 |
| The view out the window of the travel trailer at our summer "base camp" in Washburn, Wisconsin. |
The leaves have turned. Sprinkles of color have become splashes. Apples are red and ripe. The soybean and corn harvest is underway. Frost is near. It’s time (finally) for us to go home (or at least start, sort of, moving in that direction).
This means of course (as anyone who knows me already knows)
that it’s now time to summarize our summer in lists and rankings; plus a fair number of random, rambling, anecdotal
musings.
Where to begin? How about the beginning?
Last January when I began planning out the trip it seemed to
be shaping up as the most disjointed and least thematic in our series of “really-get-to-know-a-state" travels. For starters there were two tours of duty volunteering on Sand
Island in a remote corner of Wisconsin. And if we were going to visit Tex and
Rachel in Chicago shouldn’t we go to the Illinois State Fair? And if we went to
that ISF why not go to the ISF next door (in Indiana)? And if we are going as
far east as Indianapolis why not go another 100 miles down I-70 to Dayton, Ohio
to finish up our truncated 2014 R-G-T-K tour of Ohio? And, of course, there was a good-sized chunk of Wisconsin still that needed to get "really known".
On paper it seemed random and chaotic, yet somehow everything ended up tying
together in a big, beautiful bow of serendipity-connected threads that
began with our first seemingly-disconnected but unknowingly-connected stop in Galena, Illinois, en route
to Madison.
 |
| Galena, a word meaning "the main ore of lead" AND a city in Illinois that was a major 19th-Century lead mining center AND a Mississippi River port (even though it is not on the Mississippi River) AND home to Ulysses and Julia Grant AND a 21st-Century tourist destination. Galena is a surprisingly pleasant, interesting place with strong historic ties to the early settlement of Wisconsin that, serendipitously of course, turned out to be the perfect launching point for our summer-long stay in the Badger State. |
We stopped in Galena only because I had had a hankering to go there ever since reading a biography of Ulysses Grant a couple of years ago. Galena was Grant’s adopted hometown and, after the Civil War, the town gave him a nice house which he and his wife Julia enjoyed immensely. Basically, I just wanted to look at the house but in doing so we discovered that Galena is a beautiful, historic-but-also-trendy town that was a focal point of the 19th Century lead mining industry that brought the first immigrants to Wisconsin where their “badger-like” digging inspired the state’s nickname.
And that pretty much set the tone for the rest of the trip
as one stop unexpectedly related to another.
 |
| The Unitarian Meeting House near the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison was our first Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building of the summer, but it would not be the last. |
In Madison we heard the (tall?) tale of Frank Lloyd Wright being inspired to a career in architecture after witnessing the collapse of the state capitol building when he was a student at the University of Wisconsin so, on a whim, that story inspired us to bike over to look at a nearby Unitarian Church that Wright had designed. Little did we know that FLW's work would follow us around on the trip as we looked at numerous buildings he designed, including of course his own house, Taliesin, which we did not visit until August but which overlooks the Wisconsin River that was itself a prominent and connecting feature on many of our earlier tour stops in June and July.
And, speaking of people named Wright; the Wright Brothers were
contemporaries of FLW and the three men may have crossed paths at the Columbian
Exposition in Chicago in 1893, which of course left a lasting legacy there that we learned about while visiting the Chicago History Museum with
Tex and Rachel.
Still, going all the way over to Dayton seemed ridiculous
even as we were en route. But when we got there we both gained for the first
time a true appreciation of the enormity and significance of the pioneering
achievements of the eclectic Wright brothers and their unbelievable invention
and all that it has inspired.
Illogical as it may have seemed, Dayton turned out to be one
of the best stops of the summer.
 |
| Just a small sliver of the cavernous National Museum of the United State Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. |
Then of course there was the fallout from our last-minute decision
to stay for Bayfield’s Apple Fest on the first weekend in October. We had planned
to leave Wisconsin for Colorado in September after our second stint on Sand Island was finished. But once we decided to stick
around for Apple Fest we had plenty of time to check out the un-visited lighthouses
in the Apostle Islands; and drive the Circle Tour of Lake Superior; which led to the decision
to go to Mackinac Island in Michigan but still left enough time to attend the Ryder
Cup matches in Minnesota.
Improbably, but fortuitously, everything seems to have tied
together in a neat bow, and it’s been a great summer.
Ranking the "Stops"
To help us (and our readers) "recap and recall" we’ve divided our summer travels into inartfully named “Stops” (for those readers that have concerns about my use of the word “inartfully” please refer to this column by the late William Safire where- among other things - he mentions Clark Clifford who was a confidante of Harry Truman whose biography Betsy and I both read during stays on Sand Island; speaking of serendipitous threads, not to mention parenthetical run-on sentences).
To help us (and our readers) "recap and recall" we’ve divided our summer travels into inartfully named “Stops” (for those readers that have concerns about my use of the word “inartfully” please refer to this column by the late William Safire where- among other things - he mentions Clark Clifford who was a confidante of Harry Truman whose biography Betsy and I both read during stays on Sand Island; speaking of serendipitous threads, not to mention parenthetical run-on sentences).
However “inartfull” the nomenclature may be, the ranking of
these “Stops” was definitely an art rather than a science as we took into
account the overall “feel” of the stop. For instance, Dayton is certainly not
going to rank on anyone’s list of best cities and we stayed miles out of town
in a non-descript KOA (albeit with really, really nice bathrooms). However, as
previously mentioned, we loved the Wright Brothers stuff and the Air Force
Museum and were pleasantly surprised when our stop at an out-of-the-way brew pub
in a pouring rain yielded one of the best meals on the entire trip. Thus when
we mixed these many pros with the city's inherent cons the "stop" in Dayton
got a solid #5 ranking.
 |
| Door County, the cherry "stop" in a summer full of sweet ones. |
With its laid-back ambiance, good food, great beer, beautiful scenery, solid RV “resort” campground, pleasant weather and excellent tour of Lambeau Field in Green Bay, our stop in Door County, Wisconsin was an easy choice for the #1 ranking. Not insignificantly I need to mention that Door County also yielded – hands down, no contest – the best brat on the entire trip (a singular but by no means insignificant honor).
We ate a lot of brats, of course, while we were in Wisconsin.
However, because it’s normally difficult to distinguish one brat from another (they’re
all good, right?) we did not bother ranking them. Yet there was one brat that stood out.
While we were waiting for the ferry to take us to Rock
Island State Park on the very tippy tip of the Door Peninsula we decided to get
a brat at a run-down-looking food stand that was the only place to get anything
to eat for miles around and was staffed by a bored teenage girl who could
barely be bothered to look up from her book (something by some guy named
Steinbeck). The older woman cooking in the back (probably the girl's mother) threw
something on the grill and after five minutes or so we paid a few bucks for the brat,
some drinks and chips. Expectations were low when we sat down at a rickety picnic table and bit into the best brat either of us has ever eaten (and we've eaten a lot of them). The perfectly-seasoned meat on a soft, fresh bun at a beautiful place on a pleasant day added “Best Brat” to the slew of other things that made our "stop" in Door
County the best of the summer .
In fact, we liked Door County so much that it has made our short list of places that we might go back to if we ever decide to do a tour of favorite places we’ve been.
In fact, we liked Door County so much that it has made our short list of places that we might go back to if we ever decide to do a tour of favorite places we’ve been.
Every list has to have a bottom of course, and even though
our stop in Duluth for the Tall Ships Festival ended up at the bottom of our
list of “Stops” that does not mean we didn’t enjoy this lovely city on a pretty day. While the festival (which ranked 15th on our list of 17 special events) was crowded and not particularly interesting, we did take an
informative tour of a 600-foot dry-docked ore boat and ate some fried cheese curds that
ranked somewhere near the middle of the 16 different places where we ate curds
(although it probably didn’t help that the Friday Fish Fry the night before at
Barker’s Island in Superior, WI ranked 8th out of eight on that list).
Arbitrary as it may be, from Door County to Duluth, here’s our ranked list of
“Stops”:
"Stop"
|
State
|
Rank
|
Door County
|
Wisconsin
|
1
|
Madison
|
Wisconsin
|
2
|
Bayfield Peninsula
|
Wisconsin
|
3
|
Milwaukee
|
Wisconsin
|
4
|
Dayton
|
Ohio
|
5
|
Lake Superior CT/Mackinac Island
|
WI, MN, ONT, MI
|
6
|
Sheboygan-Kohler
|
Wisconsin
|
7
|
Springfield
|
Illinois
|
8
|
Taliesin Area
|
Wisconsin
|
9
|
Indianapolis
|
Indiana
|
10
|
Chicago/Indiana Dunes
|
Illinois/Indiana
|
11
|
Wisconsin Dells
|
Wisconsin
|
12
|
Chippewa/Eau Clair
|
Wisconsin
|
13
|
Wausau
|
Wisconsin
|
14
|
Galena
|
Illinois
|
15
|
Chaska/Mankato/Ryder Cup
|
Minnesota
|
16
|
Duluth/Superior
|
Minnesota/Wisconsin
|
17
|
We also loved Madison, which reminds us a lot of what Austin
used to be like before it reminded us of Los Angeles. The Bayfield Peninsula is, of course, our “summer
home” and a comfortable, beautiful, low-key place with lots of favorite haunts (and not a single stop light). Milwaukee
was a solid and surprising choice for the #4 ranking. We loved the Hank Aaron
bike trail, the downtown waterfront, the art museum and Miller Park, one of the
best venues in baseball. Like Springfield and Indianapolis, Milwaukee’s ranking
benefited from having a state fair included in the "stop" but it also got a boost from German
Fest, our top-ranked “Special Event”.
The Cheese Curd Rankings
Similar to brats, one fried cheese curd can sometimes be difficult to distinguish from another. They’re all good, right? However, when you get a really good, fresh, lightly-breaded, right-out-of-the-fryer curd there can be some separation from the pack. So we ranked the top five curd providers of the summer (including our very own Betsy Pasley who submitted her entry here in Washburn just a few days ago) and lumped the remaining 11 as either in the “middle” or at the “bottom” of the list.
Similar to brats, one fried cheese curd can sometimes be difficult to distinguish from another. They’re all good, right? However, when you get a really good, fresh, lightly-breaded, right-out-of-the-fryer curd there can be some separation from the pack. So we ranked the top five curd providers of the summer (including our very own Betsy Pasley who submitted her entry here in Washburn just a few days ago) and lumped the remaining 11 as either in the “middle” or at the “bottom” of the list.
Fried
Cheese Curds
|
Location
|
Rank
|
Curd Girl Food Truck
|
Madison, WI
|
1
|
Betsy Pasley's Homemade Curds
|
Washburn, Wisconsin
|
2
|
Harley-Davidson Museum
|
Milwaukee, WI
|
3
|
Voyageurs Brewery
|
Grand Marais, MN
|
4
|
Stone Arch Brew House
|
Appleton, WI
|
5
|
Lutheran Church Booth @ Colby
Cheese Festival
|
Colby, WI
|
middle
|
Village Inn
|
Cornucopia, WI
|
middle
|
Brat House Grill
|
Wisconsin Dells, WI
|
middle
|
Wisconsin State Fair
|
West Allis, WI
|
middle
|
The Sports Garden
|
Duluth, MN
|
middle
|
Boulder Tap House
|
Mankato, MN
|
middle
|
Express Baseball Game
|
Eau Claire, WI
|
bottom
|
Timber Rattlers Stadium
|
Appleton, WI
|
bottom
|
Big Deal Burgers
|
West Allis, WI
|
bottom
|
Culver's
|
Ashland, WI
|
bottom
|
Draught House
|
Mackinac Island, MI
|
bottom
|
The Beer Drinking Venue Rankings
As dedicated readers of this blog can no doubt appreciate, it has been a daunting task just keeping track of our many beer-drinking venues, much less ranking them. Nonetheless we put our noses to the grindstone, buckled down and came up with a list of 42 separate, non-festival-related business establishments (both private and public) where we quaffed a cold one on this trip (please know that we also had something to eat at several of these places). We've ranked the top five and allowed the others to float below as NR (not ranked).
Beer
Drinking Venues
|
Location
|
Rank
|
University of WI Union Terrace
|
Madison, WI
|
1
|
Humboldt County Park Beer Garden
|
Milwaukee, WI
|
2
|
Patsy's Bar
|
Washburn, WI
|
3
|
Draught House
|
Mackinac Island, MI
|
4
|
Lock 27 Brewing
|
Dayton, OH
|
5
|
3 Sheeps Brewing
|
Sheboygan, WI
|
NR
|
Pier Plaza
|
Bayfield, WI
|
NR
|
Sawmill Brewing
|
Merrill, WI
|
NR
|
Shipwrecked
|
Egg Harbor, WI
|
NR
|
Tom's Burned Down Café
|
La Pointe, WI
|
NR
|
Village Inn
|
Cornucopia, WI
|
NR
|
Stone Arch Brew House
|
Appleton, WI
|
NR
|
Liquid Johnny's
|
West Allis, WI
|
NR
|
Miller Field
|
Milwaukee, WI
|
NR
|
St. Francis Brewpub
|
St. Francis, WI
|
NR
|
Elbow Room
|
Indianapolis, IN
|
NR
|
Brewery Creek Inn
|
Mineral Point, WI
|
NR
|
Canal Park Brewing Co.
|
Duluth, MN
|
NR
|
Voyageurs Brewing
|
Grand Marais, MN
|
NR
|
The Foundry
|
Thunder Bay, ONT
|
NR
|
Michigan House Café & Brew Pub
|
Calumet, MI
|
NR
|
The Creamery
|
Bayfield, WI
|
NR
|
Red Eye Brewery
|
Wausau, WI
|
NR
|
Plymouth Brewing
|
Plymouth, WI
|
NR
|
Door County Brewing
|
Baily's Harbor, WI
|
NR
|
Brat House Grill
|
Wisconsin Dells, WI
|
NR
|
Moosejaw Brew Pub
|
Wisconsin Dells, WI
|
NR
|
Edge Pub
|
Chippewa Falls, WI
|
NR
|
Sheeley House Saloon
|
Chippewa Falls, WI
|
NR
|
Leiny Lodge
|
Chippewa Falls, WI
|
NR
|
Mike's Port Pub
|
Baily's Harbor, WI
|
NR
|
Draft House
|
Springfield, IL
|
NR
|
Camp 33
|
Tahquamenon SP, MI
|
NR
|
Bight
|
Thunder Bay, Ontario
|
NR
|
Reefpoint Brew House
|
Racine, WI
|
NR
|
Paulies Pub
|
West Allis, WI
|
NR
|
Sports Garden
|
Duluth,MN
|
NR
|
Fred & Fuzzy's
|
Sister Bay, WI
|
NR
|
Quartino's
|
Chicago, IL
|
NR
|
Uncommon Ground
|
Chicago, IL
|
NR
|
Hopleaf Bar
|
Chicago, IL
|
NR
|
DryHop Brewers
|
Chicago, IL
|
NR
|
Obviously the beer has got to be pretty darn good for one of
these venues to make the Top 5 but there were a lot of places with good beer. To crack the Top 5
a venue needed something special to separate it from the pack.
As previously indicated Lock 27 in Dayton, the #5-ranked
venue, had the advantage of being a total but very pleasant surprise when we
found it in a suburban strip center on a rainy evening after a long day
of exploring aeronautical history. If our expectations had been higher it’s possible
our ranking may have been a little lower.
When we are traveling in other states we like to drink beers
that were brewed in that state. Thus when we found out that the #4-ranked Draught
House on Mackinac Island serves only Michigan-brewed beers - and has a whopping
50 of them on tap - it rocketed into the Top 5.
 |
| Patsy's Bar in Washburn, Wisconsin. Cold beer that we like, on tap. Great food. "Up North" ambiance. Close to home. Enough said. |
The #3-ranked Patsy’s Bar in Washburn is the quintessential, small-town, northern Wisconsin bar that caters to locals (which we kind of sort of consider ourselves to be). The owner is friendly, the food is diverse and very good, it’s a short walk/drive from “home”, and it has several beers that we like on tap.
We could not believe it when we read that Milwaukee County
has outdoor beer gardens in some of its parks. What a concept! And they’ve had
them now for more than century!! While we were gone from Texas, one of our own Bexar County
Commissioners was arrested for DWI at 3 a.m. in the drive-thru lane of a
Whataburger wearing nothing but his underwear. Maybe we can get him to include
a “beer-in-parks” plank in his re-election campaign platform? #2-ranked
Humboldt County Park is a lovely place, it was a beautiful day, the beer
was great and we managed to make it home with our clothes on.
 |
| Our kind of parks and recreation. |
In a similar vein, the #1-ranked terrace at the student union
that overlooks Lake Mendota in the heart of the University of Wisconsin campus was splashed with sunshine on a beautiful day when we
stopped there for beers after a great day spent biking around Madison. Great
beer at a fantastic venue on a beautiful day will always be a winning
combination.
The Special Event Rankings
State Fairs have their own list, which has already been ranked and discussed in a previous post. If we had included this summer's three state fairs in the ranking of "Special Events" they would easily have snagged the top three slots, so that seemed pointless.
The German Festival in a beautiful lake shore park in downtown Milwaukee was really the only other event with the muscle and substance to challenge the state fairs. The Apple Fest in Bayfield was a solid second place. The remaining events were either much smaller (Colby, Plymouth, Chicago Hot Dog) and/or less appealing because they either had too much of something or not enough. For instance, the Brat Fest in Madison was really big with lots of people and beer and brats and loud music blaring from multiple venues. But, after a couple of brats and some beers, there wasn't much left to "fest", other than one loud band playing over another loud band. On other end of the scale, the German Night in Plymouth, Wisconsin (near Sheboygan) was very low key with a high school band wearing German clothing and playing traditional German music. It was fun and a great opportunity to get to know some of the locals but it was not exactly the kind of event that quickens the pulse and makes a lasting impression.
The Friday Fish Fry Rankings
The Friday Fish Fry is a tradition in Wisconsin. Sometimes it's cod, usually it is all-you-can-eat and occasionally there is an option for grilled instead of fried. Every once-in-a-while there is an option for shrimp, which always prompts Betsy to mischievously ask the waiter; "Is the shrimp local?"
But the "typical" Friday Fish Fry is anchored by battered, deep-fried, fresh-caught whitefish from either Lake Superior or Lake Michigan and is served with creamy cole slaw and a potato option.
Our de facto, go-to place for Friday Fish Fry is the touristy Pier Plaza in downtown Bayfield. However, we have a bias toward off-the-beaten-path places favored by locals and that predilection helped vault the Fraternal Order of Eagles Lodge in Merrill, Wisconsin to the number one slot in the rankings (the quirky role that the F. O. Eagles played in a quasi-landmark Supreme Court establishment clause case probably didn't hurt).
Although Betsy chose to order the fried shrimp (a rare Friday Fish Fry option) at the F.O.E. Lodge I had the whitefish and it was spectacular; flaky, moist, fresh, with a perfectly-breaded, crisp crust.
Merrill itself is a small town on the Wisconsin River in the north-central part of the state, well off the beaten path. The F.O.E. Lodge is even further off that path, tucked back in a far corner of the little town. But the place was hopping on a Friday night and provided the quintessential setting for a true Wisconsin Friday Fish Fry. When you throw in the fact that Betsy said the shrimp "tasted fresh", F.O.E. gets our nod for first place over Pier Plaza.
Having said all of the above there was a late entry by the Bayfield Volunteer Fire Department on Saturday during Apple Fest that had all but one of the essential elements needed to rank first on the Friday Fish Fry list, including - hands down - the tastiest fried fish of the summer.
Anecdotal Political Yard Sign Observations
We try to avoid getting into political discussions with strangers, and the locals seem equally cautious. However, our anecdotal observations of roadside signs seem to track with the polls that show former Democratic U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold well ahead in his quest to regain the seat now held by Republican incumbent Ron Johnson. The "Russ" signs have been out in abundance all summer and there seem to be more of them every day. There are fewer signs for the presidential candidates and they seem to be more evenly divided than the senate contest, but those too have been increasing in recent days and the majority around these parts seem to favor Clinton.
Trump seemed to have a slight edge in signs in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan but there were, perhaps, more Clinton signs than might be expected in an area where demographics would seem to favor Trump.
In our relatively brief travels in Minnesota Trump seemed to have a slight advantage in yard signs.
Final Days in Wisconsin
We closed out our stay here with the Apple Fest in Bayfield this weekend and it was a great event with beautiful weather.
 |
| The #1-ranked beer-drinking venue of the summer was the University of Wisconsin's Union Terrace. |
The Special Event Rankings
State Fairs have their own list, which has already been ranked and discussed in a previous post. If we had included this summer's three state fairs in the ranking of "Special Events" they would easily have snagged the top three slots, so that seemed pointless.
The German Festival in a beautiful lake shore park in downtown Milwaukee was really the only other event with the muscle and substance to challenge the state fairs. The Apple Fest in Bayfield was a solid second place. The remaining events were either much smaller (Colby, Plymouth, Chicago Hot Dog) and/or less appealing because they either had too much of something or not enough. For instance, the Brat Fest in Madison was really big with lots of people and beer and brats and loud music blaring from multiple venues. But, after a couple of brats and some beers, there wasn't much left to "fest", other than one loud band playing over another loud band. On other end of the scale, the German Night in Plymouth, Wisconsin (near Sheboygan) was very low key with a high school band wearing German clothing and playing traditional German music. It was fun and a great opportunity to get to know some of the locals but it was not exactly the kind of event that quickens the pulse and makes a lasting impression.
Special
Events
|
Location
|
Rank
|
German Fest
|
Milwaukee, WI
|
1
|
Apple Fest
|
Bayfield, WI
|
2
|
Lincoln Grave Flag Ceremony
|
Springfield, IL
|
3
|
Devils Island Lighthouse Tour
|
Bayfield County WI
|
4
|
German Night
|
Plymouth, WI
|
5
|
Michigan Island Lighthouse Tour
|
Bayfield County WI
|
6
|
Chequamegon Bay Lighthouses
|
Bayfield County WI
|
7
|
Quincy Copper Mine Tour
|
Quincy, MI
|
8
|
Ryder Cup
|
Chaska, MN
|
9
|
Outer Island Lighthouse Trip
|
Bayfield County WI
|
10
|
Brat Fest
|
Madison, WI
|
11
|
Big Top Chataqua Orchestra
|
Bayfield County WI
|
12
|
Bike Week Kickoff
|
Madison, WI
|
13
|
Chicago Hot Dog Fest
|
Chicago, IL
|
14
|
Tall Ships Festival
|
Duluth, MN
|
15
|
Colby Cheese Days
|
Colby, WI
|
16
|
Peninsula Players-Agatha Christie
|
Door County, WI
|
17
|
The Friday Fish Fry Rankings
The Friday Fish Fry is a tradition in Wisconsin. Sometimes it's cod, usually it is all-you-can-eat and occasionally there is an option for grilled instead of fried. Every once-in-a-while there is an option for shrimp, which always prompts Betsy to mischievously ask the waiter; "Is the shrimp local?"
But the "typical" Friday Fish Fry is anchored by battered, deep-fried, fresh-caught whitefish from either Lake Superior or Lake Michigan and is served with creamy cole slaw and a potato option.
Our de facto, go-to place for Friday Fish Fry is the touristy Pier Plaza in downtown Bayfield. However, we have a bias toward off-the-beaten-path places favored by locals and that predilection helped vault the Fraternal Order of Eagles Lodge in Merrill, Wisconsin to the number one slot in the rankings (the quirky role that the F. O. Eagles played in a quasi-landmark Supreme Court establishment clause case probably didn't hurt).
Although Betsy chose to order the fried shrimp (a rare Friday Fish Fry option) at the F.O.E. Lodge I had the whitefish and it was spectacular; flaky, moist, fresh, with a perfectly-breaded, crisp crust.
Merrill itself is a small town on the Wisconsin River in the north-central part of the state, well off the beaten path. The F.O.E. Lodge is even further off that path, tucked back in a far corner of the little town. But the place was hopping on a Friday night and provided the quintessential setting for a true Wisconsin Friday Fish Fry. When you throw in the fact that Betsy said the shrimp "tasted fresh", F.O.E. gets our nod for first place over Pier Plaza.
Friday
Fish Fry
|
Location
|
Rank
|
F.O.E. Lodge
|
Merrill, WI
|
1
|
Pier Plaza
|
Bayfield, WI
|
2
|
Patsy's Bar
|
Washburn, WI
|
3
|
Mike's Port Pub
|
Baily's Harbor, WI
|
4
|
Camp 33
|
Tahquamenon SP, MI
|
5
|
Liquid Johnny's
|
Milwaukee, WI
|
6
|
Sheely House Saloon
|
Chippewa Falls, WI
|
7
|
Barker's Island
|
Superior, WI
|
8
|
Having said all of the above there was a late entry by the Bayfield Volunteer Fire Department on Saturday during Apple Fest that had all but one of the essential elements needed to rank first on the Friday Fish Fry list, including - hands down - the tastiest fried fish of the summer.
 |
| Sorry Bayfield VFD. If you did this a day earlier you could have been #1 on the Friday Fish Fry list. |
 |
| Great fish but on the wrong day. |
We try to avoid getting into political discussions with strangers, and the locals seem equally cautious. However, our anecdotal observations of roadside signs seem to track with the polls that show former Democratic U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold well ahead in his quest to regain the seat now held by Republican incumbent Ron Johnson. The "Russ" signs have been out in abundance all summer and there seem to be more of them every day. There are fewer signs for the presidential candidates and they seem to be more evenly divided than the senate contest, but those too have been increasing in recent days and the majority around these parts seem to favor Clinton.
Trump seemed to have a slight edge in signs in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan but there were, perhaps, more Clinton signs than might be expected in an area where demographics would seem to favor Trump.
In our relatively brief travels in Minnesota Trump seemed to have a slight advantage in yard signs.
Final Days in Wisconsin
We closed out our stay here with the Apple Fest in Bayfield this weekend and it was a great event with beautiful weather.
 |
 |
| The Apple Fest parade in downtown Bayfield. |
 |
| Goodbye Wisconsin. It's been a great summer! |
