Matt and Carol's Travels: Flyin' Low to Wisconsin

Our journey took us on a whirlwind tour through Nebraska and Iowa, to Wisconsin. Travlin' through all three states one sees a lot of corn growing. It is my understanding that most of the corn grown in Iowa is to feed livestock.

Most of the stops were overnighters, with the exception of Gothenberg (pronounced Got-ten-berg).

Front Yard

Back Yard

The park was an older park on the lake.

We headed into town for sightseeing. We hit the big attraction in town... the Sod House Museum. The museum portion itself is really a story of the local life around the area.

The real story is behind the building... a buffalo, Indian, and older home.

You might notice that the two sculptures are made of barbed wire, most of it without barbs.

The sod walls were about 18 inches thick, with a dirt floor.

After our long tour of the Sod House Museum we went to lunch, then visited an original Pony Express station.

The original station was a two story structure, however, when it was moved to its current location they did not construct the lower floor.

The next morning we continued our trek east. A few more nights in Nebraska, and we landed in Iowa.

The road was a rough one at times, which was obvious when we stopped for the night at a Corp of Engineering park. From the outside everything looked good.

Let's take a look inside...

First time this had happened. After this event we decided to close the leaf on the table when traveling.

As a member of "Harvest Host" we have the opportunity to stay at wineries, breweries, alpaca ranches, and if we chose the golf package, golf courses. This trip we stayed another winery:

The camping was down at their warehouse, and provided 50A service, good enough to run the air conditioner. From the warehouse it is a gentle uphill walk to the tasting room.

On the way up to the tasting room we met the welcoming committee, providing directions.

The grapevines we walked past were young, but they had grapes on them.

We had a light lunch before doing some wine tasting. The winery encourages responsibility when drinking.

Where could you find yourself on the eye chart?

From the winery we got back on the road and arrived at our new temporary home at Breezy Hill in Fond du Lac. This was year number three at this campground. The campground has a lot to offer to the children. The campground has two fishing ponds, a swimming pond, swimming pool, air pillow, playground, and an arcade. Yes, adults can play too.

Carol and our daughter-in-law took a trip, between rain storms, to the local creamery to look at sunflowers. The flowers were non-seed producing.

The creamery plants this field every year, and the donations from visitors goes to supporting flights to Washington D.C. for veterans. Oh yea, the creamery has great ice cream too.

I mentioned rain a little earlier because it made a major impact for a couple of days. We had the awning out, with a new shade screen we bought for it, took a small beating, even though they were secured down. The wind at times kicked up to speeds close to 70 MPH, steadily blowing around 25 MPH. With those winds our canopy couldn't hang, and one side collapsed in.

We were able to temporarily able to fix it, until it was thrown away. In between the rain squalls we did some sightseeing.

One of the drives we took encompassed the the shores Lake Winnebago... unfortunately most of the shoreline is private, with few roads accessing it. Their were a few beaches, mostly private. We drove all the way around the lake to see a lighthouse in Fond du Lac, which we could have stopped at before we even started the trip.

The lighthouse was built by the unemployed community during the "Great Depression". The plan were donated by an architect in 1932. The 60 foot tall lighthouse built in Lighthouse Park, and was completed in 1933. Visitors can climb to the lookout deck.