Through the new Scenic Byways Passport, travelers can check in at 12 scenic byways and more than 100 unique attractions and local businesses. Each check-in to a location on the passport earns travelers one entry into a monthly drawing for a prize package valued at about $200. Prize packages include an overnight stay, gift certificates, and more.
The website requires a smart phone. I signed up via my desktop only to get an e-mail telling me to click a link to “put link on home screen”. The instructions say “there is no app to download” but it creates something very app-like, probably directing to a specific browser page. (There is a separate “Iowa Culture” app from the Department of Cultural Affairs.)
The catch for me is, I’ve already been to so many of those places! The Lincoln Highway sites, especially, as shown in this story from WQAD. The second catch is promoting something travel-related when so many people are reluctant to travel. However, many of the “check-ins” would have to be outside anyway.
The passport is all about the Scenic Byways, so large swaths of north-central and south-central/southwest Iowa don’t have any special locations, nor about a 40-mile radius of Muscatine. If the recently minted Jefferson Highway Heritage Byway gets some stops, that will change a bit.