 |
| Wisconsin, farm country |
2019-10
 |
June 10, and so many fields are just being planted
excessive spring rains that are continuing |
Wisconsin
Campground:
Governor Dodge State Park, Dodgeville Wisconsin. $148 for 3 nights.
Ended up having to buy a yearly entrance sticker ($35). not the best
price. 5,000 acre park with lake. Campgrounds are in heavily wooded
location. Lots of annoying flying bugs and tics are a problem.
Which greatly limited my time outdoors in the park.
Campground: Baraboo
Hills Campground. $25 PPA price. Full hookup. Swimming pool.
Complex designed for families. Restaurant on site. Kids have to pay
an additional $25 to use some of the play bouncing tarps, peddle
rides etc. I arrive early and they wanted to charge me $25 for being
an early arrival (3 pm check-in). I didn’t pay.
Campground:
Menominee Casino resort. Indian Casino. Parking lot style. Electric
hookups only. $20
Includes $10 free
play each day.
Distance traveled:
210 miles
Driving north from
Illinois into Wisconsin on I-39 and I-90 with a toll road section
along the way. I’m sure glad I fixed TV cabinet because the roads
leading into Wisconsin were very rough indeed. I could have churned
up some good Wisconsin butter on those roads. I’ve seen patched
roads before, but these were patched to the point of being almost
useless in the effort made to patch them.
 |
| Governor Dodge State Park |
 |
| Red Columbine |
 |
| Lupine |
I arrived at
Governor Dodge St Pk so I would be close to an attraction my good
friends Kathy and Randy recommended a while back called House On a
Rock. A Short 6 miles from the campground. I got to the House on a
Rock bright and early, 9am opening. The parking lot filled up within
minutes, even with it being a Monday.
 |
Large Urns line the entry way to
House on a Rock |
Now I’m going to
give my impression of the place which will more than likely be much
different than most folks but here it is. The house, built by Alex
Jordan and was eventually opened to the public in 1960. But before
that, he and his family would go to this rock outcropping for picnics
on a farmers property. The farmer eventually leased the land and
later Alex would purchase the property along with his parents.
Eventually deciding to build a small retreat on the top of the rock
outcropping. He loved the views and rocks so much that he continued
to expand his retreat and eventually covered the entire rock. Some
of the inner walls being the rock itself. Building cantilevered
windows to take advantage of the view from on top of the rock pillar.
Over time, the low ceilings and small rooms would become more
enclosed as he would cover the windows with a blue or white
translucent plastic. Hiding the views. Later he would build the
Infinity Room, a 218 foot long enclosed ramp reaching out over the
top of the rock home. Those small window panes are now dusty and
dirty making the views a bit of a challenge to enjoy.
 |
| Museum galleries and Indoctrination bldgs |
 |
one of a number of small low ceiling rooms
in the house on a rock |
 |
| the Infinity walkway hanging out over the valley |
 |
| windows blocked by blue screens |
 |
a small section of the house on a rock
that has natural light streaming in |
 |
| but the next room dark as can be |
 |
| more covered windows. |
Today, one can only
see a very small portion of the rock outcropping that so enchanted Mr
Jordan. The house on the rock is for all practical purposes
invisible to see as it is surrounded by heavy tree growth and other
building structures including the long covered ramp leading to the
top of the rock/house.
Along the way, he
added additional attractions to include a museum of Aviation, Music
automatons, streets of yesterday (for all of his collections), Mill
House, Organ Room, Circus Room, Galleries and the worlds largest
Carousel. Now all of these attractions cover acres and acres of
winding paths through huge warehouse size buildings.
Lighting is set on
dim, red and dark. The more I explored the rooms, the creeper it all
became. The collections had no context or information as to how they
were acquired, where they came from. In the end becoming just
gigantic collections of things. The automated music pieces which
Alex and his workers put together are impressive, over sized
monsters. The carousel, with a million lights (I might be
exaggerating a bit) does not have a singe horse on it. And I doubt
it has ever be ridden on by children or adults. Pieced together from
the individual carousel animals he collected from around the world.
The horses and other excess pieces now line the 3 and 4 story walls,
the ceiling covered with winged creatures that were once a part of
some circus or former carousel.
It took me a full 3
hours just walking through the maze and it was truly a maze from one
exhibit to the next. If I had taken the time to stop and look at
each display it could easily have taken 5 or 6 hours to get through
the ordeal. I say ordeal because about half way through I started to
get quite creeped out and only wanted to get out of the place. At
one point an agitate man and his wife passed me and told one of the
only 3 attendants that I saw along the way, that he had enough and
insisted on getting out. I believe he took some kind of emergency
exit out. I continued on. Climbing long winding ramps, narrow
hallways, endless turns, finally exiting to the outside and back to
the parking lot, after yet another set of ramps, walkways around an
oriental garden, with views of all the buildings, 100,000 trees that
were planted by the original creator of all of this, which now of
course block off the stunning valley views and forests beyond.
 |
| very dark displays, kind of creepy |
 |
| Faberge Eggs |
 |
| one of the few displays with an explanation sheet |
 |
| The street scene, also very dark |
 |
| window display in the street scene |
 |
| automaton music machines |
 |
| all those lights and it still felt dark |
 |
| another music machine creation |
 |
| the largest carousel in the world, sorry very blurry |
 |
some kind of fanciful pump machine
no information on what it is, was or should be |
 |
entire walls and ceilings covered with wooden horses
and flying things, ekk! |
My final conclusion
was that of a creative person, obsessed with loving a part of a
natural rock formation, that he eventually covered it up and enclosed
it, even from views he once had admired on top of the rock by
covering the rock with his creation and shielding those windows as I
mentioned with blue glass. Adding to it, all those fantastic
displays that individually would be centerpieces for any museum, but
here they become overwhelming in their size and the insistence of
having all the rooms darkly lit. Odd too because of the number of
lights on all the displays, everything seemed to be encapsulated in a
dark mist.
I must say, it was
an experience I’ll never forget. Pictures do not do it justice…..
Baraboo Wisconsin
Circus World. This
is another place Kathy and Randy recommended. They say it was the
winter home for the circus, where many of the wagons that carried the
animals etc were repaired or replaced each winter. Side note, there
is a small town outside of Tampa Florida that is also considered the
Winter home of the Circus. Today here in Baraboo they have a
permanent Circus Tent, a number of museums including one where they
restore the old wagons. I enjoyed the shows that are put on
throughout the day and the comedy skits are always fun. Circus World
still uses elephants and tigers, though as you know many of the
remaining circus’s are no longer using them due to reports of
cruelty to animals. I recently saw an article on TV of a circus
production from Germany that is using holographic displays of the
animals in there acts.
 |
from a circus wagon abandoned
in a farmers field |
 |
| looks like a wedding cake |
 |
fun circus skit, they used a young boy
from the audience who did a great job. |
It’s been raining
quite a bit up here, but having adventures like the circus and indoor
museums have filled in any outdoor gaps.
I had the
opportunity to take a tour of Frank Loyd Wrights Taliesin home and
school since it was on my travel route, but since I had been
experiencing a few days with bad back pains, I decided on skipping
that. Also I’ve enjoyed seeing a number of his homes in the past
while crossing the U.S. Including Falling Water which is considered
his masterpiece. The $65 tour price didn’t help. Perhaps another
time.
Wisconsin Dells.
 |
| large wooden roller coaster, would you go on it? |
Just up the road a
piece from Baraboo is the Wisconsin Dells. A fun touristy area with
surprisingly inexpensive places to explore,($5) like the Lost Temple,
Top Secret, Haunted House Ghost Outpost and a Deer Park where you can
feed the deer. Huge Wooden roller coaster rides and lots of water
parks too.
But the main
attraction in the area are the boat rides along the Wisconsin Dells.
With a 25% off coupon I was able to get on the Upper river tour, a
two hour excursion with two stops along the way. A beautiful rock
canyon (with snack bar at the end of it) and the second stop was to a
couple of tall pillar rock formations where a dog leaps from one
formation to the other. Love a good boat ride and this one didn’t
disappoint.
 |
| Dog leaping between stone pillars |
 |
| that square slab is a natural formation |
Distance Traveled:
159 miles
Northern Wisconsin
Menominee Casino
resort. Well that was a bit of a rainy drive. Light rain at that,
Campground only has electric. No water or dump station but for $20 a
night I can’t complain. As the rain continues to come down
seriously. Glad to be on basically a paved parking lot. Here for
just a couple of days before the final drive into Northern Michigan.
190 miles and a 4 hour drive on Sunday.
More Photography
No comments:
Post a Comment