Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Taking a road trip adventure to Wisconsin
It gets cold in Wisconsin. Wisconsin is one of the oddest states. It’s right up there in the top few states with its own personal flair of uniqueness similar to Florida.
Maybe it’s the extremes in weather, or maybe it’s all that bratwurst, either way going there is an adventure. Visiting Wisconsin is similar to visiting a foreign country, with its own distinctive style, without leaving America.
I visit family there once or twice per year, and Wisconsin is always a bit different. What follows are some observations about the weird and unique Badger State.
When the ice reached over a foot thick on Fox Lake, I drove my Prius on it. I was told by a wise man to drive with the windows open and not wear a seat belt. Thankfully, that advice was unneeded.
Although it’s probably just an excuse to drink beer on a frigid day, ice fishing is a blast. Rather than go by the feel of fish hitting the line, you watch a little flag pop up from inside a temporary tent or shanty.
On a clear day, which most are, you might drive 10 miles at a stretch without seeing anything but farms and asphalt. Oh my, they do keep you from missing that random stop sign in the middle of nowhere. Blinking lights, rumble strips and several stop signs often alert you that you are traveling through a rural intersection.
Traffic circles are common. There are rules here on who gets the right of way, but it doesn’t seem like it. Wisconsinites love these things; we passed through three circles within a few hundred yards of each other.
It might not seem like they belong anywhere but on an ocean shoreline, but there are a ton of lighthouses on the Great Lakes.
Incidentally, the state capital is in Madison and the city also goes by Mad City, Madtown, People’s Republic of Madison and Berkeley of the Midwest. Just sit through a week of political ads on TV before an election and you’ll discover everything you need to know about Wisconsin politics and the reason for those monikers.
There is a mustard museum in Madison and a bobble head museum in Milwaukee. In Milwaukee, outside at the Art Museum, there are a set of wings comparable to those on a Boeing 747. And they flap. ‘Nuff said.
In Wisconsin they use GPS-like coordinates for addresses. It started in 1957 and addresses are set north and south from lines. In Waukesha County, W182-S8200 is the address for Muskego’s city hall. It means that the building is 182 blocks west of the First Street line and 82 blocks south of a line parallel to I-94.
Figure it out? My GPS had a hard time with the system and I bet the pizza and Uber drivers struggle.
Many county roads are designated with letters rather than numbers. The county trunk system can be one, two or three letters and they are duplicated through the state.
You’ll hear from proud natives that there are more bars per capita here than any other state. You can play dice games at the bar and win everybody in the joint a drink. Or you can take a chance on rolling a single die and winning a shot from one of six brown paper bagged bottles of liquor. Best bar food: fish fry. No place in America pumps more diverse weirdness into a town with a population of under 10,000 than Sparta.
As the former home of an astronaut, the Deke Slayton Memorial Space and Bike Museum shouldn’t work but it does (Admission for seniors is $4).
You’ll find “Ben Bikin” the largest bike in the world — made from fiberglass — at 32 feet tall in Sparta. The town is referred to as the bicycle capital of America because the town was the first place to convert rails to trails.
And the town’s biggest attraction is the FAST Mold Graveyard. You’ll never wonder how the world’s largest bike was made from fiberglass again after shuffling along past hundreds of molds.
They grow the fish big out here. I saw a 177-pound sturgeon that was speared and pulled from Lake Winnebago. That’s bigger than most teenagers.
That catch included about 40 pounds of caviar and the fish might have been 200 years old. In Wisconsin, they cut a big hole with a chainsaw in the ice and place a shanty over it. Then they wait, while staring into the green abyss.
Cheese curds are yummy. When really fresh, they squeak. Bratwurst comes in dozens of flavors — including candy corn. A Midwestern treat, the butter burger, can be found at Culver’s.
The ice cream is delightful at the Babcock Dairy Store at the Ag School of University of Wisconsin, but in my humble opinion it’s better at Penn State’s Creamery. There are hundreds and hundreds of choices in the cheese aisle at the supermarket in this Dairy State.
Yes, they wear Cheese Heads at the uncovered stadium in Green Bay. And all around town on game day you can’t miss all that Packer garb.
In Milwaukee — land of Lenny and Squiggy — there is a life-sized Fonzie statue. Henry Winkler is not a tall guy.
Don’t miss the House on the Rock in Spring Green. There’s an infinity room here with 3,264 windows stretch over 218 feet. The last 140 feet are not supported except by a counterbalance of 105 yards of concrete, above the valley floor. There are a ton of music machines, some playing music automatically with a un-manned orchestra.
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright hails from this flyover state. His eastern home and headquarters, Taliesin, is located here. It’s special to enter one of these places with low entranceways and high ceilings inside. He even designed the furniture.
They will tell you on the tour how Wright’s mistress and six others here were murdered with an axe and by a gasoline fire.
Supper clubs are popular in rural sections of the state. Usually located in scenic areas, they offer specials on certain nights. Although you might have made reservations, you wait at the bar for several minutes with a drink until your table is set.
One of my fondest memories of Wisconsin was the small town social featuring a selection of about three dozen homemade pies. Should have skipped dinner. And to top it all off, about 10 community members serenaded us from a band shell.
Yes, Wisconsin is a bit different. And there something different to visit each trip. See you there.