2019-10 Wisconsin

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

Wisconsin Dells

Circus World,Baraboo Wisconsin

House on the RockWisconsin

Governor Dodge StatePark, small waterfall