Tuesday, July 20, 2004 (Part 2)
Velkommen to Westby, Wisconsin
American Legion Veterans Memorial Flag Park
Richland Center is Wisconsin's Purple Heart City. The American
Legion Veterans Memorial Flag Park is located here, on Purple Heart
Memorial Highway, where each summer state and local dignitaries
part in a ceremony to give the awards to the men and women who have
earned that high honor. Richland Center is also the birthplace of
architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Maybe next time
The House on the Rock, in Spring Green, Wisconsin: In the 1940s
Alex Jordan, a self-proclaimed architect with no formal training,
decided to build a house for himself on a sandstone spire called
Deer Shelter Rock. People kept wanting to see what the oddball was
building, so he started charging admission. As visitors paid, he
kept adding on, and more visitors came. His obsession with building
his retreat on the rock turned into an obsession with collecting,
and as the collections grew, yet more people came. Mr. Jordan never
did live in his house, instead moving into his imagination. The
result today is beyond description. It's almost a museum, but more
fun and less informative. We spent three and half hours walking two
miles of walkways through dozens of rooms of ecclectic collections.
The most striking room is the Infinity Room, a glass-walled room
extending over the valley 218 feet, with no visible means of
support. A glass window in the floor provides a view of the forest
floor, more than 150 feet below. We also enjoyed the Music of
Yesterday, the greatest collection of automated music machines in
the world.
House on the Rock, Spring Green, Wisconsin
Infinity Room
Infinity Room from above
Musical automaton
Nice A$$!
Apocalyptic horseman
A billboard on the way to Madison adverised The Mustard Museum,
Home of Poupon U. We didn't have a chance to stop for a pic, but I
just had to mention it.
We stopped a little earlier than usual tonight, around 6:00,
because our heads were spinning from the House on the Rock
experience. Spent the night at a Comfort Inn outside Edgerton,
Wisconsin, and utilized the lovely heated indoor pool and jacuzzi.
Take-out dinner from Cousin's subs down the road - not a lot of
choices around here, but it was fine. In the midst of researching
Chicago hotels for the next couple nights, we decided just to skip
Chi-town and move on. Chicago will still be there later, and we
want to be able to give it the time it deserves. The remainder of
our trip should be a bit more leisurely now. Just 185 miles today,
but it was more than plenty.
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