Wisconsin: The Farmers and the Dells

The House on the Rock was the highlight of the Wisconsin trip for me. It is one of the most unique tourist attractions I've ever seen. Its themes seem to wander from exquisite collections to surreal Twilight Zone-ish creations. It totally overwhelmed our senses.

Our self-guided tour began with a short film on the life of Alex Jordan, the visionary/eccentric who created the House on the Rock originally as a vacation home in the 1940’s. In addition to being a skilled architect, Alex Jordan was also a collector of just about everything from weapons to dollhouses. During his lifetime, he added two warehouse buildings to store his collections and imaginative creations.

After the film, we toured the original vacation home. The home was built with low ceilings. I always felt like I was going scrape my head but I actually had more room than I perceived. The interior was dimly lit and smelled old. We saw and heard the first of many mechanical music contraptions we'd experience throughout the day. As the strange fusion of instruments played Ravel's Bolero, it reminded me of the robot instruments in Herbie Hancock's 80's music video, Rockit.

The highlight of the original vacation home is the Infinity room. This is a room that juts 218 feet out of the side of the house and over the forest without any underlying support. It has 3,624 windows and appears to extend infinitely - hence the name, Infinity Room. We walked as far as we were allowed into the room and had a look through the glass floor at the forest below. This was a little unnerving because the floor would sometimes bounce.

We continued to the other two buildings where we saw things such as the Streets of Yesterday, a life-sized replica of an early 1900's street. Throughout the premises, we saw everything from miniature collections to grandiose displays such as a sea creature sculpture the size of the Statue of Liberty turned on its side. In addition to the quality of the collections I saw, I was often astonished by the quantity. There are over 200 dollhouses in the multi-leveled Doll House Room. The Circus Room has collections of miniature circuses containing thousands of figurines.

Alex Jordan also collected many coin-operated machines such as fortune-telling machines or moving dolls. Along the way, we purchased tokens to insert into the machines and watch the short shows. As we moved along, the coin-operated gadgets got bigger and more elaborate. There is the Music of Yesterday collection that consists of rooms of mechanical instruments that play tunes. However, the coin-operated animatronics were what really blew my mind. There is a life-sized 80-piece animatronics orchestra that fills a multi-level stage. The characters even tap their feet in rhythm while they play.

Another highlight is the world's largest carousel containing 20,000 lights and 269 hand-crafted animals - not one of which is a horse. Mechanical music plays as the illuminated spectacle rotates. No one is allowed to ride it. The carousel, the sounds, the angels gliding along the ceiling - the whole room seems like a dream world.

I've barely scratched the surface on how much there is to see in the House on the Rock. Even the restrooms contain collections of fascinating items. We were pretty much burned out when we got to the third building. We took a break to have lunch at one of the cafes before soldiering on through the third building and finishing up outside in the beautiful Japanese Garden. We had spent over 5 hours touring the House on the Rock and were exhausted.

Tickets can be purchased separately for each of the three buildings or you can purchase the Ultimate Experience which includes all three buildings. We purchased the Southwest Wisconsin Pass which gave us discounted admission to the Ultimate Experience as well as 3 other attractions we'd visit later that week: Little Norway, Cave on the Mounds, and the Wollersheim Winery.

Few things in life bring a smile to my wife's face like a bag of Jelly Belly gourmet jelly beans. When I found out a month before our trip that there is a Jelly Belly factory in Wisconsin that gives free tours, I decided to make this a surprise stop in our sightseeing itinerary.

The huge grin that came across my wife's face when we drove into the parking lot was worth the 2.5-hour drive we had done that morning to get there. For our tour, we boarded a miniature train called the Jelly Belly Express. No jelly beans or any other candy is made at the Wisconsin site. It is a distribution warehouse. However, since the warehouse handles food products, all people on the warehouse floor must wear a hat. You'll be given a paper Jelly Belly hat if you don’t have a hat of your own.

The train drove us around the warehouse floor for 30 minutes stopping at stations where we watched videos of the history of Jelly Belly and their candy-making process. President Ronald Reagan was a big fan of Jelly Belly jelly beans. He used them to help kick his smoking habit. He was known to start his meetings by passing around a jar of jelly beans. There are autographed photos and other items from President Reagan enclosed in a glass case in the candy store.

We rode by some cool mosaics made of thousands of jelly beans. No pictures are allowed during the tour but fortunately there are several of these artistic works on display before the tour begins. These can be photographed.

At the conclusion of the tour, each person is given a free bag of jelly beans. We then spent time looking around in the store. There is a sample bar where you can taste any of the products Jelly Belly makes. Jelly Belly prides themselves on making their jelly bean flavors as real as possible. It took them 10 years to develop the right combination of flavors to produce their kiwi-flavored bean.

There are some flavors I wish they hadn't made. Jelly Belly's BeanBoozled jelly beans are gag flavors such as skunk spray, boogers, vomit, and rotten egg. I got up the nerve to try the skunk spray jelly bean. One bite of this atrocious piece of candy filled my nostrils with the pungent smell of skunk spray - yuck! One of the guys behind the counter offered me the toothpaste-flavored bean to help get the smell and taste out of my mouth. He then offered me the buttered popcorn flavored jelly bean. As soon as I put it in my mouth, the jokester told me he had given me the rotten egg flavor...Too late...Crunch...Ewww!!! Biting that jelly bean filled my nostrils with the stench of rotten eggs and garbage. Even worse was that it took several minutes to get that horrible taste out of my mouth. By this time, my wife and the guys behind the counter were having a good laugh as I contorted my face in response to the assault on my taste buds.

We spent quite a while in the candy store as my wife loaded up on Jelly Belly merchandise including a sweatshirt. She also bought a bag of Belly Flops. These are the jelly beans that failed the quality assurance test because of their size or shape. There is not much of a discount on the products sold at this site. We managed spend $68. Fans of Jelly Belly candies should definitely stop by the factory if they are in the area.

We left the Larson's Famous Clydesdale attraction in barely enough time to make the 2-hour drive to our next attraction - the Wollersheim Winery. Tours are given every hour starting at 10:15 AM with the last of these occurring at 4:15 PM.

We began by watching a short film on the history of the winery. It was started by Count Agoston Haraszthy of Hungary in the 1840's. He soon abandoned the winery and moved to the more favorable climate in California where he founded that state's wine industry. The Wollersheim family bought the abandoned Wisconsin winery in 1972. Philippe Coquard, a French winemaker, married into the family and passed on his knowledge of winemaking.

The rain had stopped long enough for our guide to take us outside to see the vineyards on the hillside. We were then led inside to the fermentation room where we watched a film on how the machines before us are used. There were charts on the wall that showed the temperature and duration of fermentation needed to produce the various wine flavors.

Next, our guide took us downstairs to the cellar where the aging of the red wines takes place in oak barrels. The white wines are not aged in barrels. They only go through the fermentation process.

Finally, we were led upstairs to the wine tasting room. My mother, my wife, and I generally do not drink alcohol but decided to partake in the tasting anyway. We were given a list of the wines we'd be tasting, some oyster crackers to cleanse our palates between tastings, and water to rinse the glasses between tastings. Our guide gave us instructions on how to inspect the wine by sight, by smell, and finally by taste. He recommended we rate each wine we tasted on the list he gave us so that we could remember the names of the ones we liked just in case we decide to buy a bottle.

We tasted the five products (four wines and one non-alcoholic champagne) the winery recommends and then we could request any of the remaining eight wines listed. My mother and I tried two or three more beyond the five while my wife, being the thorough person she is, tasted all of them. I never knew there were so many variations of the beverage.

The tour and tasting lasted about 45 minutes. The winery was closing by the time we finished but we had a quick look around its store where you can purchase their products. Their wines are mainly sold in Wisconsin and in parts of Illinois.

The Wollersheim Winery tour was a fun, inexpensive outing. It costs $3.50 per person. Our Southwest Wisconsin Passes covered that price. The wine tasting is free regardless of whether or not you do the tour.

Since we were in Wisconsin, the cheesemaking capital of the U.S., I figured it was appropriate that we do a cheese factory tour during our visit. There are places all over the state that offer cheesemaking tours. (Here is a list of locations.) I chose Cedar Grove Cheese Factory since it was relatively close to our lodging in Wisconsin Dells. It was a 45-minute drive deep into farm country.

Cedar Grove was smaller than I expected. It consists of a small cheese store attached to the cheesemaking room. We were greeted by a friendly but overworked lady. Not only was she responsible for giving tours but she was also responsible for waiting on customers who entered the store.

My mother, my wife, and I were the only people on the tour at the time. The lady led us around the corner from the register to the observation window where we could see some men making cheese in large metal vats. Our guide began explaining the cheesemaking process at lightning pace. Every time a customer walked into the store, she would politely excuse herself, wait on the customer, and then return to us to continue her presentation. Our lecture in front of the observation window lasted about 15 minutes. At that point, our guide told us we were free to walk across the parking lot to do a self-guided tour of the Living Machine - a greenhouse where the waste water from the cheesemaking process is cleaned using natural methods and returned to the land.

Things really got hectic when we returned from the Living Machine. As if the lady who had given us the tour was not busy enough, up drove a bus full of foreign tourists. Fortunately, they had their own guide and interpreter who could give the cheesemaking lecture. Our lady at the register could concentrate on ringing up the line of customers that was forming at the counter.

Despite the circumstances, I was able to learn something from this free tour. Cedar Grove has been making cheese for over 100 years. These days, this small facility is not only known for its great cheese but also for its efficiency. Nothing goes to waste. Cedar Grove receives 30,000 pounds of milk per day from local dairy farmers. From this, 3,000 pounds of cheese can be produced. An enzyme is added that causes the milk to form little morsels called curds. The curds are pressed into blocks and aged to become cheese. We were given an opportunity to taste the fresh curds. They are called squeaky because they squeak against your teeth as you chew. I noticed bags of Cedar Grove cheese curds being sold just about anywhere we went in Wisconsin. Additionally, fried cheese curds are a common appetizer on many restaurant menus in the state. We also had the opportunity to taste 5-year aged cheddar. I love sharp cheese so this was a real treat for me.

The runoff from this whole cheesemaking process is a mixture of whey and water. The whey is separated from the water and sent to factories where it is used to make butter or used as an ingredient in cereal, cookies, and other products. The water is sent to Cedar Grove's Living Machine where it progresses through tanks containing bacteria that eat toxins. The water is then filtered through plants that remove more impurities before being returned to the land as clean water. This clean water helps grow the grass...and the grass feeds the cows...and the cows make the milk... Hi-ho, the derry-o, the process starts again.

In hindsight, I could have passed on our visit to Cedar Grove. I was not overly thrilled with the tour. Environmental scientists may find the Living Machine interesting. We were told environmentalist from around the world come to study the facility. If you do decide to do the tour make sure you get there before 11 AM to see people working behind the observation glass.

Old World Wisconsin is a living museum that reminded me of Colonial Williamsburg. However, instead of America's colonial period, Old World Wisconsin focuses mainly on Wisconsin's immigrant farm communities of the mid to late 1800's. The employees are dressed in period costumes and go about typical chores of that era as they interact with visitors.

As we were getting out of the car, a nice lady came across the parking lot to greet us and tell us they were operating on their fall hours - meaning they'd be closing at 3 PM. She told us it normally takes from 4 to 6 hours to see the whole place. It was already 1 PM. She handed us a map and gave us advice on how to make the most of our two hours.

We purchased our tickets at the souvenir shop and headed downstairs to view a 17-minute orientation film. Old World Wisconsin is huge. It contains 65 authentic historical buildings that were moved from all regions of the state and re-assembled here in Old World Wisconsin. The buildings are connected by 6 miles of dirt trails that lead through fields and woods. For convenience, there are hop-on hop-off trams that arrive at various stops every 10 minutes or so.

The ethnic farmsteads represented at Old World Wisconsin are: German, African American, Polish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, and Yankee (American-born citizen that migrated from the East Coast of the US). After viewing the orientation film, we made our way to the Crossroads Village. No particular ethnic group is represented here. We wandered into St. Peter's Church, Wisconsin's first Catholic Church. The costumed guide told us stories about the church and how the German and Irish immigrants temporarily put aside their grudges to build this place of worship together. She also played a hymn on the church's pump organ built in 1870. We wandered into other buildings in the village such as the Hafford House of 1885 where we learned about the Irish widow who washed clothes for a living and the Grotelueschen Blacksmith Shop where we watched a guide hammering out hot metal to form horseshoes.

We caught the tram up the dirt road to the African American community. There were no guides there that day so we read the information posted in the Pleasant Ridge Chapel. It told of the Shepherd Family who was among the freed blacks and escaped slaves that began settling in Pleasant Ridge in 1850. We also had a peek inside their rustic United Brethren Church.

The German Area was our last stop before we ran out of time. This area has three farms containing gardens, cattle, horses, and chickens. We interacted with the guides in each of the three houses of the communities. The Schultz farmhouse was the most interesting to me because of its black kitchen. The black kitchen gets its name from the smoke stains on the wall. In those days, a fire had to be burning almost constantly for cooking and hot water. Despite the tall chimney we peered up at, the women of that period had short life expectancies because of the fire risk and black lung disease. We headed out to the barn to talk with the guide there but got cut short because two of his chickens had escaped into the woods and it was almost closing time.

We took the tram back to the main building stopping along the way to pick up the rest of the costumed guides as their work day was ending. I had really enjoyed Old World Wisconsin and was sorry we did not get a chance to visit the other ethnic communities in the park. Fortunately, we would visit Wisconsin's Norwegian and Swiss communities the next day during our sightseeing outing in the southwestern part of the state.

The Swiss Historical Village is located in a residential neighborhood in New Glarus, Wisconsin - a.k.a America's Little Switzerland. Instead of doing a self-guided visit, we chose to join the guided tour (AAA membership discount accepted). At the Swiss Historical Village, you join the tour group at any point and follow along until you’ve visited all 14 buildings. It takes about 1.5 hours to see the whole village in this manner.

Our tour guide was a Swiss native who moved to America 58 years ago. We joined him and two other visitors at the Hall of History where we learned the story of the 193 colonists who left their Alpine homes in Glarus, Switzerland in search of land in America. Out of that group, 131 of them arrived in Green County, Wisconsin in 1845 where they established the town of New Glarus. The Swiss Historical Village contains buildings and artifacts from those first settlers as well as items from their descendents and other residents living in New Glarus as late as the 1950's.

As our tour progressed, we were led into some interesting buildings. We had a look around in a log cabin built in the 1850's. We saw the smokers, extractors, and drawers of a beekeeper in the Bee House (no bees there anymore). We pretended to be students in the one-room schoolhouse. We watched a film on the cheesemaking process and had a close-up look at the old equipment used in the 1890's cheese factory building. After all, the Swiss played a huge role in putting Wisconsin on the map as America's cheese producer. In addition to Swiss, Limburger cheese was a popular product here. I was particularly impressed with the huge cauldron suspended by pulleys and levers for moving the milk and cheese around the factory.

I was surprised at how hands-on this attraction is considering the age of the artifacts. The schoolhouse is still used on special occasions. Cheese is still made in the factory once a year during Oktoberfest. I was allowed to sit in the fire trucks dating back to the early 1900's and even operate the hand-cranked siren. My most memorable hands-on moment came while we were in the log church. Our guide began talking about the old pump organ in the corner. I had seen similar organs dating back to the late 1800's during our visit to Old World Wisconsin and Little Norway but was not allowed to touch them. Therefore, when our guide asked if there were any musicians present that would like to try out the organ, I almost leaped over the bench in front of me to volunteer.

I decided to play a hymn out of the hymnal on the ledge during my attempt to play the old organ. It was an awkward experience because in order to make a sound, I needed to continuously pump my feet on the two pedals at a rate that was not necessarily in time with the music I was playing. I eventually started to get the hang of it enough to make somewhat intelligible music but I was far from being good at it. I was thankful for the opportunity to try out such an old instrument.

In addition to the Swiss Historical Village, I recommend making the 6-block drive to 1st Street. Here you’ll find Swiss chalet-style architecture along with decorated cow statues in front of the local businesses. We loaded up on goodies from the bakery and from the Maple Leaf Cheese & Chocolate Haus. We also enjoyed our best dinner in Wisconsin at the Glarner Stube Restaurant on 1st Street.

As we learned the previous day at Old World Wisconsin, Wisconsin was home to a diverse set of immigrant communities. The Norwegians were one such group. Little Norway is the former farm of the Haugen family who came from Norway in 1856 and settled in this valley in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin.

We arrived at Little Norway at 9 AM on a chilly autumn morning just as the attraction was opening for the day. The staff, who were surprised to see visitors so early, greeted us warmly as did the cozy fire burning in the fireplace inside the gift shop. Before long, off we went with our guide for a 1-hour tour of the outdoor museum. The Southwest Wisconsin Pass is accepted here.

Our guide was dressed in a traditional Norwegian costume. He explained that Little Norway is the creation of Isak Dahle, a collector of Norwegian antiques. He purchased the farm after the Haugan family gave it up in the 1920's. From that point, Isak Dahle hired Norwegian workers to restore the farm buildings and to add a few new ones in which his collection of Norwegian antiques could be housed. He named the valley Nissedahle which translates to "Valley of the Elves".

Little Norway contains several rustic Norwegian farm buildings surrounding a natural spring that runs through the property. Each building is made of dark wood and blue or white trim. We only entered a few of them during our tour. At my height of 5'10", I often had to stoop down to enter the doorways. Once inside, we saw simple but ingenious wooden furniture that often had dual uses. We saw tools, eating and cooking utensils, traditional clothing, and old family photos. Although we did not climb any steps, I was stunned by how steep some of the staircases are. There might as well have just been a ladder.

Some of the buildings we did not enter were interesting to look at from the outside such as the sod-roof cabin and the storage house that was built on stilts to keep out moisture and rodents. If you look hard enough, you will notice that most of the buildings have a small ceramic elf or two somewhere in the vicinity. We were told that in the old days, Norwegians believed elves protected the farm when the owners were away.

The final building we saw was the most impressive. This tall, dark wooden building whose steep roofs were adorned with carved dragons looked to me like some sort of haunted house. Far from being a haunted house, this building is a replica of a 12th century Norwegian Christian church. It was built in Norway and brought to America to be displayed at the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. Many years later, Isak Dahl bought the church and moved it to its present location at Little Norway.

Inside the church are some of the more ornate items of Dahl's Norwegian collection such as hand carvings, jewelry, and fur clothing from the Sami People of Arctic Norway. However, what impressed me the most was an original 1873 manuscript of one of the compositions of the Norwegian classical composer, Edvard Greig.

Our tour ended at the church. Our guide said we were free to explore the grounds on our own if we wished but we had seen enough. We headed back to the gift shop where my mother was on the hunt for the perfect elf to purchase as a souvenir.

From Little Norway, we took a short drive over to the neighboring town of Mt. Horeb to see the famous Trollway. The people here showcase their Norwegian heritage on Main Street where several businesses have large carvings of trolls. We only spotted a few of the carvings and then headed out of town to our next destination.

The Upper Dells Boat Tour is a 2-hour tour of the portion of the Wisconsin River above the dam. Long before the Wisconsin Dells contained waterparks and amusement parks, tourists were coming to the area as early as the 1850's to canoe the Wisconsin River and admire the sandstone rock formations. As we floated along, we were able to see the same odd rock formations that have been standing in this area for 500 million years. The Dells is one of the few places in the world where this type of exposed bedrock can be observed.

Our guide pointed out rock formations and told us their local names such as Chimney Rock, Alligator Rock, and Black Hawk's Profile. These were fun to spot but what I really enjoyed about the Upper Dells Boat Tour were the two shore landings.

The first was Witches Gulch. As we walked along the wooden walkway, I felt like we were walking through a dark enchanted forest full of sandstone rocks and trees. My wife and my mother were snapping pictures until I noticed we had started to lag far behind our tour group. Thinking we were missing narration from our guide, we hurried along the path to catch up. However, there was no narration - just a souvenir shop, a snack bar, and restrooms.

After about 20 minutes, everyone made their way back to our boat so that we could be transported across the river to our second landing. It was here that we were led to Stand Rock. These tall pedestal sandrock formations are where H. H. Bennett introduced the world to stop-action photography when he photographed his son leaping across the two rocks in 1886. We were given the chance to capture a similar photo by means of a German Shepherd trained to leap across the gap. Unfortunately, the dog jumped too fast for us to capture the shot.

We continued up a long ramp that ended with another souvenir shop, snack bar, and restroom facility. There was an area labeled "scenic overlook" so I headed there to take a look. I assumed I was missing something because the view of the river was not anything special in my eyes. Despite this, I had thoroughly enjoyed the tour. We headed down some steps to the boat which had moved to meet us at this new location and then headed back to port.

During our ride back to port, our guide sold copies of the Dells Boat Tour Official Guidebook for $4.00. The thin book has nice photographs and descriptions of what we saw so we bought a copy. There are several versions of the Dells Boat Tours so be sure to visit their website to find one that is right for you:

http://www.dellsboats.com/html/tourdetails.html.

We did not have far to go to get to our next attraction - Cave of the Mounds. Like Little Norway, it is also located in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin.

Cave of the Mounds is an underground cave that was discovered in 1939 by workers who were doing a quarry blast for limestone. Our guide led our tour group of five down the steps into the cave to begin our 1-hour tour (Southwest Wisconsin Pass is accepted). I was immediately awestruck by the variety of oozing shapes of the rock formations. We saw stalactites that hang tight from above and stalagmites that are fixed mightily to the ground. These structures are a variety of colors from creamy white to blood red. There are pools of water that reflect the surrounding shapes and colors. Lights and pathways have been installed to allow visitors to see this incredible place without destroying it. We were not allowed to touch anything other than one particular rock our guide pointed out. It was worn smooth from all the visitors that touch it.

The temperature inside the cave remains at 50 degrees Fahrenheit year round. Our light jackets definitely came in handy. Occasionally, we would receive what our guide referred to as a cave kiss. This is when a drop of water drips from the ceiling of the cave and hits you. I received about a dozen kisses that day.

Besides the fascinating rock formations we saw, there were some other highlights during our tour such as phosphorescent rocks that glow in the dark. We also experienced total darkness when we entered a section of the cave and our guide turned off the lights. I saw absolutely nothing even when I put my hand a about a centimeter from my eyes. We were told our eyes would never adjust to give us visibility in this situation because this section is shielded from all light sources. We were told that a person would more than likely lose their vision if they somehow managed to stay in these conditions for more than a month. Their body would determine that their eyes are no longer needed.

We climbed the long stairway back to the gift shop where our tour began. Even though I have done cave tours before, I was still fascinated by Cave of the Mounds. No two caves are exactly the same.

It was a 1.5-hour drive from the Dells to Ripon, Wisconsin. We were there to see Larson's Famous Clydesdale horses. When I hear the word, Clydesdale, I normally have visions of Budweiser Christmas commercials in which a team of these shaggy-hoofed horses are pulling a Budweiser sleigh through the snow. I guess I thought I was going to see something similar during our visit.

The brochure for the Larson's Famous Clydesdale attraction advertises a daily 1 PM tour and show. Reservations were recommended so I called and made ours the week before our trip. We were invited to park in the Larson’s driveway with two other cars. As Judy Larson was collecting our admission ($15/person), she told us they normally have 125 people per day at their tours. There were only eight of us that day. I was scratching my head trying to figure out where 125 people would park. There was only room for three cars parked single-file in her driveway and no parking lot that I saw.

Judy began her tour by bringing us to the fence (watch out for the electric fences) behind which her prize show horses were standing. One of these gigantic horses is named Reggie White after the late NFL player. As Judy told us about the effort it takes to transport her horses, prepare for shows, and provide day-to-day care, it was abundantly clear how proud she is of her horses and her family who compete them. In fact, she is so proud that she gave each of us an ultrasound picture of their newest foal when it was still in the womb.

We were shown the trailers used to transport the horses, the wagons they pull, their reigns, etc... We were taken to a shed full of ribbons, trophies, and pictures from competitions the Larson Clydesdales have won.

Then we met Big Bud. This horse is so tall it could barely get its head under the doorway of the barn. We were given the opportunity to have our pictures taken standing next to Bud. We were then taken into the barn to see and pet the newest foal. At 2-months of age, this horse was already as tall as I am! Yes, Clydesdales are huge.

Before I knew it, we were being led to a shed where we could buy souvenirs if desired. My wife bought a running shirt and some postcards.

I was not sure what to make of our visit. I was thinking maybe we'd see the Clydesdales hitched up and pulling a wagon like the Budweiser commercial. We never did see the advertised show. It was a cold, windy day and I think I heard Judy mention it was too cold to have us sit in the stands. In the end, this attraction was just not our cup of tea. I think I had more fun watching the guy in our group who was blown away by every fact he heard and by every horse he saw. He seemed like a real horse lover that truly enjoyed this tour.

On our drive to our next attraction, I learned about a monumental victory that had taken place that day that we had no idea was even happening. My mother told us that she has been afraid of horses all her life! Yet, despite this fear that we never knew about, she actually petted Big Bud who towered over all of us. This was quite an accomplishment.

We had purchased our Wisconsin vacation during a charity auction. We knew very little about where we were staying other than it was a donated timeshare property that sleeps up to six people. My mother, my wife, and I were the only ones staying there so I knew we’d have plenty of room. Wow! Were we ever surprised by what we saw when we arrived. We were staying in a Presidential Condominium at Glacier Canyon Lodge which is part of the huge Wilderness Territory Resort. We had two large bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, dining room, 2 full bathrooms, a fireplace, and a Jacuzzi tub to name a few. There is free Wi-Fi access in the unit. The decor was in line with the wilderness theme of stone walls and thick wooden furniture. We spent the first fifteen minutes oohing and awing as we explored our accommodations. Our Wisconsin vacation was looking like a winner.

Although supplies such as soap, shampoo, dishes, and silverware are provided, there is no housekeeping service. We were given only six set of towels and washcloths for the week. We were responsible for doing our own laundry and cleaning. Fortunately, our condo had a dishwasher, washing machine, and dryer. They even provided the necessary detergents.

We were staying in the town of Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. It reminded me of a beach resort town without the beach. There are amusement parks, restaurants, fudge shops, souvenir shops, arcades, golf courses, go-kart tracks, dinner theaters, a casino, a huge outlet mall, and more. The Dells is known as the nation's waterpark capital and for good reason. There are waterparks everywhere - indoors and outdoors. Since we were there in autumn, most of the outdoor amusements were closed. This is where the resort properties such as the one we were in take over.

The Wilderness Territory Resort, in which we stayed, is comprised of several buildings. Although the outdoor amenities were closed, the indoor activities such as the three waterparks, laser tag, fitness centers, a spa, a nightclub, restaurants, game rooms, and more were all available. There are skywalks that allow you to access all these attractions without ever going outside. In case this is too much walking for you (and there is a lot of walking), there is an outdoor shuttle to take guests from building to building.

With all these amenities in walking distance, we could have probably spent our whole week without ever leaving the resort but that's not our style. My wife and I always try to do as much sightseeing as we can when we visit a new place. Therefore, I had done my research and put together a rather busy sightseeing schedule for our Wisconsin vacation. By the end of the week, we would put nearly 1,500 miles on the rental car and take over 1,300 photos!

We really enjoyed our stay at Glacier Canyon Lodge but we learned that when Glacier Canyon Lodge says check-out is at 10 AM, they mean it. We found that out when we received a knock at the door at 10 sharp. We asked for 10 minutes longer because we needed to redistribute souvenirs in our suitcases to keep them under the airline's 50-lb checked luggage limit. The person at our door said okay but at 10:10, we received another knock at the door. We got the message.