we say good bye to the animals and hello to the Incredible Pizza Company. And say hello we will, with all kinds of fun & games to check out while enjoying a Pizza Buffet!  You may even get to dance for your dinner as the waitress swings through the restaurant.

Now just in case you think we haven’t had enough exercise today we will make a stop off at the Des Moines Sculpture Park. With a nice walking path we can stroll through the park and maybe even figure out what some of the unusual sculptures are – of course there are a bunch that we will figure out that are pretty impressive. We return to our hotel this evening to enjoy the indoor pool and whirl pool!

Saturday, May 12^th

Rise and shine to another spring day in Iowa!  Following our included hot breakfast we will be able to walk to our first stop of the day – the Living History Farm.  Farmer Brown, get ready to check out the 1875 Town of Walnut Hill from way back when! We will visit the black smith shop, the little country church, the broom making shop and the country store.

Next we hop on a tram that takes us over the hill to the 1850 Pioneer Farm and a 1900 farm and way back as far as the 1700 farm. It is really amazing how people lived back then and there will be people dressed just like they did hundreds of years ago – but of course we will visit the cows and sheep and pigs and yes they will look just like the cows and sheep and pigs that we can see in the country around Central Wisconsin.

Now to keep us on schedule we will grab an included Box Lunch as we head for Boone, IA to catch the Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad!  All Aboard!  Now we will for sure be seeing the Iowa farm land as our train takes us through the country and over the Bass Point Creek High Bridge!

This evening we return to our hotel to freshen up before walking across the parking lot to the Machine Shed Restaurant for our included dinner. The Machine Shed Restaurants were first started in Davenport, IA and remains a very popular restaurant to stop at.  You may even manage to get a tractor and wagon ride back to our hotel just in case we are to full to walk!

Sunday, May 13^th

Our final day of the Country Bumpkin tour begins with our included hot breakfast before we have to say good bye to our country friends and begin our trip back to Central Wisconsin. As we travel home we will make a stop at the Reiman Gardens in Ames to see their Butterfly Wing. As we walk slowly through the butterflies it is very possible that a dainty butterfly will land on you – of course you are their resting stop and before you know it they flutter away again.

Once back in Minnesota we will have our included lunch stop at the Trail’s Travel Center in Albert Lea along with a little shopping time in their very nice gift shop. Before we know it our travels will take us back into Wisconsin where we will make our included dinner stop at McDonald’s in Tomah before returning back to our stops in Central Wisconsin!  After seeing many miles of country roads and interesting places it always feels good to see the familiar roads of Wisconsin again!

 

Tour Includes:

• All Attractions
• All Meals
• Lodging for Three Nights
• Motorcoach Transportation
• Tour Director and Chaperones
• Refreshments & Snacks

Cost:  $750.00 Per Person, Double Occupancy

Pick-up areas:  Spencer, Wausau, Junction City, Marshfield, Tomah