Why Sperry, Iowa, Could Be a Nice Place to Live

This post is biased toward “the Sperry house,” and I don’t deny it.

I tend to fall in love with the houses we tour and create a story around the ones I really like. The Sperry house’s story (in my mind) is that it will feel like living on a farm without actually having to own a farm; it has enough room for friends and family to visit and for Craig to do all the projects his heart desires; it has parking for Chisoku (even if not in the existing pole barn); and it has good road- and gravel-biking areas with a vibrant nearby cycling community.

But don’t worry. I’m holding onto the Sperry house lightly! I know we may decide against it, or someone else may buy it instead of us. It's not the perfect house by any means. I also know there are other houses out there, just like fish in the sea. But if we should end up with the Sperry house or another one in this area, it could be a pretty nice place to live. Let me tell you why...

Let’s start with Burlington, IA. This town is like a hidden Midwestern gem! It has a lot to offer without all the traffic, congestion, and high cost of living we had on the East Coast. Located on the western bank of the Mississippi River, just across the border with Illinois, it offers seemingly sufficient healthcare services and a lot of outdoor activities, such as fishing, boating, kayaking, and hiking. Unlike other parts of Iowa that are relatively flat, Burlington is quite hilly. It also has a good bicycling community due to three things: the Bike Burlington bicycling club, the annual RAGBRAI ride (The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa), which sometimes includes Burlington in the route, and the Snake Alley Criterium, which takes place right in Burlington. Snake Alley rivals San Francisco’s Lombard Street for the “crookedest road in the world.” It is a brick road that has nine switchbacks right in the center of town. Local cyclists pride themselves on being able to climb it at a swift pace. It just so happens that the Snake Alley Criterium occurs on Memorial Day weekend. It would be awesome to stick around here and witness it! However, with our Airstream in tow, we don’t believe we’ll be able to park downtown while it is going on. However, we did drive down Snake Alley with just our truck, and it is super cool! I’ll provide some pictures and video links here, so you can see examples of both serious cyclists and weekend cyclists riding it, as well as what the Criterium is like.

Here are some videos you can check out if you like:

A news report on last year’s Snake Alley Criterium

Everyday riders going up Snake Alley

Real riders racing the Snake Alley “Crit”

 Another reason cycling here would be great is due to Bickel’s Cycling and Fitness shop. We went by the shop yesterday and met the owner, Tyler Bickel. He is a super nice guy who gave us a tour of the very large bike shop and told us all about how he took it over from his dad and has expanded it in many ways. (There is a nice remembrance of his dad here.) The shop offers a weekly group ride on Wednesday nights, where they ride to a place to eat and then bus everyone back to the shop. So, it’s always a point-to-point ride, and you don’t have to worry about finishing in the dark. The bus will also pick up riders if they have trouble finishing the ride. So, no excuses not to try! Tyler also worked for Trek (bicycling manufacturer) in Wisconsin for a couple of years, and he carries lots of nice Trek road bikes, gravel bikes, mountain bikes, and e-bikes in the shop (among other types of bikes).

When we mentioned how we rode a tandem in France back in 2004, Tyler told us a story about a WWII-era tandem that his dad acquired. He also showed us the tandem (see picture below). I cannot recount the story accurately. But I want to say that someone Tyler’s father got the tandem from (maybe his grandfather, but I could be wrong about that) first acquired it in Europe just before the war broke out (possibly in Belgium). When the war broke out, this guy and his friend took it as far as the English Channel, where they wanted to bring the tandem with them. However, they were not allowed to bring it on the boat. So, one of them snuck it down into the lifeboat and essentially smuggled it across. Tyler said he even had the original receipt from when it was purchased over in Europe. Pretty cool story! If we ever get to talk to him again, I’m going to try to get the details straight and suggest he let me write up a blog post for his shop’s web site!

In addition to Snake Alley and cycling, Burlington has a nice downtown scene, good restaurants, some culture, and shopping. It is also helping the small towns in the area continue to thrive by providing a place to work. And that is very important to us as well.

Let’s talk about some of the small towns…

Mount Pleasant is a town north of Burlington that has a nice central square and downtown shops. (We almost looked at a house there but decided it wasn't for us.) Unfortunately, we visited there on a Sunday, when many things are closed in Iowa. However, we did stop in an antique store that was open and talked to May, who told us all the reasons she loves Mount Pleasant. When she and her husband moved there from Colorado, they were pleased to find that it had a lot of things to do (a bowling alley, cinema, parks, several churches, etc.). At the time, it also had a small university. However, that has since closed to due lack of funding. She said it still made a difference, though, because a lot of the residents who were affiliated with the university have stuck around. She said its proximity to Burlington makes it a sustainable community. Our real estate agent also told us that the Walmart in Mount Pleasant is nicer than the one in Burlington, and she doesn’t mind driving a little farther to go to that Walmart. #localknowledge

Another cute town that is close to both Sperry and Burlington is Mediapolis. I can totally see us cycling to this town and stopping for coffee or a bite to eat. For those back in Shady Side, you could think of Mediapolis as the Deale of this area. It even has a little gym that I could see us joining. The people who own Myers Tree Farm also have a storefront in Mediapolis for their Myers Construction business. And it has quite a number of eateries (a cute coffee shop, the Flour Barn bakery, D&E’s Grille, and Bulldogs on Main).

Two other outdoor places to visit—that are both close to “the Sperry house”—include Big Hollow Recreation Area (which I will write more about in our next post) and Malchow Mounds, which—according to the website—is, “a prehistoric cemetery with a concentration of sixty conical and linear mounds probably constructed during the Middle Woodland period (100 b.c.–a.d. 300)." Pretty cool!

Anyway, this is just what we’ve been able to learn in the last week. I’m sure there is more to know about this area. We will likely move on in the coming days, pushing further west. But if we find ourselves coming back here, I know there are some cool places to visit.