Scenic Wisconsin

 By Claire

We began our journey through southwestern Wisconsin with an interesting sign warning us to be careful.  From there, we continued on the trail of horse droppings.  Sure enough, we passed a guy who gave us a friendly wave.

We weren't completely surprised by the beauty of this state; it's one of the reasons we wanted to see it.  The evidence of fall approaching, the rolling hills and the many trees and endless cornfields met our expectations.

 

Today was leisurely, with many stops along the way.  Our first was another state park, Wildcat Mountain.  We spent about 20 minutes with the ranger helping us pick out the best hike.  We were the only car in the parking lot and I have a feeling she had time on her hands.  The park and the hike were beautiful on this increasingly gray, 61° day.  Rain was predicted, along with thunderstorms.  Bring it on!  Here are some of the views we enjoyed on our hike.

 

 

Wildflowers?  Still?

 

 

 

 

 

Back on the road again, we meandered through tiny towns, suddenly finding ourselves in Hillsboro with an organic food store and a cafe called Holvy's.  We decided to stop for lunch.

Classic Wisconsin dairy barn

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I ordered the egg salad sandwich ($2.79) and a cup of homemade chili ($2.59).  The bread was homemade rye.

 

 

Chuck ordered the Shuleke soup (chicken and dumplings, $2.59).  We asked about the name and found out this is a Czechoslovakian area.

 

We've had requests for more dessert pictures, so Chuck volunteered to order the pie of the day, homemade banana cream ($2.79), delicious! I must observe that in towns like this it can be cheaper to eat out than to shop in grocery stores.

 

As we were getting ready to leave, an Amish couple came in with another couple, civilians.  The Amish woman was in black, with a black bonnet, which she removed--only to reveal yet another bonnet underneath, encasing her hair.  She and her husband (with broad-brimmed hat and typical beard, minus the mustache) were laughing and talking excitedly with their friends as they sat down for their meal.  I tried to keep my eyes in normal mode.

 After lunch, we walked down to the organic food store where I walked through the small aisles completely enraptured.  I quickly grabbed two packages of muesli (oh, how I have missed it).  We were about to grab a container of Greek yogurt when we realized we'd have to get some ice.  Chuck asked the owner where to get it just as I realized we have free breakfasts for another week.  I'll save the muesli for later but yogurt is another story.  We ended up in a long conversation with him about the town and the area.  He told us he was from central Indiana and has lived here for 9 years when I asked him if he was a native.  He said he loved it here but wouldn't come again for the same reasons he originally did.  He went on to explain that he came for religious reasons, but left the faith.  He told us it's a great town with 3 chiropractors, 2 doctors and a hospital.  Not only that, there is a town nearby that has an enormous farmer's market and a Whole Foods grocery store. He believes the harsh winters and the resulting difficulty of travel require self-contained communities. 

He also mentioned that the climate dictates special planning at intersections so that in the winter motor vehicles do not need to halt at stop signs if it's uphill--they'd never make it otherwise, with the slippery ice on the road.  We talked some more about food in general and I told him how thirsty I've been at night, probably caused by too much salt in restaurant food.  He quickly showed us a bottle of kombucha tea--slightly fermented and carbonated; it was his favorite flavor, gingerberry, has live cultures and is very thirst-quenching.  Without even asking what other flavors he had, I told him I'd take it.  He responded with "but you don't know what the price is!"  Actually, I had noticed the price of $4.19, but didn't care.  I wanted to try it.  Meanwhile, Chuck grabbed a large container of chocolate covered coffee beans.  That drink cost more than my sandwich but I loved it. I'm afraid I could become easily hooked but at that price I think I'll have to let it go.  Maybe just once in awhile--it's even more expensive than a cappuccino at Peet's!

Returning to our car, we were just in time to see the Amish couple get into a gigantic Chevy Suburban (I guess that's redundant) with the other couple.  We were too shocked to notice whether either one got into the driver's side or the passenger side.  I must say, this is my one and only exposure to anything Amish, and I was pleasantly surprised.  For some reason I was expecting very stern people with nose to the grindstone.  I guess you don't need TV or the Internet to be happy, not to mention clothes in differing styles, Temperpedic beds, movies, Kindles, iPhones, iPods, iPads or a car for road trips.  At A&W we ran into two more ladies in identically styled dresses but sporting different patterns (yes, another stop for Chuck--for his now traditional daily fix of root beer float).  I guess A&W is on the allowed list for the Amish.

Winding our way through the back roads, we came to Devil's Lake State Park, our next destination.  By now the rain had started; but the ranger was very nice and helpful, mapping out the route through the park and some back roads to get us to our present location, Spring Green, Wisconsin.

Back in civilization (towns of about 1,100), we have noticed quite a few Obama/Biden lawn signs and announcements for town meetings.  One sign advertising a meeting said "Who cares?  Obama cares."  Another said "Don't Give More to the 1%."  We haven't seen a single Romney sign--but perhaps this is due to strong support, rendering such signs unnecessary?

I love this sign on a truck with Wisconsin plates.  I have no idea who the ass is; but surely there are enough of them to cover several States.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.  ~Lao Tzu

Toward the Big River

by Chuck

Today, we started in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, drove straight across Minnesota, and ended in Wisconsin. We regretted bypassing Minnesota sights, but we did see an Amish family driving down the road.  The real beauty seemed to be north, and we decided that we didn't want to lengthen the road trip for that. Maybe we can take that in on a future trip across Canada by train or car, dropping down on occasion to catch the far north of the US lower 48.

Along the way, about 11:30am, I spotted a sign for an A&W Root Beer stand only 2 miles off I-90. I was thirsty; there was no reflection necessary. Just short of the A&W, hungry Claire spotted a Subway sandwich shop; so we stopped twice for a threefer--the daily special sub sandwhich (chicken, on Sundays, for $3.25) for both of us, and then a root beer float for me and gas for Cristina. These refreshment stops make the long driving spells tolerable.

We were delighted to drive through the small, charming village of St. Charles on the way to eat. It is what I imagine much of this part of the country to be--low key, lots of old homes (large and small), no front yard fences, virtually no traffic (foot or car). I especially liked seeing the occasional brick home or office building.

After 4 1/2 hours of highway driving, we finally crossed Minnesota and the Mississippi, arriving at Perrot State Park. I had identified this as an end of day offering to Claire's insatiable lust for natural beauty.

This is a view across the Mississippi looking back to Minnesota  from the vantage point of Brady's Bluff--a 520 foot vertical climb from the parking lot. We noticed, along the way, that things were much greener than they had been recently and that the humidity seemed much higher. Minnesota license plates proclaim "10,000 Lakes" and the Mississippi certainly has water to lend to the air. Maybe my skin won't be so dry for a while.

Part of the trail had stone steps on the steeper portions

Claire has time to take photos while waiting for me to catch up

I do well on the flat and downhill sections

Here is the Mississippi, some shrubbery, and Trempealeau Mountain and Bay

Standin' on the dock of the bay watching the tide roll away...

From a distance, the green on the water looks like scum; but close-up it is really little "clover" petals floating on the water.

I don't much like rowing; but, it is wonderful to watch someone else do it. After we hiked up Brady's Bluff from the east and down the shorter, steeper route to the west, we hiked the River Walk Trail back to Vicki Cristina Barcelona.

My reward for all this exercise was to lounge, alternately, in the pool and the hot tub at our Days Hotel, La Crosse, Wisconsin, followed by dinner at the hotel bar & grill. 

California Garden Flatbread

Wisconsin: Smell the Dairy-Air ~ Unattributable

Badlands, South Dakota

By Claire

My astonishment at how much South Dakota has to offer continues.  We mapped out our route last night, choosing the longer, scenic route to drive through the famous Badlands.  At first, it just looked like a flat, pale, endless prairie with some moonscape bumps here and there. 

 

It wasn't long before we started to see the real show.  The temperature climbed as the day went on.  At 9 am it was already 73° so we knew it was going to be a hot one. By 1 pm it was 95°.

 

Our trusty Prius, Christina, passed the 3,000 mile mark for our trip, today!  So far she is providing excellent service, even though we have yet to fathom the total depths of her technology. We learned just today that we can ask our GPS guru, Vicky (if we're polite about it) to give us alternate routes to our destination.  What a concept!

 

 

 

 

At the end of a short trail, The Window.  We also walked The Door trail.

 

  It felt a little like being back in Petra, Jordan

 

 

Smallest mesas I've ever seen--about 10 feet high, 10 feet deep and 25 feet wide.

 

Suddenly we were in Buffalo Gap National Grasslands--pretty, but similar to what we have seen before.  We passed the town of Interior, advertising their "uptown Wagon Wheel Bar & Grill (is there a lowtown?) Also Scenic--I kept thinking Chuck was talking about the scenic route, which he was, but he was also talking about the town.  The final town, if you want to call it that, was Cactus Flat.

Our route took us to I-95, still two lanes with very little traffic.  We passed a few tiny towns and then I saw a billboard for a diner that looked pretty good.  We pulled into the town of Murdo and, with some trepidation, walked in.  It was full of people, mostly eating slabs of meat with brown gravy, grayish peas and mashed potatoes.  We sat at the counter and after being told about the special for $6.25--Swiss cheese and mushroom burger with a side of pea soup, we ordered two.  I was a little surprised at how good it was.

 

 

 

Back on the road, we passed several billboards (the only thing worth looking at) promoting the Corn Palace in the town of Mitchell in Davison County.  Of course we had to stop. Our friends, Jim and Stephanie had insisted "You have to go to the Corn Palace." We surprised ourselves by heeding their advice and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

 

Closer detail

  

Even closer -- it's all corn

 

 

Inside, they had exhibits of toys made of corn husks (what else are you going to do with them all?) and other things all about corn.  There were photographs of the three corn palaces and dozens of revisions they have constructed since 1892, just three years after South Dakota became a state.  Thirteen shades of colored corn currently are planted in separate fields to maintain color purity; the best ears are hand picked for use on the Corn Palace.  275,000 ears are used to redecorate the murals each year.  They did not redecorate this year because there wasn't any corn, due to the drought.

 

 

 

Now it was time for a treat.  We found a really  nice ice cream, frozen yogurt (haven't seen any since California) and coffee shoppe.  Chuck was hankering after a root beer float and I agreed to a frozen yogurt with a vanilla base, and then they mixed in my requests of fresh raspberries and blackberries.  I was still so stuffed from lunch that I couldn't really eat it all; but I've got a mean eating machine with me.  I just pass it over.

 

After the Corn Palace, what could be more exciting?  We did turn off to find Laura Ingalls Wilder's home; but when we realized it was 55 miles out of our way just to get there, we continued back onto the highway.  We simply waved at the exit to George McGovern's Legacy Museum.  It had been a long day.  We're now in Sioux Falls, the largest city in South Dakota--153,888 in 2010.  You'd think we could find a car wash; Vicky Christina Barcelona is really in need of a bath.

The Dakota Badlands...what I saw gave me an indescribable sense of mysterious elsewhere--a distant architecture, ethereal..., an endless supernatural world more spiritual than earth but created out of it. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright