Niagara... Not the Falls

You da thunk we headed back to California... the campground we arrived at, Maple Springs, is outside of Spring Valley... Minnesota.

The campground was a really nice place with a creek bordering the property. The campground is a one owner operation. Besides owning the place, he mows the lawns, pumps the trailer tanks, and accepts the reservations. The site we had was next to three other trailers with horses and a donkey. 

Backing into the space was an adventure, the gravel was deep enough that it took 4-wheel drive too move the trailer in and out. Once we were set up, we were good. You see the sun in the first photo... that didn't last long. We pulled in on a Friday, it rained Saturday... and not just a little... how about 3 1/2 inches in about a six hour window. That doesn't seem too much, until you add it to the other 11 inches the area already had earlier in the month.

The owner is trying to make the campground as much fun as possible, by adding walking trails down at the creek, and a nine hole disc golf course. The daily sites are set up to accommodate equine creatures. With those equine creatures comes flies... and lots of them, we took up fly swatters in the house, we meaning, both of us. 

We decided to be proactive about the flies, and headed to the hardware store for a remedy. The remedy... fly traps from Rescue.

These traps claimed they could catch up to 20,000 flies in one bag. They are easy to use... pop the top up, add water, and hang outside away from where you want to be.

A couple of days after the rain we drove to Niagara Cave. In this area there are several caves that tourists can visit, and most of them require tour guides.

Back to Niagara Cave.

You can visit: https: //www.niagaracave.com. There is a story that the three little pigs found the cave. Supposedly a farmer was looking for three of his younger pigs, when he discovered them 70 feet down a sink hole... the pigs were found alive, and a new cave was discovered. This is the true story of the three little pigs.

The cave has been mapped out, visitors and a guide hike most of the way in, the remaining way is closed off and only open to experienced cave climbers.

It was easy going into the cave, there were only about 70 steps down to the first section of cave floor. Once on the cave floor, there was a lot to see, and that information was made available via the guide. It was good timing that we did not go the day before, cuz part of the tour was closed due to flooding. Because the flooding went down, we were able to see the waterfall in the cave, the path had been covered by the water.

The waterfall dropped somewhere near 100 feet.

One of the instructions before entering the cave pertained to not touching the walls, because they were alive and growing. 

What you are looking at are three different types of fossils. The last photo is the cross section of a lily pad. There several opportunities to see stalactites and stalagmites.

The last photo was a "column", but was broken when a ladder accidentally hit it. A column is the meeting of a stalactite and stalagmite. 

Once the 45 minute tour of the cave came to an end... the only thing visitors have to do... is climb the 170 steps back to the surface. Fortunately for we visitors, the only long section is about 70 steps to the starting point. Carol purchased proof that she was at the cave...

I chose my usual proof...


Carol and I are finding another adventure we enjoy just as much as museums... meat markets. We hit one of the local butchers for our meat fix.

After fighting the flies and rain, we headed to Wisconsin...  ever closer to the grandchildren.

BREAK... BREAK... BREAK

Our new home Little Creek Campground,  in Fairchild, Wisconsin. This is a privately owned campground, owned and operated by the couple and their kids. It is a small park, but very friendly and fairly quiet. The park was almost full when we arrived, but when the weekend was over, it was pretty open. when we arrived we could not see this cabin... but the end of a weekend changes things for sure. The other side of a site was spacious with a cabin about 20 yards away from us.

Unfortunately the fly brigade followed us here from Minnesota... but we were ready for them. Once we saw that the disposable fly traps worked, we bought their refillable version. For you folks that do not like flies, you may want to avert your eyes from the next photos.

For those that have that strange curiosity, you are looking at the culmination of 1 1/2 days of catching flies. Before we left this campground I had to dump the container one more time.

This campground is broken into two basic sections, the seasonal RVers, and us... the "Daily" RVers. It has a few activities for the kids, a bike borrowing lot, chickens (which visitors can purchase fresh eggs from the owners), and ...

goats... that would be the two on the left, I'm the crotchety Sasquatch on the right. The goats were very sociable. I would call from the path, and they would answer back, hoping for us to stop by and pet them a bit.

We kept it simple here, driving to Eau Claire and hit a Walmart or Costco, I don't remember which. Time flew by so quickly... I turned 65 and needed a new ID card. So I had to drive down to Fort McCoy to get my final ID card, with the word "indefinite" on it. We will still have to get Carol a card on the anniversary of expiration of her current card. After I got my new ID card I attacked the Ace Hardware stores in the area for fly refills for our container... yes, I was successful, a lot of places were out of them.

Other than the short jaunts, we spent some time around the fire pit. When you order wood from these folks, their son delivers a wheelbarrow full of wood. The only other trip we took was to the local meat market/restaurant/ice cream shop, for two of the three items... yup, meat and ice cream. Why go to a restaurant when you have a good pork belly and ribeye steaks to cook up.

Is there a question as to why we didn't go too far? It actually only rained a couple of the days we were there. 

Our next stop is not far away, De Pere, WI.

We didn't have to worry about rain at this rest stop, it only rained once, in a torrent. This is one of those campgrounds we will not look to for a re-visit... the constant highway traffic made it too noisy. We stayed in the upper section of the campground, which is newer than the lower section, which was pretty cramped. There was an advantage to staying a week... they provided tank pumping services for those staying  a week or longer. If I didn't know better, I would say that the lower section was an old KOA campground.

We did not waste our days in De Pere, we drove up to Green Bay and visited the National Train Museum,  you can visit it at https://nationalrrmuseum.org.

This museum came about because a bunch of trains were just sitting around doing nothing... WRONG. It was established in 1956, by several local businessmen, and actually began as a Steam Locomotive Committee, aimed at preserving steam locomotives and other rolling stock. With some effort, the museum became the only congressionally designated railroad museum. As you can see, it grew from the original humble beginnings.

We started in the museum first, the train was on a run, and we had about 45 minutes before we could climb on. The museum talks about the history of railroading in Wisconsin, starting with the Milwaukee Railroad "Milwaukee Road" Beer Line. Some of the major beer manufacturers were located around the route, as well as other big names, like American Motors, and Allis-Chalmers Corp.

WHO REMEMBERS?

Let's talk getting beer to the consumer. It would take two events to happen before the consumer could enjoy a cool one. Consumers and brewers in the 1850s knew that beer could spoil in a couple of days, due to micro-bacteria. With the spoiling issue, beer could not be shipped further than 20 miles by horse and wagon. In step one, Louis Pasteur discovers pasteurization in 1864, allowing beer to be stored for a longer period of time. Next comes J.B. Sutherland, who invents the refrigerated boxcar. The boxcars contained blocks of ice at each end, air ducts to circulate the cool air, and insulation in between the double walls and ceiling. You now can drink a cool beer. Of all the beer produced in Milwaukee, the first producer to use refrigerated boxcars was... Anheuser-Busch, from St. Louis. Missouri.

What did these guys have in common, they became indistinct, so take it slowly, it will be long-winded. 

Pabst Brewing started out as Phillip Best Brewery. A steamboat captain named Frederick Pabst bought the company. After buying the company, he created the biggest producing brewery, making a million barrels a year. The name of the company continued to evolve, and in 1900 the name was changed, for the last time, to "Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer". Production continued until 1996, when the Milwaukee plant closed. Today Pabst is contract brewed, by other breweries.

Blatz Brewery was not one of the biggest brewers in Milwaukee, but survived. In 1873 a catastrophic fire destroyed the brewery, but by 1874 he was back in business. Blatz had concerns with shipping in his earlier days, in 1875 though, he was the first to ship bottled beer. Although it propelled him past the million barrel production, he still was not able to run with the big dogs. Because of his mediocre success, he sold out to a British finance syndicate. The syndicate combined Blatz with five Chicago based breweries. 1958 rolls around and Blatz is sold off to Pabst, but Pabst is forced to sell the Blatz brands due to a anti-trust case, to G. Heilman Brewery, makers of Old Style. With the demise of Heilman Brewing, Blatz fell back to Pabst. Today the Blatz brands are contract brewed.

Schlitz Brewing was not the original name for this brewery, it was owned by August Krug, a Milwaukee brewer that Schlitz worked for. When Krug died, Schlitz was left tending the brewery. Over time Schlitz married the widow Krug, then the name was changed to Schlitz. 1871 proved to be a good year for Schlitz, but a bad year for Chicago. After the fire, Schlitz supplied beer to Chicago, and this is where the company would be known as "The Beer that Made Milwaukee Famous". Meeting a production goal for barrels shipped, Schlitz decided to go on a trip to Europe. A difficulty was encountered... his personal steamship sunk, and he died, leaving the company to his nephews. The nephews ran the company until 1976. Unfortunately between the years of 1967 and 1982, recipe issues ruined the product, and the company was sold to Stroh Brewing. Guess what, the beer is contract brewed by another brewery today.

The point of the story is... who knows where your beer is being brewed. Here is the one difference... Pabst created a microbrewing plant in the old brewing plant in 2017, and is creating beer again.

Moving back to the story of the Milwaukee Road's Beer Line. In 1900 the line was serving 25 breweries in Milwaukee. After prohibition, depression, and WWII, only six breweries survived. The actual Beer Line was a six mile branch, roughly following the Milwaukee River, and serviced the three biggest brewing companies. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, crews pulled approximately 50 cars of brewed beer daily from the top three brewers.

So what happened to the Beer Line? Because of outsourcing to places like China and Mexico, there is no need for plants in America. The only surviving brewer is MillerCoors, which brings in raw materials by rail, finished product leaves by truck to retailers. Unfortunately there is almost no evidence of the Beer Line today.

TRAINS, TRAINS,TRAINS...

This was to be the train of the future. This train was experimental, designed by a division of General Motors. By design the Aerotrain passenger car was lighter than a traditional passenger car. Standard 80 passenger train cars weighed in at approximately 65 tons, where two of the 40 passenger Aerotrain passenger cars weighed in at about 32 tons. The concept was to be diesel powered, and air suspension for a smoother ride a 100 mph. If you are looking at the design and think... the cars look like buses... you have a good eye. GM chose to use bus frames, and bus-type air suspension. When it came time to test it, GM found that it was not a satisfactory design. Because of the extremely lightweight, short-wheelbase, and the bus tuned air suspension, it was a very rough ride at speeds over 60 mph. Of the three prototypes, two were sold to Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway, where they were used in the suburbs at slower speeds. By 1966 the trains were retired from service.

The next section of the museum brought back memories. 

When I was a youngster, my parents let visit my grandmother in Kansas for a summer. I rode a Santa Fe Super Chief from Los Angeles to Wichita... something like 4 or 5 day trip. Past this section is the beginning of the real trains.

This train was a presidential train, ridden by president Dwight Eisenhower during his days as Commanding General during WWII. This train was designed by an Englishman. The innovative design allowed for record breaking speeds.

Carol in control of the train. The sleeping cars were remodeled into space for his staff. In 1946 the cars were converted back to pre-war days.

This was one of the largest locomotives Union Pacific owned. Union Pacific could not decide on a name for this huge locomotive, but the name "Big Boy" stuck, after shop mechanics and the press continued to use the name, officially sticking to this day. Imagine the size of this locomotive, the boiler itself measures 65 feet in length. The tender was one of the largest ever built, with a capability of holding 32 tons of coal, and 24,000 gallons of water. A locomotive this size required some unique engineering, which was developed by a Swiss mechanical engineer to address locomotive issues in Switzerland. What he came up with was an articulating locomotive. The answer was to put the boiler on two engines. On the "Big Boy" the boiler is attached to the rear engine, and the second set of cylinders and wheels. The front engine, pilot wheels and cylinders, and drive wheels were mounted on an independent frame. There were slide plates mounted on the front engine, used to support the boiler during curves.

How would you like to drive the train?

All you need to do is learn all these valves, and what they do. The cab of the "Big Boy" was a spacious cab with room for four. No matter the weather outside, the cab temperature was usually around 90 degrees, and going into tunnels temperatures could get to 180 degrees.

The next car really brought memories of my childhood.

If you remember, I rode the train by myself. This here car was the vista car... and where I learned to play poker... I lost a lot of toothpicks. 

Back in the 20th century, with racial indifference, most of the folks who took care of the passengers were of black heritage... some of them became influential people.

HOW ABOUT SOME TRIVIA...

Q: Which former porter became a Supreme Court Justice?

A: Thurgood Marshall. Working as a porter on the Pullman cars helped pay his way through college... his pay... $55.00 a month.

Q: What artist, while working as a porter, was influenced by the photos he saw in magazines left behind by passengers?

A: Gordon Parks. He became a photographer for Vogue and Life. In his later years he worked on the Shaft film.

Q: Which musician, who was a porter, was considered a mouthpiece for the African-American community in the 1930s,40s, and 50s?

A: William "Big Bill" Broonzy. He was a Blues musician. In the song Black, Brown, and White Blues... he wrote the line ... "if you's white, you's right, but if your brown, stick around, and if you's black, oh brother, git back, git back, git back". He never made enough money as a musician, working as a porter until 1953, five years before he died..

Q: Which well respect Olympic athlete's father worked as a porter?

A: Wilma Rudolph. Racism and polio did not hold her back from winning three gold medal, and opening the door for other blacks.

We headed out to catch our train before we visited the trains outside. We rode in the front car, which is usually covered with a vinyl material, unfortunately a heavy wind tore part of it off.

There is a fully enclosed car as well. The train takes visitors around the museum property twice while the guide is pointing out various points of interest. On the property is a haunted house run by a separate entity, and uses a couple the museum's cars as part of the haunted adventure.  Continuing on the journey, the train passes a boxcar with symbols on it...

The symbols played, and still play a role in the hobo community. These symbols let other hobo travelers know if the town was friendly or not towards hobos, if there was fresh water near by, even if there was a phone available. As the train continues down the track it passes behind the building housing more trains, and some outside waiting for restoration.

For those willing, there is an observation tower on the back of the property that overlooks the river. The back portion is also used for special events. Once we completed our second lap, we headed to the train sheds.

Here is a look at the Aerotrain, and if I remember correctly, the last one in existence. This particular Aerotrain was manufactured in 1955, and retired in 1966, then donated to the museum.

Who said a water barrel can't be turned on its side, then used to haul water down the rails.

Cabooses were the place to be if you worked as a brakeman or conductor. By the 1980s the caboose was pretty much non-existent. The waning days of the caboose can be tracked to technology. With the invention of air brakes, there was no longer a need for multiple men to manually set the brakes on the train. Men were no longer necessary for monitoring defective equipment, thanks to the talking defect detector. Then there is the little red light that is now adorned on the last car of the train.

The time we spent in the museum and walking the grounds was well worth the price of the ticket. Did I mentioned that even though it was designated by Congress, it is a 501K non-profit.

As you might tell, we stopped for lunch/ice cream, and hit a butcher shop or two.

Our next stop isn't too much farther up the road... we will see you later.