A really good one
06/29/06, 7:06 am.
63º F, Partly cloudy, WNW wind 6 mph.
Good morning,
Up rather late after a very busy and nice couple of day. We really had a good time! The weather cooperated very well - not too hot or cool, partly cloudy, and a bit of rain on the trip home last night. We got home VERY late last night - way past my bedtime - about 9:45 P.M.! I can’t remember when I have been on the road that late in many years.
After a good breakfast in Casco with the Bible study bunch, we headed south about 10:00 A.M. With the construction on our normal route through Manitowoc, we chose and alternative and it worked great and no orange signs to look for! We did encounter a lot of construction and detours on our sojourn. Seemed every time we crossed or came near a 4-lane highway there was construction with detours. Most of the detours were not that well marked and we too a couple of side trips. Lac la Belle was the worst, but we did see some monster homes that we are glad we don’t own. Maybe it would be better to say have the mortgage for. We did travel the state and county roads as much as possible, enjoying the countryside immensely.
We followed state highway # 67 through the Kettle Moraine State Forest and found the hills and moraines beautiful. We stopped at the Ice Age Interpretive Center along the way. Margriet totally enjoyed the view as it is set on the rim of the moraine. Impressive. The highway also followed the shore of Long Lake (there must be 100 lakes in Wisconsin with that name!) and found the areal filled with "summer" cottages jammed together so neighbors seem to be sleeping closer to their neighbor than their spouse. Reminded me very much of the Waupaca Chain of Lakes area.
After leaving the Kettle Moraine it seem the real construction zone began. Lots of detours (one detour even had a detour!), orange signs, and interesting side trips. We finally did pull into Whitewater a little after 3:00 P.M. and found our motel. I had hoped to get there about an hour earlier, but the construction along the way had different ideas. After getting unloaded and acquainted with the room, we headed out to find a place to eat. Whitewater is a nice small city, one I would live in if I had to. The restaurant we chose, Jessica’s Café, was on the main drag and very nice. It seemed to cater to old folks like us as well as the college crowd. Kind of reminded me of the restaurants I frequented while in college. Margriet had a chicken stir-fry and I had clams. More than enough to eat. I could not even help Margriet clean her plate, or think about the dessert that came with the meal!
Yesterday was Old World Wisconsin day. The park didn’t open until 10:00 A.M. and we were waiting at the gate when it opened. Since we are members of the Historical Society, the entrance fee was $0.00 for us! We really like that! Also included in the deal was a pair of audio players, operating something like a CD player without the CD. Punch in a couple of appropriate numbers and it played a description of the display in front of you. Very effective and very complete. While there is a conventual indoor museum, which we didn’t go through, but the majority of the displays are depictions of farms or small town building groups. All are restored very well and staffed by period dressed interpreters. The idea of the park is to show the various ethnic groups that settled in Wisconsin and how they lived. There are several German farms as well as those of Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Polish, and other nationalities. Also a small town set up. They are set apart from each other to get an idea of what they really may have looked like when constructed originally.
I really was impressed by the details included in the displays. I think it is one of the best depictions I have seen and on a very large scale. I also was surprised how far some of the buildings came from. There were several that came from northwestern Wisconsin, a few miles from our deer camp! That is a long way to bring even a small cabin, let along some of the very large ones. The whole park has a loop road going around it, something less than three miles long. It can be walked or there is a tram available to also ride, getting off and on at various points along the way. We ended up walking the entire path, not using the tram at all. I would have liked to, but Margriet was having such a good time and snapping so many pictures, we just walked. I am surprised how well both of our bodies took the exercise. We each have a small kink in our backs, but everything else seems to be closer to normal than expected.
The park closes at 4:00 P.M. and we left a little before closing. I assumed we would be on the road toward home about 1:00 or 2:00 P.M., but there was so much to see and places to walk! Since we had not eaten lunch and a rather light breakfast, we stopped at almost the first restaurant we came to. Again a good meal for reasonable prices. The small "Mom and Pop" type restaurants seem to suit us best. We again hit construction a lot on the ride, especially around I-94 and U.S. 41, causing delays and some interesting side trips. We also ran into some rain. Not all that much, but some of the showers we drove through were rather heavy. Some of the rain drops for awhile seemed to be the size of golf balls. We more or less outran most of the rain and drove north out of it.
The 4th of July is upon us, so we will be laying some low for a while, waiting for the vacationers to have their fun. After that we may decide on another sojourn of some kind, but not a very long one. This one was well worth it to be sure.
Time to get the day a-going.
In Christ My Saviour,
Chris <><
63º F, Partly cloudy, WNW wind 6 mph.
Good morning,
Up rather late after a very busy and nice couple of day. We really had a good time! The weather cooperated very well - not too hot or cool, partly cloudy, and a bit of rain on the trip home last night. We got home VERY late last night - way past my bedtime - about 9:45 P.M.! I can’t remember when I have been on the road that late in many years.
After a good breakfast in Casco with the Bible study bunch, we headed south about 10:00 A.M. With the construction on our normal route through Manitowoc, we chose and alternative and it worked great and no orange signs to look for! We did encounter a lot of construction and detours on our sojourn. Seemed every time we crossed or came near a 4-lane highway there was construction with detours. Most of the detours were not that well marked and we too a couple of side trips. Lac la Belle was the worst, but we did see some monster homes that we are glad we don’t own. Maybe it would be better to say have the mortgage for. We did travel the state and county roads as much as possible, enjoying the countryside immensely.
We followed state highway # 67 through the Kettle Moraine State Forest and found the hills and moraines beautiful. We stopped at the Ice Age Interpretive Center along the way. Margriet totally enjoyed the view as it is set on the rim of the moraine. Impressive. The highway also followed the shore of Long Lake (there must be 100 lakes in Wisconsin with that name!) and found the areal filled with "summer" cottages jammed together so neighbors seem to be sleeping closer to their neighbor than their spouse. Reminded me very much of the Waupaca Chain of Lakes area.
After leaving the Kettle Moraine it seem the real construction zone began. Lots of detours (one detour even had a detour!), orange signs, and interesting side trips. We finally did pull into Whitewater a little after 3:00 P.M. and found our motel. I had hoped to get there about an hour earlier, but the construction along the way had different ideas. After getting unloaded and acquainted with the room, we headed out to find a place to eat. Whitewater is a nice small city, one I would live in if I had to. The restaurant we chose, Jessica’s Café, was on the main drag and very nice. It seemed to cater to old folks like us as well as the college crowd. Kind of reminded me of the restaurants I frequented while in college. Margriet had a chicken stir-fry and I had clams. More than enough to eat. I could not even help Margriet clean her plate, or think about the dessert that came with the meal!
Yesterday was Old World Wisconsin day. The park didn’t open until 10:00 A.M. and we were waiting at the gate when it opened. Since we are members of the Historical Society, the entrance fee was $0.00 for us! We really like that! Also included in the deal was a pair of audio players, operating something like a CD player without the CD. Punch in a couple of appropriate numbers and it played a description of the display in front of you. Very effective and very complete. While there is a conventual indoor museum, which we didn’t go through, but the majority of the displays are depictions of farms or small town building groups. All are restored very well and staffed by period dressed interpreters. The idea of the park is to show the various ethnic groups that settled in Wisconsin and how they lived. There are several German farms as well as those of Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Polish, and other nationalities. Also a small town set up. They are set apart from each other to get an idea of what they really may have looked like when constructed originally.
I really was impressed by the details included in the displays. I think it is one of the best depictions I have seen and on a very large scale. I also was surprised how far some of the buildings came from. There were several that came from northwestern Wisconsin, a few miles from our deer camp! That is a long way to bring even a small cabin, let along some of the very large ones. The whole park has a loop road going around it, something less than three miles long. It can be walked or there is a tram available to also ride, getting off and on at various points along the way. We ended up walking the entire path, not using the tram at all. I would have liked to, but Margriet was having such a good time and snapping so many pictures, we just walked. I am surprised how well both of our bodies took the exercise. We each have a small kink in our backs, but everything else seems to be closer to normal than expected.
The park closes at 4:00 P.M. and we left a little before closing. I assumed we would be on the road toward home about 1:00 or 2:00 P.M., but there was so much to see and places to walk! Since we had not eaten lunch and a rather light breakfast, we stopped at almost the first restaurant we came to. Again a good meal for reasonable prices. The small "Mom and Pop" type restaurants seem to suit us best. We again hit construction a lot on the ride, especially around I-94 and U.S. 41, causing delays and some interesting side trips. We also ran into some rain. Not all that much, but some of the showers we drove through were rather heavy. Some of the rain drops for awhile seemed to be the size of golf balls. We more or less outran most of the rain and drove north out of it.
The 4th of July is upon us, so we will be laying some low for a while, waiting for the vacationers to have their fun. After that we may decide on another sojourn of some kind, but not a very long one. This one was well worth it to be sure.
Time to get the day a-going.
In Christ My Saviour,
Chris <><
posted by Fisk | 9:19 AM
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