Getting To Wisconsin

8/24/10 Happy Boy at the Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, WI. These are the bikes that were in Easy Rider. It was quite the exhibit and really cool to see over 400 bikes dating back to the first one in 1903. We enjoyed a great lunch and brew (Irish Stout) at the Milwaukee Ale House which was recommended by different people we ran into while camping in SD and Iowa! Today (8/25/10) we are in The Chalet Motel in Mequon, WI (N. of Milwaukee) and heading up to Green Bay and then over to Sturgeon Bay into Door County. This area was also spoken of numerous times by "friends" we met in campgrounds, bars, and restaurants! So we are heading up the peninsula of Wisconsin along to the top of Lake Michigan. The scenery is beautiful with gorgeous brick architecture combined with warm, humid weather. Tonight we got a B & B through P.E.O. sisters in Sturgeon Bay. That's as far as we have planned! Still working outside the "box" and learning about decision making at the last minute!

8/24/10 Check out the Fed Ex Delivery guy! After staying in an art deco hotel last night in Milwaukee next to Marquette University (found on Hotwire at 8 pm in Starbucks Wi Fi area) we again realized we brought too much gear. So, we got a Fed Ex box, sat in the parking lot, unloaded everything on our camping tarp and managed to put 21 lbs. of clothes and misc. stuff in it. We drove it back to the Fed Ex shop downtown and had it shipped back home! Thanks Karen for taking the delivery! It's amazing what you can get along without.....

8/24/10 On the shores of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee. This is our first glimpse of the Great Lakes. In the background is the Milwaukee Art Museum. There was great piece of Chihuly glass art inside. The place looks like a ship. It has an Italian marble floor with these steel "wings" on top that weigh 110 tons. We went on the Milwaukee River walk after this and enjoyed more downtown buildings. The Wells Fargo building is a step up from little Mt. Vernon!

8/23/10 Viroqua, WI. I had found out that some of my Dennis ancestors were buried in this far western town of Wisconsin. This is the tombstone of my Dad's grandparents and next to that were the graves of his grandma's family. (Gillespie's). The cemetery (Asbury Ridge) is a small little plot of grass in between cornfields on a county road. It took quite awhile to find someone that knew where it was. It was finally the Veterans Administration person that had all the cemetery information and got me a map of the county to find it! Not even the funeral homes knew where it was since it's a non-used one now. It was quite the experience to discover this. We took all the "back roads" from here to Madison, WI so it took the entire day. It's amazing how it can take 11 hours to cover 300 miles with all there is to see. Plus it takes a lot out of the driver (and the passenger) when it's over 90 degrees with 70% humidity!

8/23/10 Crossing over the Mississippi River at Lansing, Iowa right over to DeSoto, WI. We took the river road up through miles of farm land. There are thousands of acres of corn and dairy farms. I met a nice, old farmer out mowing his lawn in the middle of nowhere while asking him about cemetery's in Viroqua! We ate at a great family restaurant and had home cooked pot roast, potatoes and gravy. They know how to feed the farmers around here.

8/23/10 This was a typical view of the countryside. There were all these wind turbines placed in the middle of cornfields. The other main ag crop we saw were soybeans. It was beautiful country with meticulous farms. When we went through the small towns off the state highway it was a Sunday and everything was closed and everyone was out mowing their lawns. It reminded me of Lynden, WA! The night before we stayed at Pulpit Rock Municipal Park (thanks AAA campsite book) in Decorah, Iowa. Just over the southern Minnesota border. We finally got out of South Dakota after 8 days! We put in a 300+ mile day and 3 states!

8/21/10 Salem, SD. This was a little campground close to the Minnesota-SD border. Mark is looking at maps for the adventure tomorrow! A nice family next to us gave us hints of things to do while in Milwaukee. Great pool here to cool off in. Again, in between cornfields and a million crickets and mosquitoes. I paid for that the next day!

8/22/10 Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It was almost 85 degrees and not even 10 am! We felt like jumping into the water but used the neck coolers that Lori and Bruce made us instead! We had a great french toast breakfast at a local diner down the road. Most of our mornings have been breakfast bars and coffee. Off to Minnesota we go on the way to northeastern Iowa. We are still talking to each other and trying to take in all that we can along the way!. We visited the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD yesterday. If we would have stuck around we could see Kenny Rogers in concert in a few days! This place is redecorated each year with millions of ears of corn. Amazing!