#Schummer14: Day 1 recap Summer of Schnyder

The first day of our Summer of Schnyder (#Schummer14) road trip was about moving north and east. We left Wichita at 9 a.m. and arrived at the Field of Dreams movie site in Dyersville, Iowa, at about 7:30 p.m. Along the way we stopped for lunch at Woodyard BBQ in Kansas City and dinner at Tony’s LaPizzeria in Cedar Falls. We opted for Cedar Falls because Wichita State’s Missouri Valley Conference opponent UNI is located there so Lee thought it would be fun to stop. Plus, we figured a town with a college should have good pizza. We were right — Tony’s pizza was worth the detour off the highway. It was on Main Street in the city’s small but busy downtown area. We stayed the night in Dubuque, so our total miles for the day = 632.

The main reason for this route was to swing by the Field of Dreams movie site. I’d always thought it would be cool to see a baseball field that morphed into a cornfield. This was the farm chosen as a location for the movie, which just celebrated the 25th anniversary of its 1989 release with a reunion on-site last month. The farmhouse existed before the movie but it was altered to fit the movie, including extending the porch and adding the porch swing. After filming, the owners of the farm turned it into a museum/attraction. It’s free, although they do accept donations and they sell souvenirs at a gift shop (which was closed by the time we arrived). I’d read that there are almost always people there during daylight hours playing pickup baseball games or just throwing a ball around. Nobody was there for the 30 minutes or so we took photos, ran the bases and walked out to the corn perimeter. We saw no ghosts, and found out later that’s because the ghost players only come out on Sundays during the summer. Really. Look it up.

The sky was beautiful all day during our drive and especially in the fading light while we were at the Field of Dreams.

You can see photos from the day by going to the Instagram link at the bottom of this post, and I’ll post a few photo highlights from the day here too:

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#Schummer14 – Lee & MeLinda Schnyder are turning their home in Wichita, Kan., over to a friend and taking a month-long road trip. They’ll travel from Kansas to Ontario and Quebec, Canada; then through Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The trip home will include stops in Ohio and Missouri. Beyond the blog, you can follow #Schummer14 on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.