Our first real stop was at Madison Co in Iowa... neither one of us knew much about the book or movie.. in fact I am not sure we have even seen the movie!.. but it was so much fun to find the bridges ,, climb out of a really warm car and take pictures out in really cold weather of some incrediable 'buildings' . We also had a lot of fun talking to the ladies at the county information center. We still didnt have a map . We just saw a small sign and decided to turn off the freeway and see what we could see.