Home

Unpacked. Presents for Zoe given. Mail sorted. Litter box cleaned. Trash to the curb.
In other words, back to reality.
Time for bed!

Night ride

I asked M to take me for a drive outside the Dells tonight, our last night in Wisconsin. He obliged.
I really enjoy hitting the road with no map or itinerary. Mostly because I so rarely get to do it in everyday life. It feels decadent. And it's always enjoyable.
He enjoyed the straightaway where he took the car up to 120 before backing off the throttle.
Okay, I enjoyed that part, too.
It's been fun, but we are ready to come home. I miss my sweet girl.

Clouds & Coaster

The House on the Rock

Holy insanity, Batman.
M said Alex Jordan, The House on the Rock's creator, was a kook like Frank Lloyd Wright. No way. Mr. Jordan was a bipolar schizophrenic nutjob with way too much money. FLLW was just an egomaniac. I went on sensory overload less than halfway through.
Still glad we went though. It's a once in a lifetime must see.

Wine run

A wine tasting and tour of Wollersheim winery. Let's just say the views and photo opps are better than the wine. But I did purchase some wine mustard. And stole lots of pictures and good memories.
Cell phone coverage up here has been horrendous at best, so my uploads are spotty and at odd times. Got tired of battling one bar of reception on the Edge network and gave up for awhile.

O, Taliesin!

Wisconsin is seriously beautiful. Taliesin is amazing. FLLW is a kook, but back to being adorably so in my mind. I can't be in his work and not like the man. I just can't.
An incredible experience today. A bucket list check-off. Am so, so lucky to be able to do these things. And to share them with my best friend. Even when he's too tall to fit comfortably inside the walls of Taliesin.
It means "shining brow," by the way. Taliesin is Welsh for shining brow. Which I knew already but didn't understand until today when I saw how he situated the house on the hill. Genius.
These are just iPhone snaps. Lots more (exterior only, unfortunately) with the Nikon, for processing after we return home.

Breakfast

at Paul Bunyan's Cook Shanty.
All you can eat family style.
Awesome.

Rainbow for Zoe

The last time I came to Wisconsin, for the 2010 sprint triathlon, I saw a rainbow for Zoe.
Now I'm back, and I'll be darned if I don't see another one my first night here.
I gotta bring my kid to Wisconsin, clearly.
Hard to see in this shot, but it's there. There was just no way a camera, any camera, would capture the beauty.

Passenger seat view

It's amazing what one can see from the passenger seat of a zippy car.
Well, okay, that last one was taken once we got here. I have a thing for ominous clouds.

More artsy-fartsy

But too in not to share.
BTW, I've had enough to drink tonight that it took me way too long to type in "artsy-fartsy" just now.
And damn, I had to do it twice!
First photo: "Have a gin & tonica"
Second photo: bridge (the word for today, boys and girls, is infrastructure)
Third photo: X (at an Illinois toll plaza)

Yay, us!

Well, us in a squished, distorted form in the side of a shiny tanker truck, but whatever.
Having a crapton of fun. And we just got here today!

Mighty Arrow

Mmmm. Belgian ale!
We're not local anymore.
But I'm beyond caring.

Oooo...new one!

Moved on to a Fat Squirrel.
In a Horny Goat glass.
We're all about the nature here in Wisconsin.

Local brew

Asked the barkeep to serve me his favorite local brew.
I'm drinking a Spotted Cow.
And it's good.
;-)

At the toll plaza

Does it cost more to take a tank on a toll road?!

Power in the fields

Silos

Road trip!

Probably not a lot of writing the next few days, but hopefully lots of pix.