HotelTonight – Fort Madison, IA Hotels at the Ready
When I drive through a state like Iowa, I find it quite easy to lose myself in the moment. All around me are fabulously beautiful farmlands and cornfields in particular, and the slight rolling hills give this place a magical quality. I drive through Iowa a lot because of my work as a traveling salesperson, so I get quite a few opportunities every year to get comfortable in my seat and enjoy the total lack of hustle, bustle and stress around me on the roads. One thing I've never done, however, is stop and take a closer look at any of the communities along these highways that I often zoom past without giving them a thought. That all changed on my last trip. I tried to take a shortcut in the middle of the state and wound up blowing a tire and damaging the rim on that wheel. Fortunately, I was near a place called Fort Madison, so I had the car towed. It was going to take around 24 hours to get the car repaired, so I had a day there to explore. I opened my HotelTonight app, booked a Fort Madison, IA hotel room and I was off to see the city.
The History
Fort Madison is not a large city by any means, as just over 10,000 people call this community home. However, it seems like almost the entire city is dedicated to history in some sense. I walked through Old Fort Madison, which was an old-time fort that existed and even thrived during the frontier days as a trading outpost. The people there, in full gear, brought the place to life as though it was still humming today. It was fascinating to see how hard life was in this part of the world 150 years ago.
The Pens
Back in the day, the Sheaffer Pen Co. used to operate in Fort Madison. While that's not longer the case, what has happened is that the people of the town have put together a museum for these pens. Now, I understand that a museum for pens doesn't sound like a riveting time, but I actually found it to be quite fun and interesting. There were a lot of different displays of old pens, how they were used and some other looks at how they used to be made. I never knew so much went into fountain pens.
The Dining
I had heard about a local pizza place throughout the day that people really enjoyed, and that sounded good to me. It didn't look like much from the outside, as the building had an odd shape and the sign didn't seem to work. However, once inside I saw and smelled what people were talking about. I ordered a pepperoni pizza, and it was delicious. The crust was thin and crunchy, the cheese was all over the place and the sauce had this perfect level of zest that I hadn't ever tasted before.
HotelTonight – Fort Madison, IA Hotels Just for You
I was full and tired and was also happy to get the call that my car would be ready in the morning. I made the short walk to my Fort Madison, IA hotel room, grateful that this nice day was largely because of my use of HotelTonight.
