Wandering Around Wisconsin

Tuesday, May 7

Today was a travel day. After a leisurely morning we started off to see my cousin, Jeanni, is suburban Milwaukee. It is a lot longer drive than I would have thought, and after an uneventful day, we got to Jeanni's house late in the afternoon. She left us with instructions on how to get into her house, so we waited for an hour or so until she got home from work, after which she was a most gracious hostess. What more could a person want than a bottle of wine, a bowl of fruit, and a place to plug in my laptop. (Actually, she also provided us with a shrimp cocktail and a salmon dinner, also).

Wednesday, May 8

Jeanni had Wednesday off to entertain us. It was another gray, dismal, and sometimes rainy day, so we opted to spend most of it in the Milwaukee Art Museum. They have some very good exhibits, and the new part of the building, the Brise Soliel, I think it is called, is very attractive by itself. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, since my camera was at Jeanni's house. Following the day at the museum, we relaxed for awhile (with some more shrimp cocktail and wine), before she took us out to a really great dinner at a local restaurant.

Thursday, May 9

Today the weatherman promised some warmer weather and clearing skies, but also with a promise of increasing winds. Jeanni had to go back to work, so after we said our goodbyes to her, we had a nice quiet morning. Linda had seen an REI store not too far from her house, and she wanted to wait until it opened so she could go by and try to get some warmer clothes. After we did that (maybe a trick that will encourage the weather to get warmer, because now she has more warm clothes) we headed back west to Madison to do a Volkswalk. By the time we got to Madison, the weather had cleared, and it was bright and sunny, if a bit windy. The Volkswalk was very nice, in a very nice looking town. After doing a loop around the capitol building, we walked along Lake Mendota, through some nice old neighborhoods and through the University of Wisconsin. There Lili had a big problem – she has been bred to go after Badgers. She did admirably, and we had a good walk while we were not being blown off of the street. By now the temperature has warmed up to the mid 50's, so the wind wasn't as cold as some of them we have encountered, but it was still a bit much.

Following the walk, we drove a little further west, to a Wisconsin State Park – Tower Hill State Park – for the night. Their fees are a bit outrageous - $19.00/night – considering it is pretty rustic camping. No electricity as in many campgrounds, pit toilets, and no showers. We didn't really have much choice, though because we wanted to stay near there for the night so that in the morning we could go to see Taliesin – Frank Lloyd Wright's Wisconsin studio and school.

Friday, May 10

Today we woke up to clear, sunny skies, cool (but not cold) weather, and little to no wind. Things started out looking pretty good. After breakfast, we took a short walk from our camp site to a shot tower – the reason for the state park. In the 1831, while the Wisconsin River was being explored, the limestone cliffs in this area were noted. Apparently, these were ideal for making lead shot. The way I understand the story, a tower was built that is 180 feet tall – 120 feet drilled through the limestone and the top 60 feet a wooden shaft next to the cliff. The lead was smelted at the top, then molten droplets dropped down the shaft. By the time the lead reached a cooling pond at the bottom, it had solidified into spheres and could be collected.

When we left the camp ground, we went a couple of miles down the road to Taliesin. Here we got the big disappointment of the day. Although the center opens at 8:30, as advertised, they didn't have any tours at all until 10:00 because no one had made reservations for one. Even the tour at 10:00, however didn't include the house, only the studio and school. The way we understood it, we could stick around until 1:30 (there isn't a whole lot else to do in Spring Green, Wisconsin) and maybe we could have had a tour of the house. We wound up watching a short DVD about Frank Lloyd Wright's work there, wandered down the field away so that we could see the house through binoculars, took a couple of pictures, and headed up toward Michigan's upper peninsula. The trip from Spring Green, west of Madison, to the upper peninsula was, on the whole, very nice. We drove back roads, and saw a lot of farms nestled in very pleasant, rolling hills. Once we started heading north instead of east, we did discover that the west wind had picked up – we were just going down wind. With a strong cross wind and some pretty have truck traffic, for a while driving was pretty tiring. Eventually, however, things calmed down, and we are now ensconced in J.W. Wells State Park at the Southwest corner of the peninsula.

We have encountered a bad news, good news, bad news scenario over the last couple of days. Much of the time that I get cold, my fingers get thin enough so that my wedding ring comes off very easily. About the middle of the day yesterday, I noticed that the ring was missing. I had no idea where I had it last, but after going through all of the bags that I thought it might have fallen into, I figured that it must have come off in a restroom while I was drying my hands on the paper towels – that sometimes happens, but I always notice it and save it. I have been pretty sick about loosing it. Then tonight, while I was going through Lili's bag, there it was down in the bottom. It must have come off my finger when I was getting some toys out for her. The bad news was that I was getting into her bag to find some baby aspirin, because her sometimes gimpy left foreleg all of a sudden pulled up lame. Hopefully she will feel better tomorrow.