Every road trip needs snacks. Stock up on fudge at the Kalona Creamery. (Photo: Travel Iowa)
By Jessica O’Riley
We stumbled upon it purely by accident. Back in April 2024, two of my cousins, a sister-in-law and I met up in Kalona for some shopping and lunch before heading to an overnight stay in a converted train depot a few miles south in Washington. Other than our goal to hang out together, we didn’t have any firm plans for the trip — at least, not until we saw a sign on the door of the first shop we entered. That sign, about the Rural Road Trip, set the agenda for the rest of the weekend.
I didn’t know it then, but the Rural Road Trip started in fall 2019. Mallary Snakenberg wanted a way to draw people to the Feathered Farmhouse, the shop she opened a few weekends throughout the year outside of Sigourney.
“At the time, I was operating out of my garage and a small space on our property. I was trying to come up with a way that small business owners who operated similarly could all be open during the same time frame,” she said. “So many of us were off the beaten path, and not many people knew where or even that we existed. We were all located in very rural locations — no malls, no Walmarts. I wanted people to experience what all our small rural areas had to offer.”
So she devised a plan for all the occasional shops to open the same weekend and created a map that included all the participating locations scattered through Kalona, Keota, Harper, North English, Oxford, Sigourney, Wellman and Williamsburg. The event includes shops with regular business hours and other spots that host pop-up vendors.
Snakenberg said the event grew quickly and now draws visitors from across the Midwest three times a year: spring (April 24-25), fall (Sept. 25-26) and the holidays (Nov. 13-14).
As for that girls’ weekend two years ago? We grabbed a map from that first store and spent the weekend exploring shops and communities we’d never visited. Participating stores offered antiques, clothing, gifts, plants and more. This spring’s event includes a mobile bookstore (yes, please!) and a wood-fired pizza truck.
I’ve returned several times since that first happy accident of a trip and am looking forward to catching one or more of this year’s events. If you’d like to go, too, you can find details and a map online at the Feathered Farmhouse’s website.
Contributor Jessica O’Riley of Pleasant Hill worked for nearly 20 years with Travel Iowa, the state tourism office, after a previous stint with the Iowa State Fair.
Show Comments (1)
Diana
What a fun thing! We’ll schedule our next visit to Iowa to coincide!