Where We Be
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| Captain Kirk's birthplace is just behind this yellow building on Riverside's main street |
| Riverside, Iowa |
After our visit to the Amana Colonies, we added
on a bonus sight in Iowa our "inner nerd" simply
couldn't resist: Riverside. Located about thirty
minutes away from Amana, Riverside is famous
for one thing: being the "Future Birthplace of
Captain James T. Kirk." It's the ultimate geek
roadside attraction! Years ago an enterprising
person lobbied Gene Roddenberry to make
Riverside the boyhood home of Captain Kirk,
and now it's become part of Star Trek lore.
We felt slightly guilty even getting out of our car
to visit a fake monument honoring a fictitious
character about a future birthplace. Ridiculous,
right? But that's also what makes it fun. The
whole town of Riverside seems to have gotten
into the spirit, with banners depicting Kirk and
Scotty hanging from street lights and a Star Trek
museum tucked away in a strip mall. You just
can't get any geekier than this. We half expected
to run into characters from The Big Bang Theory.
on a bonus sight in Iowa our "inner nerd" simply
couldn't resist: Riverside. Located about thirty
minutes away from Amana, Riverside is famous
for one thing: being the "Future Birthplace of
Captain James T. Kirk." It's the ultimate geek
roadside attraction! Years ago an enterprising
person lobbied Gene Roddenberry to make
Riverside the boyhood home of Captain Kirk,
and now it's become part of Star Trek lore.
We felt slightly guilty even getting out of our car
to visit a fake monument honoring a fictitious
character about a future birthplace. Ridiculous,
right? But that's also what makes it fun. The
whole town of Riverside seems to have gotten
into the spirit, with banners depicting Kirk and
Scotty hanging from street lights and a Star Trek
museum tucked away in a strip mall. You just
can't get any geekier than this. We half expected
to run into characters from The Big Bang Theory.
| There's even a small Star Trek Museum in a strip mall nearby (free to visit), but we arrived too late to go inside |
| Who can resist a model of the Starship Enterprise on wheels? It's located just outside the museum. |
| A picket fence adjacent to the memorial pays homage to Captain Kirk's future adventures |
| It's totally worth a visit if you're tickled at the thought of seeing the future birthplace of a fictional character |
| The memorial marker is located behind this small yellow salon on the main street (51 W. First St). A stone pathway leads out back, and the memorial is free to visit. |
| The town of Riverside looks like the kind of place Captain Kirk might be from |
| As kitschy roadside attractions go, this is among the kitschiest, but we loved it |
