Day 90/11 Fri Aug 29
WISCONSIN (Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Eau Claire)
I continued my slow drive up the side of the lake. Highway 41, the big interstate, is several miles inland.
Wingspread, located in Wind Point, is a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed architectural masterpiece in Wisconsin that served as the Johnson family home and is now a conference center. The name “Wingspread” originates from the house’s design, which features four wings that extend outward from a central core. It is Frank Lloyd Wright’s largest Prairie-style home, completed in 1939 for H.F. Johnson Jr., the president of FC Johnson. The house is renowned for its distinctive pinwheel design, expansive windows, extensive use of wood, and a central chimney with multiple fireplaces. The family lived there for approximately 20 years before donating it to The Johnson Foundation, which converted it into a conference center and educational facility.
MILWAUKEE
I loved seeing all the sites in Milwaukee – little traffic, easy parking a surprising number of good things to see.
Harley-Davidson Museum. Driving into the parking lot was Harley heaven, hundreds of dudes (all with prison pussy beards and looking “tough”) in leather vests emblazoned with crests astride the classic sound of a Harley. The museum harkens back to the origin of HD in 1904 and the creation of a world-famous brand, gear, engineering, and testimonials about what it’s like to have the wind through your hair. I think they all live a dream. How uncomfortable it is to drive for more than an hour in the rain at a sky-high cost. Really, it is only penis envy having a throbbing engine between your legs: $ 25, $21 reduced.
National Bobblehead Hall of Fame & Museum. With 10,000 bobbleheads, it has everything – sports with a concentration on baseball (they are a common gift at baseball games), cartoons, political figures (all the presidents and I counted at least 15 Donald Trumps, most very humourous), famous people (the Albert Einstein has a full head of white hair, Anthony Fauci has 11) and many Wisconsin heroes. Get a small prize (a sticker and candy) for finding Waldo (I didn’t but she gave me the prize anyway). $5, no reduction. Bizzarium
Milwaukee Public Market. What a great market, the aromas of food hit you on entering. It has a little bit of everything – many food stalls, wine, produce, meat, fish, bakery, and cheese, all in a compact space.
The Pfister Hotel. This possibly has the best lobby of any hotel I have been in. Originating in 1898, the lobby has a very high ceiling painted with cherubs, faux marble columns with capitals, gilt, oil paintings and wrought iron.
America’s Black Holocaust Museum. Showcases all the bad (there was no good) – slavery, the failed reformation, prison labour camps (that were worse than slavery. One could end up in prison for having no job), Jim Crow, lynching and the Voting Act. I am extremely familiar with racism in America. Read The Grimkes (white abolitionists from S Carolina, The Underground Railway and The New Jim Crow where the war on drugs kept black men in prison). Forget about Red Lining, poor schools, lack of access to education and more. The net wealth of the average black family is about $15,000 while that of whites is ten times that. No wonder black people don’t measure up and white folks produce a false narrative. Whites don’t realize the basis of American wealth dates to slavery and cotton. $10, $8 reduction. The Dark Side
Grohmann Museum. Wow, don’t miss this huge collection of work-related art on four floors – life-like paintings, many wonderful bronze statues, and a mosaic entry floor with a painted ceiling. Many are industrial and from Germany. $5, $3 reduced (and they give a large book and a sticker).
Pabst Brewing Co. Has a bar, larger meeting room and best of all, a great store with beer steins, cans, signs, taps, and clothing. Free. Tours are available.
Hilton Milwaukee. Dating to the 1930s (the staff weren’t sure), this is a lovely hotel with great brass elevator doors, chandeliers and gilt. On site with entrance from the lobby are a Starbucks and a very nice pub/grill.
Pabst Mansion. Captain Frederick Pabst (1836-1904) was a ship’s captain who came to Milwaukee in the 1860s to join his father-in-laws brewery (dating from 1844). By the 1890s, it was the world’s largest brewery. This huge mansion was built in Flemish Rennaissance Revival style from 1890-93. From 1908-1975, it was the home of five successive Catholic bishops. Pabst built the first skyscraper in Wisoncsin, rebuilt the Pabst Theratre, headed the Wisconsin National Bank, and owned several hotels, restaurants, saloons and a hop farm.
Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory. Housed in three high geodisic domes are gardens showcasing jungle, flowers and desert. Each are wonderfully constructed with ponds, flowers and bridges.
ON For the first time in 3 months, I have been kicked out of McDonalds lots twice (one surprisingly had no wifi accessible from outside, the Burger King’s wifi was inaccessible and I ended up in a parking lot mooching wifi at a Pizza Hut, my least favourite pizza.
Day 91/12 Sat Aug 30
I drove to Madison, my final push to go west and home.
Red Circle Inn, Nashotah. 1848. A two-story Tudor style inn, it appears to have been completely renovated. It serves “Steak on The Lake”.
MADISON
Olbrich Botanical Gardens. It has many kinds of habitat – meadow, sunken, dry, woodland and more. $6 no reduction
Tenney Park Bridges. This urban park abuts on the lake. Inside the park is a circular pond covered in water lilies and with several bridges – two that are of reinforced concrete with a significant arch and one flat, a lovely stone arched bridge.
Monona Terrace. Originally designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, it was not constructed until 40 years later in 1997 as the main convention centre for Madison. It is a gorgeious building with a an all glass front looking onto Lake Monona. There are several meeting rooms and convention halls. The entrance is round with a dish spouting water from the roof. The hallways have many photographs of Wright. Architectural Delight
Overture Center for the Arts. In downtown Madison, this was built in 1923, an amazing structure for its time. It has a very long facade. The main lobby of the large theatre is full-height glass. Architectural Delight
Downtown Madison had throngs of people, most students returning to college.
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. The best gallery was tucked away in the corner with some examples of the Annual Triennial. The first floor has the 2025 Triennial winners, none very interesting. The third floor is lovely with a cafe, an outside terrace and some sculpture. Free
Wisconsin Veterans Museum. A great museum with nice summaries of most of America’s wars in great dioramas. In the Civil war, 80% of the POWs at Andersonville died of disease. The Spanish American War only lasted 4 months – 2 died in battle and 134 of disease but America gained Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. It glorifies the US but doesn’t mention their defeat in the War of 1812 or the fact that they entered both world wars late after all the hard fighting (and death) had already been done. I guess when you are imperialistic and don’t have the prospect of gaining land, why go to war? Free
Chazen Museum of Art. On the university campus, I wondered through hallways, stairs and elevators of the wrong building for 20 minutes. In the end, this museum was just ok with more contemporary art than anything. Free
First Unitarian Society, Shorewood Hills (part of Madison). Another F L Wright building, it is lovely with a small main chaple with three tiers of seats, a massive stone lecturn, and a lovely small meeting room at the end of hall of offices. He designed all the furnture.
Wisconsin Geology Museum. A good discussion of Wisconsin geology and lotsa rocks. Free
Wisconsin Science Museum. I don’t like these museums as they are so kid orientated, but went here because it too was free.
National Mustard Museum, Middleton. Thousands of kinds of mustard, with many organized by country of oriigin. Almost all of the mustard seed (of which there are four kinds) is grown in Canada. A great thing is the tasting bar where you can try tiny amounts with a pretzel. I stood there and joined in with several groups. I love the Dill weed /garlic and actually bought a jar ($6.95). Bizzarium. Free
Taliesin, Spring Green. Sometimes known as Taliesin East is a house-studio complexd eveloped and occupied by Frank Lloyd Wright, the 600-acre (240 ha) estate is an exemplar of the Prairie School of architectured completed in 1911. The name Taliesin, meaning “shining brow” in Welsh, was initially used for the first building, which was built on and into the brow of a hill; it was later extended to the entire estate. After 3 fires, in 1932, it was Wright’s home for the rest of his life. Wright left Taliesin and the 600-acre Taliesin Estate to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation upon his death in 1959. As of 2023, more than 25,000 people visit Taliesin each year.
On a hill overlooking a lake, the house has several partially detached structures in an “L”-shaped connected by pergolas. There were three sections: a long section on the east, which held the residential wing; a long section on the west, which held the agricultural wing; and an office wing connecting the two other sections. There were stables, service functions, servants’ quarters, and a garage across the courtyard.
Yellow limestone was laid in long, thin ledges, and plaster for the interior walls was mixed with sienna, giving the finished product a golden hue. Windows were placed so that sun could come through openings in every room at every point of the day.
House on a Rock, Spring Green is a tourist attraction that opened in 1959 as a complex of architecturally distinct rooms, streets, gardens, and shops designed by Alex Jordan Jr.
The “house” itself is atop Deer Shelter Rock, a column of rock approximately 60 by 70 feet Additions were made to the original structure and other buildings added over the course of several decades. The complex now features “The Streets of Yesterday”, a re-creation of an early twentieth century American town; “The Heritage of the Sea”, featuring nautical exhibits and a 200-foot model (61 m) of a fanciful whale-like sea creature battling a Kraken; “The Music of Yesterday”, a huge collection of automatic music machines; and “the world’s largest indoor carousel” with 269 carousel animals, 182 chandeliers, over 20,000 lights, and hundreds of mannequin angels hanging from the ceiling. The carousel, built in 1981, has no horses and cannot be ridden by visitors.
The earlier structures, namely the House on the Rock itself, the Gate House, and the Mill House, are reminiscent of the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, though much less coherently designed than is characteristic of Wright, given its patchwork of external structures and interior spaces. According to a likely apocryphal story, the building actually began partly to spite the master architect, who ran his Taliesin communal school near Spring Green. These early structures feature exposed stone, low ceilings, dark woodwork, and antiques on display.
Much of the House’s contents were built by Jordan and his associates. “We were creating entertainment. We were not making a historically accurate representation. There was never any need to worry about historical accuracy. We were creating a fun place.
“We could fabricate any antiques we wanted to—that was the fun of it. It was just one guy’s great big sandbox, where he kept building stuff.” In 1978, a disgruntled employee complained to the state Justice Department of consumer fraud, saying that these claims were tall tales.
The room-sized assemblages of what appear to be mechanical musical instruments are partly illusion. Some of the instruments actually play, but the strings and woodwinds in particular do not; their sound is actually produced by organ pipes, while the moving instruments fool visitors.
It is the biggest tourist site in Wisconsin and more like an “amusement park”. Pass through the massive parking lot to a wonderful entry building with huge beams and a natural fountain. I didn’t pay the $39.99 to see the park of gardens but paid the $19.99 to just see the house. Bizzarium
ON Pizza Hut near Spring Green. They seem to have the strongest wifi.
Day 92/13 Sun Aug 31
MINNESOTA (Minneapolis, Duluth, Bemidji)
It was 185 miles and almost three hours to get to Austin.
Spam Museum, Austin. The Hormel food company was started in the 1800s and has at least 40 brands including Stag Chili, Skippy Peanut Butter and Spam. Learn the history of Hormel, the ingredients and canning, do the canning race, take a quiz on Spam (despite knowing nothing about Spam other than it pork in a can, I got 9/10 using common sense). There are 10 kinds of Spam – classic, Korean BBQ, 33% Less Fat, teriyai, gochuyang, jalopeno, Lite, Hot & Spicy, and more. See the Monty Python “Spamalot” and buy Spam clothes, and all sorts of paraphenalia. Free Bizzarium:
The Hubbell House, Mantorville is one of the oldest working restaurants in the state of Minnesota built in 1854 and has been operated by the Pappas family for over 160 years of business, It bills itself as a steak house and is full of antiques.
MINNEAPOLIS
Museum of Russian Art. A good museum on three floors. The best were the Monumental painting, all large and showing “common” people. The architecture photos were all Soviet and one of the least inspiring types of architecture. Downstairs is the permanent exhibition with more nice paintings, a lot of lacquer, funny (and up to date with several of Trump) and nesting dolls (one had 19 dolls). $15, $13 reduced.
Minneapolis Institute of Art. A huge museum on three floors. I arrived with only 40 minutes to see it and cruised through the wide selection of art. Free
10th Avenue Bridge crosses the Mississippi River and was built in 1929. It is an open spandrel arch design constructed of reinforced concrete. It is 2,921 feet long and 110 feet (34 m) above the water.
Minnehaha Falls. In an urban park on Minnehaha Creek, this waterfall drops 53 feet just before the creek enters the Mississippi. It apparently forms great ice formations in the winter.
ON McDonalds outside Minneapolis.
Day 93/14 Mon Sept 1
GO TO North Dakota
