Wisconsin's Summer Sandhills

We were very surprised to learn that the Sandhill Cranes in Wisconsin are brown. In Florida, there are Sandhills present year-round with more in the winter, but ours are always grey.

I assumed when we first spotted some that it was a different crane, but we were assured that they are their usual Sandhills. I read online that there are six subspecies of Sandhill Cranes, but no mention was made of the color variation. This pair had a young one learning to eat bugs.

At another place, we saw this one on its own in a wetland.

Here are Florida Sandhills.

Maybe Florida only gets the retirees?

Opting for Wireless

We went through Amish country in Wisconsin. It was my first experience. We passed through an Amish farming community where we saw draft horses pulling farm implements.

This was an Amish school with an outhouse and no electricity, as is the custom.

We came across buggies at three times.

I found it interesting that a grocery store had a designated parking space that included a hitching post. 

We went to a  buffet/antique mall/ handmade furniture showroom that called itself "Amish". It had all the usual amenities of electricity and telephones and internet, so I am not sure what the Amish part was other than their products may have been part of the market. The place was HUGE! The furniture was beautiful and, while the food was good, the strawberry-rhubarb pie was heavenly. We bought some apple butter. When we were in Columbia, Missouri, we found some strawberry-rhubarb jam at a farmer's market. It is almost gone: we are new fans of strawberry-rhubarb!

Prairie Du Chien

We spent part of one day and a night in Praire Du Chien, Wisconsin. Chien  is pronounced "Sheen," by the way. It is right on the Mississippi River and was named and settled by French explorers/trappers, Marquette and Jolliet. A sign states it is the second oldest city in the Wisconsin, having been established in 1673.

We went there to use a gift certificate to Cabela's, but we found other things of interest, as well.

It was our first time in one of their stores. It is very similar to a Bass Pro Shop.

We found too many things that we needed! But it was fun.

We had a yummy lunch in a little Mom-and-Pop local restaurant. For three bucks, we decided we needed to experience fried green beans. From the empty bowl, you can tell they were just "terrible!!" 

I was fascinated by this tall building that did not appear to be in current use and had some boards in windows, showing needs of some repair. I had to go online to find that it was known as The Old Rock School, built in 1857, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

If you look at the replacement door that is a standard sized door, you get a little better sense of the proportions of this building.

Look how the stones were worn down from all the little feet that went up the middle of each step over the more than one hundred years that it was in use as a school.

 The schoolyard now contains a nice veterans memorial park. It honors the local soldiers who fought   in wars from the Black Hawk War (1832) to W.W.II.

The Mighty Mississippi

We drove the old river road along the upper Mississippi in Iowa and Wisconsin.  There is something special about the old-style river boats.

We passed several dams with locks. Each has a tugboat that pilots the giant barges through the tight locks. I think that would be interesting to watch but we did not see a barge until we got down to the south end of Iowa at Ft. Madison after three days of river sightings.

 

 It was scenic country but we were somewhat surprised by how few boats and barges we saw.

The Ladies at Little Norway

We stopped a little off the beaten path to explore a little tourist trap in southwestern Wisconsin, called Little Norway. 

This dragon adorns the roof pitch.

Despite the tongue of fire, it was a cool spot on a warm day.

We ended up  not paying to go and see the house, which was actually originally constructed as a demonstration at the World's Fair in Chicago, but we enjoyed our visit in the quaint gift shop.

These friendly ladies, dressed in traditional Norwegian dresses, serve as tour guides and agreed to let me take their picture on the giftshop porch.

You cannot tell from the photographs that the designs on the bodices are made of tiny glass beads.

The woman on the left was engaged in Hardangersom, a kind of Norwegian white-on-white embroidery and cutwork. You may notice it on the lower parts of their aprons. It was truly stunning work.

Mailbox Monday: Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue!

Barn Quilts

Throughout our travels in Wisconsin and Iowa, we saw barn quilts. We have come across these in North Carolina before. We  think it is a charming practice and so enjoyed spotting them. Several were impossible for us to photograph because of traffic but here is a sampling of what we saw.