Friday, July 11

On the road again....

We woke up well rested after spending two days with my parents. We had some delicious toasted breakfast bread then loaded up the car and set out for points north and west, but mostly west.

We saw some fabulous sights today.  Our first stop was an unplanned detour to the Swiss Maid Bakery in Harvard, IL. Apparently Lester has an eagle eye (or a sixth sense) when it comes to bakeries. We stopped and bought some baked goods and had a lovely chat with the good-natured bakers. They excel in both baking and delightful customer service. Oh, and we bought 5 different items and paid less than $5!  Relax, some is for tomorrow's breakfast.

This picture is solely to taunt Will.... we DID NOT get a maple bacon eclair.

Who could pass up a doughnut baked by these happy ladies?

Wow this is not your Dunkin' Donut Cruller

After our second breakfast of the day we pushed on towards Madison only to be side tracked by a GIANT corn cob!  Note that Lester is standing next to the corn cob, and each kernel is actually a 1 gallon milk container, painted yellow!

Sadly we will not be in Wisconsin in September to attend this well announced event.

The next distraction from our well planned day was the wild west. We were strong however and followed the GPS rather than this tantalizing sign. And we thought the wild west was a thing of the past.

We were justly rewarded upon our arrival in Madison.  Let me say that Madison is a lovely city.  It would likely be a great place to live given the cute shops and pretty architecture.  It is the state capital and the home of the University of Wisconsin. We drove around the campus - I think we are unable to resist touring a college whenever we see one. The campus is enormous and very, very urban. We didn't see much greenery. The biggest problem with Madison has got to be the WINTERS!  But, on a July afternoon it was a lovely and entertaining place to stop for a picnic lunch and a stroll. Take a look at some of the sights.

Lunch from Fromag-ination, a cheese shop that should be closer to my house.

Under the category of  only in Madison, WI... a motorcycle with a bike rack.

A giant octopus!

Art about to be installed.... a flying pig

And the rest of the menagerie

The required protesters singing 60s folk songs "We Shall Overcome"
and "This Land is Your Land" with people spontaneously stopping to join them and sing along. They also had signs protesting the governor.

And people shooting a movie outside the statehouse.

Yes, Madison was quite a sight to see.  Seriously, though, I would add this to our let's go back there list. Our brief stay was enough to make me realize that Madison is beautiful, quirky and well worth the visit.

We had to leave Madison after a short visit because we had tickets for a tour of Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio about an hour west of Madison.  On the way we stopped by (but - true confession - we were running late and didn't tour) the National Mustard Museum, est. 1986.  Yep, I can't make that up, I am not that creative.

Then as we were pushing further west we were again forced to stop for another photo op!

How could you pass up a blond King Kong on a roof top?  Note the red eye, that is not my camera, that is a red light adding more kitsch to the giant gorilla! As if it needed that.

It turns out that there was a bratwurst sale just below the giant gorilla benefiting the local church, so we grabbed a quick bite. To those paying close attention you might notice that so far we have had two breakfasts and two lunches. I'm pretty sure that counts as a bad eating day, but maybe it is a good eating day? The brats were delicious.

Eventually we made it to Taliesin with plenty of time to browse the gift shop before the appointed kickoff for our Highlights tour.  Our two hour tour spent about an hour in each of the main buildings, the Architecture school and FLW's home and studio.  Wright was a creative genius as far as architecture goes but his skills as a structural engineer were lacking at best - the place has numerous structural issues that are being slowly but surely addressed.  The good folks at Taliesin are rebuilding and reinforcing the buildings. Despite the construction, the tours were interesting and the sights were everything we'd hoped for.

After our tour we continued west.  Since we are planning on making our way across Minnesota tomorrow and settling into South Dakota for a few days we wanted to get close to the Mississippi River tonight.  The GPS routed us through local roads on the way to our ultimate destination and when that happens it is traditional for us to play The Cow Game.  As my family lore has it, the game was created by my parents on their honeymoon in 1959.  Briefly, these are the rules: when you pass a field with more than one cow in it, if all the cows on your side of the road are standing...congrats, you win. If there is a combination of standing and laying cows, well, you don't win. To be clear, you don't lose, you just don't win. It is a game which only has winners, no losers. Let me just say that my winning record was much better than Lester's today. I was Germany to Lester's Brazil! My win today was even more lopsided than that World Cup match. I hope Lester will play the cow game again.

A winning field in the cow game.

We are parked tonight in a suburb of La Crosse, WI (imagine that!).  Tomorrow we will cross the mighty Mississippi in search of more America to entertain us and you.

It is likely to be a long day behind the wheel as we find our way to South Dakota. But just so you have something to look forward to, tomorrow we'll be reviewing our most recently completed audiobook, Moonwalking With Einstein.

A&L