Central Iowa Model A Ford Club
GAMARAI XXIX
This Year Touring Northeast Iowa
Save the Date
September 15 to 19, 2025
GAMARIA Registration Form - pdf download
This year’s tour takes us to the rugged northeast part of the state, known as the Driftless Area. Over 12,000 years ago most of the Upper Midwest was covered with glaciers. When the last of the ice age glaciers retreated they left behind a rich deposit of glacial drift (gravel, sand and clay) that covered most of the area. However, a unique section of northeastern Iowa and southwestern Wisconsin, along with areas of Minnesota and Illinois were continuously missed by the glacial ice leaving the dramatic landscape we now know as Driftless.
We will spend three nights in Decorah, IA at the historic restored Hotel Winneshiek and the final night in Independence, IA.
On Monday the 15th we take off from Altoona for Decorah. The first stop on our tour will be in Charles City. We will have lunch at Dave’s Restaurant on the way into town. Then stop at the Floyd County Museum, home to an extensive display of Oliver tractors that were produced there through most of the 20th century. From there we go to Decorah for our first night and a dinner on your own.
Tuesday, we are off to Minnesota. In southeast Minnesota we plan to stop at Fountain, the home town of Bernard Pietenpol. Pietenpol was the inventor of the Pietenpol Air Camper, mostly powered by a Model A engine. We will see one of those there.
Next stop is at Lanesboro where we will meet up with Virginia North, a long time CIMAFC member who now resides there to be close to her daughter Nancy. We then tour the southeast part of the state, following the scenic Root River Trail, ending up in Harmony, MN at a large antique mall. The next stop is in Burr Oak for the Laura Ingalls Park & Museum. This is a late add so we didn’t get the admission included with the registration fee. On Tuesday evening we will meet in Phelps Park for a barbeque picnic. Dinner is included.
Wednesday, we head east over to Waukon and the WW Homestead Dairy. Admission is included. We then head south to Effigy Mounds National Monument, then to Pikes Peak State Park. This Iowa mountain (1,130 ft.) was named by Zebulon Pike who also named some rock in Colorado for himself, too. Lunch is on your own in McGregor, a good place to walk around.
We then return to Marquette and cross over to Prairie du Chien, WI for our second out of state venture of the week. We will stop at Lock & Dam #9 then north to the Black Hawk Bridge that takes us back to Iowa. A short stop at Driftless Area Education & Visitors Center in Lansing is followed up with a stop at the farthest town in the northeast corner of Iowa. Then a drive through the Driftless Area countryside back to Decorah, dinner on your own.
Thursday we start with the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, not far from our hotel in Decorah. After spending as much time as you want, then head north to the Seed Savers Exchange Heritage Farm for a short tour, admission included. Lunch on your own in Decorah or maybe on our way to Independence, and our final hotel of the tour. After check-in, we have the choice of a couple of places to visit in and around Independence before our annual pizza party at the hotel.
Friday’s return to Altoona takes us to the Matchstick Marvels in Gladbrook, admission included. Lunch, if you like, follows at Taylor’s Maid-Rite, an iconic Maid-Rite stand in Marshalltown before heading home, lunch is on you own.
