Wisconsin

After Chicago we headed up to Madison, Wisconsin and got stuck in heavy rain which delayed our arrival. We decided to set up camp at Tower Hill State Park where we "roughed" it. There were no showers or sinks and the bathroom was pretty atrocious but I'm sure there will be worse. After setting up camp we drove down the road to the small town of Spring Green whose population is 1,444. We drove past "Fun Festival" which was a bunch of guys playing baseball and drinking Coors Light before we found ourselves in The Shed, a local restaurant. Our servers were extremely friendly and we tried some local beers, our favorite being the Lake Louie Warped Speed Scotch Ale, a nice dark beer with a smooth finish. For dinner I had a four cheese grilled cheese with onion on marble bread and Jack had a portabello grilled sandwich. Both were delicious. After having dinner we walked across the street to a local art gallery where I bought my first pieces of art! Small collages on 4x4 squares of canvas created from clippings of advertisements in architecture and music magazines. There was 100 pieces total in the collection and I purchased four of them.

The next morning the lighting was so bad and frequent that for thirty minutes we were laying on the center of the air mattress keeping as low as possible without putting our feet on the ground or near the metal poles holding the tent up. The lighting was so close  at times that the inside of the tent lit up in reddish hues, which was as awesome as it was frightening. We sprung some minor leaks and will need to add some water proof sealant to the seals in our tent in the near future. We were relieved however that the tent withstood some pretty strong winds. So, thank you Kelty!

After the hurricane like weather we headed to Grandma Mary's cafe for breakfast before heading to the House on the Rock per suggestion of Jack's grandfather. It was enormous, overwhelming and fantastic to say in the least. The rooms are filled with odds and ends such as antique guns, the worlds largest indoor carousel, doll houses and music machines (which are giant robotic orchestras which orchestrate themselves). After our 3.5 hour tour of the house we headed to downtown Madison to grab some lunch at Monty's Blue Plate Diner which offers a numerous amount of vegetarian dishes. I would highly recommend the barbecue seitan sandwich with dill mustard sauce and the spicy curly fries. Unfortunately, we didn't kick around Madison for too long because the weather forecast wasn't looking good and we decided that a tent was probably not the best shelter for the evening. We stayed at a motel in Eau Claire only to turn on the TV to get interrupted by a tornado warning. Fortunately for us we did not experience any tornadic activity, but one did touch down twenty miles away and we saw the lighting off in the distance from that very same super cell.

House on the Rock Collection, center is 280 carats.

Overall Wisconsin is a very friendly state. Madison, from what we saw seems to be a clean city which has a large amount of bikers. But the heart of Wisconsin lies within the farmers whose perfectly plowed fields and hard work provide a lush and engaging scenery while driving. People don't hesitate to talk with you here which is a nice change from the complete disconnect of Manhattan.