Boy, time sure gets away from me easily. Every day I tell myself to stop and update the blog with all the happenings..but between working and "playing tourist" time just goes by faster and faster. We spent the last week in Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton. These small towns bisected by the Wisconsin River are a popular destination for many folks in the state.
The Wisconsin River in the Dells is divided into the "Lower Dells" and the "Upper Dells." The areas are separated by a power dam. A traditional boat tour along the "Upper Dells" was highly recommended, and that is the trip we took on Monday.
There were two stops, one at mystic Witches Gulch, the other at "Stand Rock," possibly the most famous site in the Dells. This tour lasted over two hours and was excellent. We glided along observing sandstone rock cliffs on each side that have been formed by water and wind erosion over many many years. Majestic strands of towering pine trees located along the sandstone bluffs add greatly to the scenic wonder of the area. We were told to watch for Eagles but sorry to say never caught a glimpse of one.
At the first stop we walked for a couple of blocks into the Witches Gulch. Named by Indians because they believed the area was "haunted". It certainly was spooky enough to be.
At the second stop we were again allowed to leave the boat to walk through the woods. We stopped at a point where we looked up and marveled at an amazing rock formation called Stand Rock. It is 5 1/2 feet from a nearby bluff, but it stands all alone. On the bluff a remarkable dog awaited us and his master's command to leap from the safety of the bluff across a dangerous abyss onto the safety of the table rock and back. We all looked up in awe as this remarkable dog made his daring leap from the bluff to the Stand Rock, and back to the safety of the bluff. Everyone applauded this wondrous feat. This act commemorates H.H. Bennett's stop-action photo of his son Ashley leaping to Stand Rock in 1888. This picture proved to the photographic world that Mr Bennett had in deed created the stop action camera lens. Before this, subjects in pictures had to stand perfectly still at least 5 minutes while the picture "took". Can you imagine? No wonder our ancestors never smiled in their picture.
The Dells are now famous for being the "Water Park Capital of the World". I don't know if this is true or not but there are certainly a lot of parks. Every..every..every hotel has one. Each trying to "outdo" their neighbor offering more and different water slides and rides. And that doesn't even include the independent water parks like Mt Olympus or Noah's Ark. These were very popular and busy.
One day we went to a near-by Baraboo. This town is the home of the Circus World Museum. The museum has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the US Department of the Interior and is located at the site of the original Ringling Bros Circus winter quarters. We enjoyed three circus shows and walking through the many exhibits. The circus wagons on display were remarkable and the shows were excellent. Clowns, music, acrobatics and song.
We also took one day to drive down to Madison. Madison is the capital of Wisconsin and is uniquely placed with the streets running east and west between two lakes.
They have a pretty impressive capital building right in the middle of town.
While there we continued our search for bicycles and had lunch at Culvers. Culvers is a pretty good chain restaurant here in the mid west. They specialize in butterburgers and yummy ice cream. They also have pretty good BBQ pork ribs.
We bought a bicycle for me at Target in Madison. It is pink..a Schwinn with 7 speeds. So far I've made it around the campground a few times without incident.
We bought Gary a bike at Blain's Farm and Fleet in Baraboo. It is also a Schwinn ...red with 7 speeds too.
And they fit on the rack we've installed on the front of the house. Yippie!! We've been looking for bikes all summer.
On Friday we left the Dells and went south through the Wisconsin countryside. The area was very rural with many many farms along highway 23.
We stopped for the weekend at the Rustic Barn campground near Dubuque Iowa. Gary went to Dubuque a couple of years ago and wanted to go back to show me around. This town of about 60,000 residents is located on the Mississippi River. Unlike many towns in this state they didn't having any problems with flooding from the river in June. They are protected by a dike that did it's job.
Dubuque was very busy this Labor Day weekend. Many folks were visiting and enjoying the parks and the river. We saw many boats and jet skis on the water.
Today we moved about 345 miles from Iowa, through Illinois into Indiana. We're staying at a Thousand Trails Preserve in the middle of corn fields about 30 miles north of Terre Haute. Even though this is a VERY rural area, I have a very good internet signal. That makes it nice to work and update the blog. :)
I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Labor Day. Our prayers go out to those in the path of the hurricane.
Love to you all...stay safe and healthy...see you soon...North Carolina in October is coming day by day....quicker and quicker..
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