Week 3 Journals

Day 15 July 06,2002 Saturday - Traverse City, MI  - Ludington, MI (miles driven 134)

After a Burger King breakfast, as all the classy places for breakfast were filled with the other people occupying the "No Vacancy" signs, we headed  to the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City. The first tent we went into had everything cherry in it. Jelly, pies, cheesecake, etc. We picked up a container of real cherries to munch on and I asked for a senior discount. The young girl was very sharp - she said that we didn't look old enough. We then headed to the center stage area and watched the introduction of last years cherry queen and also the introduction of the 5 potential cherry queens.  The next event was the preparation of a 510 foot cherry sundae to set a Guiness book of records. The sundae started by pulling 51 ten foot sections of plastic rain gutter out of a freezer truck filled with vanilla ice cream and covered with tin foil. After the 510 feet of ice cream is laid out on folding tables end to end a signal is given, the foil is removed and the queen and her court spread special cherry sauce on the ice cream. Girl scouts sprayed it with whip cream. After recording the completion of the sundae, the ice cream was distributed to the crowd. We each got a dish and it was good. We then had an hours wait for the air show. It actually turned into an hour and one half. While sitting in our lawn chairs two young girls came up to us and asked us what all the people were doing in this area. You should have seen her face when I told her they were preparing for a public execution. We corrected our error and they went away smiling. One woman sitting close asked "What did you say to that girl - she looked horrified? I explained and we all had a good laugh. The air show was spectacular. It started with a simulation of a water rescue by a helicopter which was not very visible. Then we had a single stunt pilot that really put his little plane through the paces. Then came a single F16 which did the same things that the stunt plane did but much faster. It was amazing to see him fly straight up and corkscrew himself into the sky. After that came the Red Barons which consisted of 4 bi-planes of very early WWII vintage. These guys were the only ones I could photo as they were slower than the previous acts. There was also a stealth F17 and a navy tanker plane doing tricks. The grand finale was the Navy Blue Angels. What a show they put on. We forgot the sun-screen in the car and each of us wound up with sunburned knees and arms. If mom hadn't found us a shady spot to sit in for the last half hour of the air show we would have really been cooked.

After we got out of the air show we drove over to Empire, MI to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore. This has been one of the prettiest places that we have seen so far. We took the scenic drive which first starts out by a drive thru some very thick and hilly forests.  Then come the overlooks. One of them  takes you to a spot where the dunes drop 450 feet to Lake Michigan. Many people were working their way down and up this slippery slope.

We then headed south towards Ludington and had a very scenic drive along Lake Michigan and Crystal Lake along Michigan Route 22. After a dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Manistee we arrived in Ludington at 9:30 PM. It was a full day.

Cherry Queen on Left Candidates on Right

The Red Barrons

The Dune Climbers - Can you pull us out?

Out over Lake Michigan at Sleeping Bear Dunes

Day 16 July 07,2002 Sunday - Ludington, MI to Manitowoc, WI ( miles driven 144 plus 61 more on water) 

We started the day by going to church at St. Simons RC church. At first I thought we were going to Wall-Mart as there was a greeter at the door. There was a TV camera set up inside and soon we found out why. The mass was going to be celebrated by Cardinal George of Chicago. I guess they take vacations too. After church we proceeded to the downtown Ludington city park where a huge craft fair was being held this weekend. While parking our vehicle I was being guided into the spot on the street by a strangely dressed man with a red nose. Only after getting out of the car did I realize he was in a clown costume. Big shoes and all. We talked with him for a while and learned he has been doing the clown thing for 40 some years. First he was Rudy the clown but for the majority of his career he has called himself Dynamite the Clown. He realizes that anything explosive in these days is not looked upon with favor but is not going to change. He hosts a daily kids show on a local TV station and this was a paid gig for him.  The craft show was real nice. Mom did some shopping and I looked at some of the woodwork. Even talked to a carver for a while. We went to two yard sales along the way looking for tins for a friend but did not find any.

After the craft show we drove 35 miles east to Baldwin, MI where there is the Shrine of the Pines. We learned of this locally and looking up in the Baldwin location in the AAA found out it was a Gem rated attraction. It was $6.00 for the both of us being over 55. The shrine was the work of a Robert Overholzer. He was a local hunting guide who liked to carve and create furniture out of trees, roots, etc. He used crude tools only and his requirement was that the material be free and the end result useful. He built a log cabin and attached a separate house to the cabin where he lived with his wife. She was 24 years older than him and had been his 3rd grade teacher. He never went beyond 3rd grade. She outlived him. The furniture in the room was of superb craftsmanship. He made his own glues but his sandpaper was made by re-cycling used sandpaper from a mill and gluing ground glass to it. He never really used the furniture he made and didn't sell it. From a tree stump weighing 700 lbs he made a finished table weighing 300 lbs. Henry Ford offered him $50,000 for it and he turned it down. He filled up the cabin portion of the house and gave tours. This was his hobby. Many people on the tour couldn't understand why a person wouldn't utilize or sell his work.

After Baldwin we went shopping for shoes for mom at a Hush Puppies outlet = hard to come by at home, took a small ride and then arrived at the Badger Car Ferry for the 4 hour boat ride to Manitowoc, WI. The Badger is coal powered and burns about 55 tons of coal a day. The strange thing about this boat is that the crew loads the cars. On all other car ferries we have taken we have driven the car on and off. I guess it is because this is a boat from the 50's and does not have the facility to drive the car on one end and out the other. In addition there is no easy access to the upper decks from the car deck. The boat holds 128 cars. After departure from the dock a piper played Amazing Grace and another tune. We hoped for a spectacular sunset but got a mediocre one instead. The boat has all the facilities to entertain you for 4 hours. A movie studio, bingo, two TV lounges, and arcade, bar, cafeteria, museum and the required gift shop. We arrived in Manitowoc, WI at exactly 10:55PM Central time. Retrieval of the car was relatively quick. My GPS told me that the crossing covered 61 miles.

Mom and Dynamite the Clown

$50k Tree Stump Table

Card Table and Chair

The Badger

Mr. Piper on the Badger

Ludington Breakwater Light

Lonely Ore Carrier

Sunset on Lake Michigan

Day 17 July 08,2002 Monday - Manitowoc, WI to Milwaukee to Madison, Wi  ( miles driven 292) 

Today was a strange day. Our plan was to drive to Milwaukee and visit the new Milwaukee Museum of Art on the Lakefront. About 30 miles north of Milwaukee mom was reading the AAA guide and saw that Monday was not mentioned in the operating hours. She called the museum and sure enough - closed. How can you close an attraction at the height of the tourist season. Luckily mom likes to read. She picked up my book - Eccentric America and picked out "The House on the Rock" in Spring Green as a possible plan B. We drove to Milwaukee and drove past the museum. It is a spectacular building from the outside but if you can't get in then no need to stop any longer. Mom also read about the Mustard Museum in Mt. Horeb, WI which displays over 3000 different mustard containers. The guide said that the originator was walking in a supermarket looking at mustard when the calling came - "If you buy it they will come". He has an annual family picnic and if your last name is mustard you can come. Not wanting to look at mustard we drove the 120 miles to the House on the Rock. 

The House on the Rock was build by an Alex Jordan between 1944 and 1989. He was a cab driver, handyman, apartment house manager, and also worked at a munitions plant during the war. He had a vision to build a house on a rock outcropping close to Madison. The location is very unique. Many people would stop and ask him what he was doing and to try to stop them from coming he started to charge .50 for admission. Instead of stopping people this brought more people and thus the money from the tours was turned back into the property. He never actually lived in the place. It was his hobby to build it and furnish and fill it with all kinds of eclectic items. He would collect a lot of items and put them up in display. He lived in Madison with his girlfriend and commuted the 50 some miles to Spring Hill.

The house itself is undescribable. The main feature is the Infinity Room which is a long pointed cantilever structure which stretches out 218 feet over a valley from the house that is built on a rock. After the Infinity room you go through other dark rooms/spaces filled with carvings and reproductions of stained glass and reproduced Tiffany lamps. I can only describe the whole place as "Coming to life in the middle of a nightmare and enjoying it". After the house you get to go through a series of buildings which house his collections. The tour of the house and all his collections takes you through a path that is 2.5 miles long and we did it all. There is no central theme to his collection. He has a section on guns, sea and the oceans, dolls, a carousel, old time music machines and calliopes, circus, miniatures, advertising signs, etc.  The carousel is a re-make of many carousels with close to 300 animals and none are horses. The carousel has been appraised at close to $5 million. The horses from the conglomeration are displayed on the walls of the display buildings and there are many of those. For Christmas the house is decorated with 6000 Santas. The Santas are the only decoration. In 1988 he sold the place to his friend and in 1989 the originator of this wonderful place died. It is now visited by about 500,000 people a year. The adult fee is $19.50 each. Frankly it was a lot to take in but no matter where you went or looked you were entertained.

Flowers at the House on the Rock

Table in the Gate House

Infinity Room - the end is 218 feet away

Statue of St. Joseph

The Carousel

Miniature Circus Figures

Eclectic Music Machine - the Orchestra

Plower Pot along the driveway

Day 18 July 09,2002 Tuesday - Madison, WI to Lacrosse, WI  ( miles driven 214) 

The day started by taking a tour of the Wisconsin Capitol. The capitol is domed but the dome is not gilded. The statue on top is called Wisconsin and this is gilded. We took a tour of the governors conference room (very gaudy), senate (where we could sit in the senators chairs), assembly (the assembly didn't want visitors sitting down in their chairs) and the supreme court chambers. The capitol was built in 1907 after the original capitol burned in the winter of 1904. The fire couldn't be put out because the sprinkler system was down for maintenance, the lake was frozen - too thick to get water, and water shipped from Milwaukee by train froze by the time it got to Madison. One other interesting feature was the stuffed eagle in the assembly building. This was Abe II. Abe I had been a trained eagle that harassed the Confederate Troops during the Civil War. Abe I had been such an effective adversary that the Confederates had placed a bounty on him. Abe was wounded superficially in the wing once but survived. After the war Abe was given a home in the state capitol. As a result of a small fire Abe I croaked but was stuffed and placed in the assembly. In the fire of 1904 Abe I burned up completely when students saving items in the capitol couldn't get Abe I loosened from the perch he had been nailed to. Some time late a local farmer came across a dead eagle and had it stuffed and presented to the assembly as Abe II. We went up on the observation deck and chatted with the 73 year old security guard. A real character.

After the capitol we visited the First Unitarian Meeting Hall Church designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The tour was led by a volunteer and was $3.00 each. It was an interesting tour. This is Frank Lloyd Wright country. He was born close to Madison and his studio/workshop/home "Talisien" is in Spring Green. Tours of his house run $30.00 each and since there are only two tours a day, the chances of getting a ticket on a day's notice are slim to none. The church was really interesting.

We left Madison and started driving west on Route 18 to head for the scenic Mississippi River road that starts at Prairie du Chien and runs up to Minneapolis/St. Paul. We came across Mt. Horeb around 2:00 PM and decided that we couldn't let the Mustard Museum pass. After lunch we went into the museum which really is a mustard store. The sign on the door says that all entrants are subject to search for illegal ketchup or mayo. There is a room which displays thousands of individual mustard jars which qualifies it to be a museum. It was a cute idea. The museum is free but we spent 37.00 in the store.

The rest of the day was spent driving thru some absolutely gorgeous farm country and small towns before we came to the river. There was miles and miles of rolling farm country with corn fields in all directions. Some to the plantings were in a winding pattern. I am sorry now that I didn't stop the car to take a picture of some of these fields. We then drove along the mighty Mississippi. We were surprised how big the river was this far north.  We passed two sets of locks and dams and did see some barge traffic on the river. It is the "Father of the Waters"  After settling in at the Excell Inn in Lacrosse we had dinner at Piggy's on the waterfront. Excellent restaurant.

Wisconsin Capitol at Madison

First Unitarian Meeting House

Interior of First Union Meeting House

Mississippi below Lacrosse,WI and above Dam#8

Souvenier of Mustardville

Day 19 July 10,2002 Wednesday - Lacrosse, WI to Bloomington, MN ( miles driven 246) 

Things don't always go as they are planned. We canceled our intended Mississippi River Boat Cruise due to weather conditions. There was a considerable breeze, the temperature was around 65 and it was raining. So instead we went to the Salvation Army store in search of some tins for a friend in Charlotte. We got two. Then it was a search for Granddad Bluff which is a rock outcropping above Lacrosse with a view of the city and river below. The weather was not too good but we went. At the bluff there was a plaque dedicated to the flag that was flying at the bluff. The original pole was installed during WWII with public donations and lasted 40 years. in 1981 it was replaced in favor of a taller one. In 1984 this pole was struck by lightning and replaced in 1984. In  1998 this pole was blown over by a 93 mile gust of wind and replaced in 1999. It seems they should have left the original pole alone.  

With no boat ride we headed up the river via Route 35 towards Prescott, WI. We stopped at Lock and Dam #6 on the Mississippi and watched an interesting operation. We got there when a barge tow was being pushed into the locks. The locks could only accommodate 3 lengths of 3 wide barges and the tug was pushing 5 triples. The tug pushed in the 3 barge lengths or (9 barges lashed together) and then the first 9 were tied to the lock side. The tug and the remaining 6 barges were unlashed from the front 9 and backed out to allow the lock gates to close. I asked the lock master how the barges were going to move through the locks without a tug. He explained that the lock has a winch which will pull the barges through. Sure enough the lock on the other end opened and the barges moved slowly through. We didn't stick around for the completion of the whole cycle but surmise that the free barges are then tied up beyond the locks and lashed back to the tow when the tug and the remainder move through. We talked with one of the deckhands on the slow moving barge as it was being pulled through and he explained that there are 3 deck hands on the barges and two people in the tug. He can have a choice of working 30 days on and then 30 days off but prefers 28 on and 14 off. His work day is normally 14 hours. Seems like a tough but boring life. We also learned that there are 27 locks on the Mississippi between Minneapolis and St. Louis to accommodate the approximate 300 foot drop in elevation.

Further up the river we stopped for lunch at Alma, Wi.  an old river/rail town with a peculiar charm. We both loved it. The buildings are old, in need of some repair but somehow inviting. The cafe was named The Tundra Swan after the swans that pass through this area during migrations. There were a few art galleries around so we guess the town is becoming gentrified. Further up the river we came through other equally pretty towns such as Stockholm - pop. 97 and Maidens Bluff - pop 123.

At Pepin we stopped at a historical marker and found out that this was the area that Laura Ingalls Wilder was born. There was a small railroad museum there and the museum volunteer explained that there was another museum in town with lots of information on the "Little House on the Prairie" and that her birthplace was marked with a cabin 7 miles out of town. Mom started up a conversation with another woman and found out that she was a 4th grade teacher from Arizona who was on a Laura Ingalls Wilder tour. She had stopped in Missouri where Wilder had spent the later part of her life. We opted to go out to the cabin and found it to be in a very pretty area. The cabin was obviously a re-creation and contained a glass wall display that contained copies of several handwritten letters by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

Shortly after starting back up along the river it started to rain with a downpour. We aborted the river road the next crossover to Minnesota at Red Wing (where the shoes are made), and headed up to the Minneapolis in the heavy rain. The area north of Minneapolis had been under a flood watch all day. It is now 9:45pm and it is still raining but not as hard.

From Granddads Bluff

Into Lock 6 at Tempealeau

Main St. Alma,WI

Laura Ingalls Birthplace

A typical Wisconsin farm

Day 20 July 11,2002 Thursday - Bloomington, MN to St. Paul, MN ( miles driven 32)

Today was dedicated to that great American pastime - no, not baseball, but shopping. We spent the morning and afternoon at The Mall of America". It is indescribable and monstrously huge. It has all the stores we have seen in other malls plus stores we have never seen before. The anchor stores are Sears, Bloomingdales, Nordstroms and Macy's. These alone are huge stores The mall has approximately 40 restaurants or food venues, has a monstrous amusement park with water slide, roller coaster, and all other kinds of rides. For $21.00 you can have an all day pass to the rides. There is a day camp for kids as well as a wedding chapel. The Lego store is really neat. There are numerous tables/stations where kids can put lego things together and many were doing so. After 4.5 hours and the food court we were malled out. Mom bought some stuff early which I had to haul back to the car to avoid having to schlepp it all day. All this stuff will have to endure another 7000 miles on the road. I hope we can find it at the end.

In the evening we had reservations to see "Ole and Lena go to Da Lake" which is an interactive dinner theater in St. Paul. We found out that in Minneapolis neighborhoods have block parties and parades on week nights and when we got on the street to go to the theater we saw people lining the street in lawn chairs. We asked what gives and all we could get was "Parade". Luckily we got through before it started as we didn't know any alternate routes. The dinner theater was a hoot. The two waitresses dress in costume and put on a "Scandinavian accent" and mannerisms. The dinner is a buffet type meal and very good. I was eating a piece of lightly breaded fish and the waitress came by and told me she had fished for those in the morning for a long time and that they are difficult to apply bread to because they keep swimming away. Stuff like that went on for the whole evening. The play itself was a musical parody about Scandinavians at the lake on a fishing holiday. The story had many twists but it was funny. The actors were good. The one line I remember is that "Ole" didn't think that his marriage to "Lena" was legal and should be annulled because Lena's father didn't have a license for the shotgun.  During intermission the waitresses called a few people on the stage - including me for a "Happy Birthday" wish and also to compete for a prize. The one to best imitate a swimming bass got to win a small paddle. The winner was a 90 year old grandmother. All the others were rewarded with a fishing lure. It was a fun evening. 

View into the Mall

The Amusements

Lego Land

Mom and Lego Potter

Ida and Gardenia - two pleasant and crazy waitresses

Day 21 July 12,2002 Friday - St. Paul, MN to Fargo, ND( miles driven 283)       
 

The day had a dubious beginning. I went for an oil change at Jiffy Lube which really was in a jiffy. However, when I pulled into the motel I glanced at the dash and saw the check engine soon light on. Back to Jiffy. He had forgotten to re-connect the air sensor after replacing the air filter. It didn't go out right away after connection but did so after about 5 minutes. Maybe the bulb burned out - bad joke. We started out to Fargo at around 9:30 AM and were soon away from the Twin Cities. We stopped for lunch at Fergus Falls (there are no falls here) at a local restaurant called the Viking Cafe. One guy in the next booth was lunching alone but not really. He had a cell phone glued to one ear and he was eating while talking on the phone. I guess it is not rude this way. Many of the patrons were farmers in overalls drinking milk. Kind of nice to see that. At the Fergus Falls museum there was a nice gift shop and mom did some nice shopping here. The scenery up to Fergus Falls was rolling, lush, farmland with lakes mixed in. It was flatter than Wisconsin but it was still the view of the mid-western skyscrapers - silos. After Fergus Falls the scenery started to change over to prairie. There were fewer trees and the grass was not as green as further back.

We arrived in Fargo at around 3:30 pm and decided that Fargo is an old Indian term which means "Let's see if we can have all the roads under repair at the same time."  At the tourist information center we heard our first "You betcha". A term we heard often in our Wyoming and Montana trips in earlier years. We located a very nice motel and were surprised at the price. It has HBO and even has a Continental breakfast although on that end we have found that the quality of the breakfast is inversely proportional to the price of the motel. We'll see.

We then went to see downtown Fargo and found out that the streets were torn up there also. Not much chance to walk around so it was over to Moorhead, MN to see the Norwegian/Scandinavian Heritage center called - Hjemkomst after a replica of a Viking ship which was built locally by a retired professor and sailed 6100 round trip miles from Duluth, MN to Bergen, Norway and back. The museum director let us into the building after closure to look at the ship. He was waiting for the wedding rehearsal to end at the replica of the 12th century Norwegian Stave church. We always run into weddings on vacation. This has been at least our third so far. We even got to go into the Stave church and see part of the rehearsal.  Dinner at Chilis (thanks to a gift certificate and then back to the motel after some window shopping by mom at the Crafters Mall. I shouldn't say window shopping, she bought something.

You Betcha its Fargo

Interior of Stave Church

Stave Church

The Viking Ship

  

Summer 2002 Trip Journals   Home Page