On May 25th, 2007 the wife and I headed to Winterset, Iowa for the big birthday celebration.  We had three days of fun and entertainment.  When we first pulled into Winterset we went straight over the the Birthplace.  Neither one of us had ever been there before.  The first thing we saw was Melinda Munoz sitting on the front steps of the birthplace.  What a wonderful way to start off the weekend.  She was being interviewed by Channel 5, probably a Des Moines station.  We had just purchased tour tickets to take a walk through the original home where John Wayne (Marion Robert Morrison) was born on May 26th, 1907.

Melinda Munoz & Channel 5	Melinda Wayne	Birthplace Tour Ticker Signed by Melinda

I walked straight up to Melinda and introduced myself.  I told her I was a member of the largest John Wayne forum on the Internet, and showed her our buttons, also that we were all hugh fans of her father and honored to be able to be here and help celebrate this occasion with his family, friends and thousands of other fans.  She graciously accepted the button and put it right on.  She also signed my tour ticket as you can see in the far right photo.  What a way to start the weekend.

The town was all decked out for the celebration, signs on all the lamp posts. Also outside the house and the gift shop were two more items of interest.  A local auto company bought one of the $10,000 saddles and donated it to the museum to be raffled off.  We just had to get a couple chances for that raffle.  Plus there was the most interesting vehicle I had ever seen.  The best part is it was a Chevy.  The van had been custom painted with various scenes from Duke's movies, from bumper to bumper.  What a sight...  now that's one hugh John Wayne fan.  Actually the van was donated from the estate of an anonymous John Wayne fan who lived in Arizona.   But here is the saddle and van.

John Wayne Collector's Edition Saddle	"The Legend" Custom painted van.

After that we walked around and met other fans.  We stopped by the gift shop and thought maybe I could just live there the rest of the weekend.  So many items and so little space in the back of the truck.  If you ever get to take the trip and visit Winterset the staff at the gift shop was the most helpful I've seen at any gift shop around.  After buying our booty, we took a trip around town, trying to get familiar with the surroundings. They are even selling the streetlight banners on the Birthplace Gift Shop website, for only $100.

City Banners	Food Vendors	Chuckwagon Supper

We eventually ended up out at the fairgrounds to take a look at where the concerts were being held.  Then we ran in to these hombres...