Field of Dreams is the title of a 1989 Kevin Costner movie. The movie site, including corn fields, baseball diamond and farmhouse, have been preserved, same as they were when the movie was filmed. On their own, a corn field, ball diamond or farmhouse hardly warrant a 2,000- mile road trip. But, add in the movie's magical stories of redemption spun around America's Pastime, family, and rich Iowa soil -- now that's another matter.
When I told others of my bucket list road trip, I typically got two equally emphatic answers. Many just didn't get it politely asking "where?" "what?" or "why?" But, those who got it really got it and shared my excitement. One wanted to go along (to which I said "no") another wanted to nominate my wife for sainthood (to which I said "yes").
Planning the trip, as they say, is half the fun and we took three months researching big cities, small towns, places to stay, coffee houses to visit, games to see, and the like. The Internet is full of You Tubes and other posts recording visits to the Field of Dreams. But, we found little documenting an actual road trip to the Field, much less a road trip from southern California to Dyersville, Iowa. Who would do such a thing? So, in the next few posts, I am going to address that glaring whole the Internet and talk a little about our trip, the stops we made and interesting places we saw.
Just so you know, near simultaneous to our trip east, professional journalists were on their own road trip heading west to the Field of Dreams. Truly elite baseball writers Sam Dykstra and Benjamin Hill started in New York and did their own road trip to Dyersville. Dykstra's journal of the trip along with some beautiful photography is at Major League Baseball's site here.
