Wisconsin Cheese

Wanna-Bee Campground

 

Memorial Day Weekend

No water cameras this time, but we had a BLAST on the river!! Rock Creek was dotted with bright colored tubes, family and friends tied together as one, floating down the river. People had rented canoes too and they would navigate through, having their own little canoe party. We picked two old black tubes, and tied a cooler tube between us that had a piece of plywood tied to the bottom. Borrowing one of their coolers, with S&B written in magic marker on the side, we filled it, plopped in the tube and started heading down. Rock Creek reminded us a lot of Green River, but wider. The estimated time on the river, 3.5 hours, it took, 5.5hours!! Good thing we had sandwiches, we stopped at a sand bar, one of many and had lunch.

New Glarus

We arrived in New Glarus, known as, "America's Little Switzerland,"greeted by their annual music festival established to raise money for their youth association. Getting a good spot in the town park we could hear the music from inside the Skamper, starting our Memorial Day weekend! New Glarus Brewery was next. Back in Madison we went to a beer lecture and the guy giving the class said that New Glarus Brewery was one of the nicest, cleaniest facilities he had ever seen, adding that he had been all over the U.S. and Europe visiting breweries. Needless to say this one was a must so we hopped on the trolley in New Glarus and set off to find out for ourselves.  It did not disappoint! On top of the impressive, immaculate brewery, and free self guided tour the crew sends you home with a beautiful glass. This brewery is special. Deborah Carey, owner and founder of New Glarus Brewing Co., raised all the money to begin the brewery as present to her husband, making her the first women in the United States to found and operate a brewery. Her husband, Daniel Carey, co-owner and brew master, has several degrees in brewing, and they both hold numerous awards for best small business owners, best  brewery, the list goes on... Their famous beer is Spotted Cow, fitting for Wisconsin, and can be found anywhere in Wisconsin. Other names include Moon Man (our favorite), Fat Squirrel, Two Women, and Road Slush. All the names have an entertaining story behind them. They only sell their beer in Wisconsin...you can't get it anywhere else, and crazy enough they still sell over one hundred thousand barrels a year. These are good people, that really care about their business and their community. I like their story, I like their beer, and I like the way they brew.

He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands, his head and his heart is 

an artist. 

--St. Francis of Assisi

Playful Goose

Arriving late in the afternoon we approached the office to check in, we told the man at the counter we would like to stay two nights, and we were Passport American members. Chris said, "Yeah we probably never would have found you if it weren't for Passport America." The man responded, "Well we been here for 40years, me and my brother bought this place back in the 70's."  The conversation continued... He had so much to tell us. An alien conspiracy theorist, an extremest to say the least, he talked to Chris and I for about 35minutes, going on and on. He would say things like, "Do you know how much a tenth of gold cost?" and before we could answer he would say, "No you don'T," then proceed to tell us the answer. "Do you know how good carrot juice is for you?..how good it is to juice everything?...then he would some how relate it to an alien. He was a follower of  a Czechoslovakian alien  theorist from the 1900's. I stood there becoming dizzy, not really listening, dazed, waiting on some chance to get out. He told us, "Well, I guess I'll let you guys get out of here...." NOT a chance. I wonder if he was laughing inside. He finally released us from captivity and we found a lovely spot by the river. We spent two beautiful days here. We watched small boats go up and down the wide river, and I spotted a small buck playfully bounding through the brush on the other side. Locals say the river use to be clear straight to the bottom, now stained dark brown. Some years ago the river had to be dammed up, becoming stagnant, the tandem from the bark had nowhere to go and turned the water. Our nights were spent by the fire cooking our tin foiled wrapped potatoes, chicken, and peppers...YUM.

Kites...

Chris and I took a day and walked along the pier, admiring the boats, and soaking in the sun. We found ourselves on the shore of Lake Michigan. We walked for a couple of miles seeing kite surfers in the far distance. I have never seen so many kites, color in the sky. Getting closer we were able to see the beach covered in kites, these guys, and a few girls were a community. We took a seat on the cool sand and watched as they flipped in the air--doing all kind of tricks, watched some crashing into the water, and others getting taken to great heights. Each one had such grace and control with the the wind. I counted 24 kites in the lake, at one time. I don't know how they didn't get all tangled up. When one of them would approach the shore to beach another surfer would run from his location and help him put his kite down. They all didn't know each other, some friends you could tell, but mostly strangers, they all joined for the love of the sport.

John Kohler Arts Center

 

A small city in the courtyard built with
pebbles, cement, and oyster shells.

Now this would be what you call JUNK YARD ART. Magnificiant detail to design, this is some creative stuff.

Sheboygan, WI

 A evening at the theater. One of our favorite things to do in small towns, for a treat, is check out their restored theaters. The heavy red curtain draws open as the previews begin to play. If you get a chance look this one up for more pictures.

Road America

Arriving at Road America the sun was setting. The gate worker told us, "Techinacally, I'm suppose to tell you to come back tomorrow, registration is closed and there is no way for you to register for camping or for a spectator pass....but..." she said, "Just this once, I'm gonna let you go on in." She told us to blend in...I LOVE IT. I don't know how many of you have seen our rig or heard our rig but it is difficult for us to blend in, we usually don't go unnoticed. But we agreed that we would and went woaaahhhplaplaplabin down the hill entering the raceway!!

Never seen so many VIPERS in one place!! Chris and I had a new experience of racing at this event. Well, first off, the event was free, camping was free, ALL thanks to our good buddies Steve (a corner worker of 20 plus years--at so many race tracks!! Impressive!!), and Jim (on the fire squad). When we were told to blend in we proceeded to find "the campers," we found them but we shortly discovered that our neighbors worked the track and new the track front to back (their campers were more like permanent fixtures on the grounds year round). We became friends with them and Jim's dog Shadow. We visited them both at their posts throughout the weekend and shared recaps at race days end.

First State Park

Lake Farm Campground was the first State Park/Wildlife refuge that we have stayed in. You pull in, take a registration card from the kiosk, write a check for your dues, drop it in the box, and clip your validation receipt on the post provided at your campsite. The experience is refreshing. We took a well carved trail through tall grass and shaded trees, seeing many geese owning fields, and finding a playground with swings. Chris and I are truley children at heart when we find swings, racing as high as we can, laughing, kicking our shoes off. Birds visited us back at our campsite, vibrant colors of, tennis ball yellow, royal blues, and cherry red. They were so fast and small that, at first you weren't even sure of what you were seeing, most of their colors hid under their wings until they took flight. 

Thought of You - by Ryan Woodward

Chris found this video the other night, we watched it several times and think it is AWESOME!! The PURE talent of Ryan Woodward!! Moving, and the making of this stop motion video is incredible. He drew 20 thousand individual drawings to make this masterpiece.

Ginger

We miss you baby Ginger!!!

Madison

Madison has been a destination marked on our map for sometime. Chris and I (and Alissa), have read American Gods by Neil Gaiman, and Madison (a swell as a number of other places to discover) is mentioned in the book, so we went to check it out. Madison is the capital of Wisconsin and houses the University of Wisconsin, which is impressive!! We could not believe the square miles the university covered, and couldn't find what this school didn't have! There were endless resources for learning, the university was literally another city inside the city of Madison, definitely aspire to visit if you are looking. It was Craft Beer Week in Madison so we attended a lecture on the making of Wisconsin's best, at a place called The SET, on the campus. We received a free 'The Set' glass, and participated in a tasting. We walked around like students for a bit, but it was probably obvious that we didn't belong because we didn't have worried stressed looks on our faces---EXAM Week was starting:) That night we visited the Comedy Store downtown Madison with $2 admission, open mic night. If I don't carry a purse, I sometime stick a small notebook and pencil in my back pocket, the notebook has a cut out funny face on the front (a stocking stuffer from Santa). Funny because when I pulled it out to write in it, before the show started, a couple of people asked if I was a comedian?? Yes, yes I am...

AND....

The billboard read "WHERE'D HE GET ALL THIS STUFF?" Definitely the most RANDOM roadside attraction we have seen. And what we have pictures of is just a few of what this place has!! There was a whole other fenced in bit, in the back we couldn't get to, filled with massive bird cages, clocks, a flamingo, a giraffe, moose, the most RANDOM thing you can think of...this guy has it...We just kept saying, "I MEAN where did he get all this stuff." We laughed realizing that's exactly what the sign read.