Subplots, intentional and otherwise

Beautiful "driftless" Wisconsin.

I'm sneaking in a final post to wrap things up before we deploy to Sand Island tomorrow for another tour of duty as NPS volunteer lighthouse keepers. We are now finished with our criss-crossing tour of Wisconsin and the travel trailer will stay parked here Washburn until we set out for home in October.

We will stay on Sand Island through Labor Day to close up the lighthouse that we opened just a little over two months ago. Thursday is the 100th anniversary of the creation of the National Park Service and it is also the birthday of Tex's fiancé, Rachel Simon. Happy birthday to both!

When we get back from Sand Island we hope to visit the four lighthouses (on three islands) in the Apostles that we have not yet been to. That will take about a week. Then, in the last half of September, we are going to take the "Circle Tour" of Lake Superior (leaving the trailer in Washburn). That may take 10 to 15 days but we will be sure to get back to Washburn in plenty of time for the Apple Fest in Bayfield the first weekend in October. After Apple Fest we will depart for home.

That's the summary of where we are going next week and next month, now let's look back to recap where we went last week on the final leg of our "really-get-to-know" tour of Wisconsin.

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Taliesin III, twice rebuilt after fires.

I reserved the tickets for the tour of Frank Loyd Wright's Wisconsin home, Taliesin, some six months ago, so it was no accident that we ended up in Spring Green, Wisconsin last week for the tour of the house. However, we had no idea how interwoven the works of one of America's most prolific architects would become in our travels this summer as we repeatedly, but accidentally, stumbled on some of FLW's best-known projects; the Unitarian Church in Madison, the Johnson Company campus in Racine and the Dana-Thomas house in Springfield where Betsy picked up a book that delved into the murders and fires that occurred at Taliesin more than a century ago (a sordid but fascinating tale; Google if interested).

Regionally speaking, we gave short shrift to southwest Wisconsin when planning our "really-get-to-know" tour but after spending just two days there we agreed that it may be the most beautiful (certainly the hilliest) part of the state. When the glaciers leveled out most of of present-day Wisconsin and retreated they left behind silt and rock deposits that geologists call "drift". However, the glaciers meandered around the Paleozoic plateau that is present-day southwest Wisconsin and, thus, never retreated from it and, thus, did not leave behind any drift. Therefore the region is known today, geologically speaking, as the "Driftless Area".

FLW's view of "driftless" Wisconsin.

For a self-described "organic architect" that loved to harmonically knit his structures into the natural environment the "driftless" hills along the Wisconsin River just south of Spring Green were an ideal place for Wright to build his house and studio. But that's probably not the primary reason why he selected the site for Taliesin (a welsh word that means "shining brow" and is also the name of a sixth-century Welsh poet and bard). The property was adjacent to a family farm where he had spent several summers as a boy growing up in Madison and his mother purchased it for him.

We also visited an eclectic state historic site in the town of Mineral Point where the homes of some Cornish immigrant lead miners transitioned into a depression era restaurant that lasted until 1970.

From southwest Wisconsin we "drifted" north to Superior (both the city and the lake) to attend the Tall Ships Festival in Duluth which, counter intuitively, featured a gigantic rubber duck. It was a beautiful day and a nice way for us to get to know a little more about Duluth (even if it isn't in Wisconsin).

A lot of people went to see the tall ships.

Others went to see the duck.

Duluth sits at the southernmost, westernmost end of Lake Superior.

We also toured this "laker", a 600+-foot ship built by U.S. Steel in 1938 to carry iron ore from western Lake Superior ports to the steel mills on the shores of eastern Great Lakes. It looks big (and it is) but it is also obsolete and has been replaced by much larger and more efficient ships. The William A. Irvin (named for a U.S. Steel president) is now a museum and sits permanently in the Duluth harbor.

Fairs fare fairly well in Pasley rankings (which are, of course, fair and balanced)

After seeing this at the Indiana State Fair we were afraid to ask about the transgender bathrooms.

Have you ever gone to the pet store to buy food for a goldfish that you secretly want to flush down the toilet and instead come very close to coming home with a puppy?

We had a similar experience in Indiana. 

We went to Indiana, basically, to have a place to park the trailer while we were in Chicago, to visit our last of the four national lakeshores, and to check another state fair off of our list. That was it. Our expectations were low. We certainly did not expect to be tempted to like this obscure little state that most people only go through because it is on the way to somewhere.

But then, like the puppy in the window of the pet shop, cute little Indiana stared up at us with its big brown eyes and its little tail wagging furiously and, before we could bark out the word “Hoosier”, we were very nearly overcome with a hankering to “really get to know” this surprisingly appealing state.

For starters there was more of the serendipity that seems to be following us around on this trip. It is the 50^th anniversary of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, the 100^th anniversary of the Indiana State Park system, the 150^th anniversary of the Indiana State Fair, and 2016 is the State of Indiana’s bicentennial, marking 200 years of statehood.

Combine all of that with a first-class state fair, a solid state capitol, an impressive effort by the City of Indianapolis to create a dynamic downtown and a fabulous Indiana Historical Society Museum and we were hooked. It was all we could do to leave Indiana and move on to the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. 

The state fair was much better than we thought it would be. In fact, despite some serious drawbacks regarding prudish beer rules, annoying tractors and no sky ride we vaulted Indiana into fourth place on the list of 14 state fairs that we have attended in recent years (note, this count includes the Illinois State Fair which will be discussed later in the post).

The tractor-pulled shuttle seems like a good idea but gets a little annoying after a while.

Despite its shortcomings in important criteria like beer and sky rides the Indiana Fair had excellent buildings, a great layout, good food and interesting, diverse exhibits that combined to vault it past the more crowded, beer-friendly, sky-ride-possessing Wisconsin State Fair; and even had it nipping at the heels of the vaunted Iowa State Fair.

State	Rank
Minnesota	1
Texas	2
Iowa	3
Indiana	4
Wisconsin	5
Illinois	6
Kentucky	7
Oregon	8
Washington	9
Idaho	10
Wyoming	11
Florida	12
Colorado	13
Georgia	14

 

I'm not sure what it says about either state, but Indiana had to bring in someone from Wisconsin to cut their cheese.

Here's a close up.

The blue ribbon sunflower.

The blue ribbon eggplant.

Hands down, Indiana has the best hand-washing sinks of any state fair.

There was an entire herd (one from every county in the state) of Indiana "bison-tennial" buffalo.

Who knew?

The Grand Champion sow and her litter were just chilling, resting on their laurels (so to speak).

Meanwhile the reserve champions were chomping at the bit to catch up. Check out this video of the reserve champion sow and litter.
  
Similar to the fair, downtown Indianapolis was a pleasant surprise and, had it not been raining, we probably would have ridden our bikes there from the fair. We took a kitschy tour of the state capitol and, fortunately, stopped at the Indiana Historical Society Museum, mainly because we got a free ticket at the fair. It was fantastic, with some of the best interactive exhibits of any museum we've ever visited.

Betsy learned all about canning (or is jarring) at one exhibit built around the history of the Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company in Muncie that made the famous mason jars with sand mined from the dunes on Lake Michigan.

A three-level photo of the beautiful Historical Society building.

A Tenderloin sandwich, the Indiana state food.

This is Indianapolis? Well, it sure isn't Venice. Nor is it San Antonio. But Indianapolis has done a pretty fair job of making this canal into a pleasant, park-like amenity.

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time but a proliferation of large war monuments (like this one honoring veterans of the World War) gives downtown Indianapolis a heavy, dated feel.

This newer monument to the USS Indianapolis and a 9-11 memorial, both located near the canal, are more understated. Shortly after delivering parts for the first atomic bomb to an airbase at Tinian in 1945 the Indianapolis, with a crew of 1,196, was hit by two torpedoes and sank in a matter of minutes, putting more than 900 surviving sailors in the water. However, rescue from the shark-infested waters took more than four days and only 317 survived.

Obscured by taller buildings, there are not very many views of the Indiana Capitol.

Our tour guide proudly displayed the Indiana flag, 19 stars for the 19th state.

At first it seemed a little cheesy that Indiana rents out its capitol building on weekends for weddings; but it might be something Illinois should consider?

Then we moved on to Illinois where the residents seem a little surprised that the nearly bankrupt state is still open, much less that it still has a state fair. Indeed there is a palpable melancholy among many people that we talked to at the sorry state of state affairs, and that angst was underscored by flooding in a portion of the fairgrounds just prior to our arrival and a prolonged power outage during our stay. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry liked to talk about the (fracking-fueled) "Texas Miracle" and we've adapted that to the "Illinois Miracle; it's a miracle the state is still open".

Springfield is, of course, Abraham Lincoln's adopted hometown, final resting place, the state capital and the site of the state fair. 

Betsy is letting everyone know this is her 14th state fair.

We always like to get to know the locals.

Former State Senator Barack Obama (D-Chicago) sat in the middle seat of the back row of the middle section.

We were skeptical when the tour guide said it, but we checked on the internet so apparently it is true that the Illinois Capitol dome is the tallest in the country. Yes, taller even than Texas. Arrrgghhhh.

Nice house. Apparently Mr. Lincoln had a pretty successful law practice going here in Springfield.

Although it did not reach the high bar that Indiana had set, the Illinois Fair is a good one and it does have a great sky ride that we rode during a beautiful sunset. The capitol building is gorgeous and the Lincoln sites were well done and interesting, but probably the best thing about our three-day stay in Springfield was delivered by our old friend serendipity; the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Dana-Thomas House State Historical site.

This FLW house is much more than it appears to be from the street.

Wright designed the house in 1902 for widowed Susan Lawrence Dana, the daughter and heiress of a former governor who essentially gave Wright a blank check to "add-on" to an existing house on a large lot near downtown. The 35-room, 12,000-square-foot house has one of the largest collections of site-specific, original Wright art glass and furniture. Wright’s first “blank check” commission, the home has 35 rooms in the 12,000 square feet of living space spread out over 16 varying levels. It is considered one of the best preserved and most complete examples of Wright's prairie-style homes. 

The website said the house was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays  but when we stopped by on a rainy Monday it was open (a not altogether unexpected snafu for a site operated by the State of Illinois) and we got a fantastic, personal tour. Unfortunately, photos are not allowed inside the house but trust us, it was fabulous.

Despite all of its problems Illinois was still able to afford this butter cow sculpture.

Wow, what a sky ride!

Another really cool thing that we stumbled onto was the weekly flag retreat that is performed at the Lincoln Tomb by the reactivated (from Civil War days) 114th Regiment of the Illinois Volunteer Infantry. We rode our bikes over from the fairgrounds for the 7 p.m. event and it was a great way to close out our stay in Springfield. Check out this short video of a portion of the ceremony.

Lincoln's tomb, a beautiful setting in a beautiful cemetery. We rode our bikes here from the fairgrounds for the flag ceremony.

At the flag ceremony I joked to Betsy that they should have the Lincoln impersonator walk out of the tomb and give a speech. If that were to happen and the real Lincoln was able to speak to us today, what do you think he would say?