Wisconsin 2017: September 2017

After the excitement of the Minnesota State Fair, we headed north to the peace and quiet of Northern Wisconsin. The area is known for its many water falls and beautiful state parks, as well as the coastal towns lining Lake Superior.

The weather turned cool and rainy as we got into the area, and one day, it rained most of the time. But we were on a drive that day and the days where we were touring, the weather was nice.

Our campground for 3 days was a small, private camp in Iron County. It was a home brew place, down a gravel road with sites that were not particularly level and access roads that were muddy and quite tight, but our view was spectacular. And it was quiet – being the end of the season, we were one of only a couple groups camping. On the last night of our stay, we were the only ones in the park.

We spent one day at Amnicon Falls State Park where we saw several beautiful falls on the Amnicon River and a covered bridge. Visitors were enjoying the water, though it was decidedly cold. The river runs through volcanic rock that is ancient, about a billion years old and sandstone that was formed from streams flowing into an ocean that covered most of Wisconsin millions of years ago. And of course, there was lots of evidence of the glaciers that crossed the area several times.

Another day, we drove up into a peninsula and took a boat tour of the Apostle Islands out of Bayfield. There are 22 islands, several that can be accessed by boat for camping and hiking. It was interesting to learn that one island has the largest concentration of black bears in the United States and that bears can be found on almost all islands. The islands are part of a National Lakeshore and we enjoyed visiting the National Lakeshore Visitor Center. The tour got cut short because of the wild waves that showed themselves when we were crossing between islands. A couple of people got sick and nobody could walk around.

We had to cut one day out of our visit to Northern Wisconsin because of the time we lost to the car trouble we had in Minneapolis. We drove across Northern Wisconsin and some of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the rain and camped in a Michigan state park overnight. The place was deserted – like much of the rest of the country, once Labor Day passes, the parks empty out. Things will start closing in mid-October.

Time to move to the eastern side of Wisconsin and continue our genealogy research.

We entered northern Wisconsin by heading north from Minneapolis to Duluth. It is the largest Great Lakes port.

There are lots of waterways in the Duluth area, this is the Saint Louis River.

Our campground was down this 3 mile long gravel road.

The campground was next to a 20 acre fishing lake. We had a front row seat.

At the turn off to the campground, we saw this sign. Later as we were headed back down the road, we actually saw the dog. He just stood in the middle of the road and didn't move until his owner yelled at him to move.

Fall is starting to make its presence known.

Several groups of people were playing in the water. Too cold, in my opinion.

The upper falls at Amnicon Falls State Park run through volcanic rock.

The lower falls run through sandstone. Before becoming a state park, this area was quarried for the sandstone. Many buildings in Chicago were constructed using this rock.

There are 22 of these islands, making up the set known as the Apostle Islands. As we crossed from the leeward side of one island to another, we encountered huge waves. We were supposed to pass the northern most island, but the captain cut the tour short. He said that Coast Guard had recommended restrictions to the area because of the waves.

The islands are sandstone, nowadays, heavily covered with trees. Many different groups of people have called these islands home. Most of the islands are uninhabited nowadays.

One of the most photographed Life Stations in the Great Lakes.

This Coast Guard boat passed so fast, it looked like it was coming completely out of the water.

A short time later, the boat pulled up to the side of our tour boat, the captain said they were practicing a maneuver designed to get onto a boat.

The trees come clear down to the water.

A fish camp still in use.

The town of Bayfield is the center of tours into the Apostle Island National Lakeshore.

There are some beautiful homes and churches in the town. And the downtown street was quite charming.

After the tour, we walked into the downtown area and ate lunch at a very nice neighborhood pub.

These weavings at the National Lakeshore Visitor Center capture images of several Native American women who had prominent roles in the community. I was fascinated by the description of how the weavings were created - a digital imaging machine translates pixel values to thread color and programs the digital weaver. The computer drives the weft and the human does the warp.

The mezzanine of the National Lakeshore Visitor Center included a mural depicting all the peoples that played a role in developing Northern Wisconsin along Lake Superior.

The two events we have on our agenda for Minneapolis are the State Fair and the Mall of America. We arrived during the first week of the fair with beautiful clear weather. This is the second large midwestern state fair for us and we were interested in comparing the Iowa State Fair to this one. My sister-in-law's family has been here several times and they enjoy the fair very much so I knew we were in for a treat.

We spent the day visiting the farm animals, people watching, inspecting the crafts, checking out the fair sales items and munching on fair food. One unique food item to this fair was the “Cookie Jar” – a tub full of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. A long line was in front of the booth selling the cookies and the aroma around the booth was irresistible. We also noticed that funnel cakes and kettle corn (two items that are a staple for me at fairs) were kind of hard to find. Lots of places selling brats, cheese and beer though. We very much enjoyed our day of fair food binging.

Lots of quilts were on display in the Home Goods building. I liked the way they displayed the crafts in groups representing a wide variety of topics, including: holidays, countries, colors, western, children and many other subjects. Quilts were displayed alongside clothes, knitwear, paintings, and carvings. The groupings added to the enjoyment by the crowd.

The midway was colorful, we like to walk through it in the evening so we can see all the lights. Makes the midway a bit magical rather than sleazy.

I especially liked the Birthing Center, where all day long you can watch animals giving birth with an educational dialogue on what is happening. It was fascinating. We arrived about 30 minutes after a heifer had been born and she was just starting to walk around. It was a hoot watching her struggle to control those limbs. She seemed so happy to have legs – every now and then she would hop around like she was full of joy. Elsewhere in the Birthing Center, you could see the animals that had been born that day – most of them were resting and close to their moms.

The commercial buildings were blessedly free of spas and hot tubs (unlike the buildings at the LA County and Orange County Fairs). Steam rooms seem to be popular, along with cookware and vacation packages to Vegas and Branson. Overall, we thought the fair lived up to its reputation and enjoyed it very much.

The Mall of America is touted as the largest mall in America and I suppose it is. But other than that, it was pretty regular. There was a good-sized theme park in the center of the mall which would be attractive to young families and there is a very nice selection of restaurants. We went through the place in a few hours and didn’t buy much.

Coming out of the state fair, we did have an adventure. A few miles down the road, a wrench symbol came up on the dashboard display and the engine quit. We were able to pull over to the side of the road and stop. Checking the useless manual yielded the equally useless recommendation to “contact our service department as soon as possible”. Checking the internet forums implied an issue with the drive train had developed. Russ tried starting the engine after a few minutes, the error message cleared and we tried driving again. This time we got a few more miles before a repeat of the issue along with a dead truck. So we called a tow truck and arranged to pick up a rental car at the airport. Interestingly, the tow truck was able to take the truck to a Ford dealer whose service department was open until midnight! They took a look at the issue, determined it was a throttle something or another (replaces what we know as a carburetor), and told us that they had to order the part and get clearance from the extended service people, so we went home to our trailer. We were scheduled to leave Minneapolis the next day but were able to extend our stay at the campground. They had the truck repaired by 11 am the next day. So even though we had a stressful night and lost a day of travel, everything worked out fine. I was grateful that this didn’t happen when we were pulling the trailer or were in an area with no phone service (which is quite a bit of Wisconsin.)

We now head north to see some of the wilderness of Wisconsin.

Not really touring Minnesota this trip, just a stop in Minneapolis for the fair and mall.

Passed through Harmony, the largest Amish community in Minnesota. Did not get to explore, but will go on list for when we explore Minnesota.

Several nice statues on display on the fair grounds.

Enjoyed seeing the 4-H families working together.

Noticed that the animals that had won in previous years, had their photos placed on banners and displayed in the barn.

When we saw this guy from a distance, we were fooled into thinking that they were showing zebras which was very puzzling. Getting closer, we realized that they were wearing coverings to keep them clean.