5/29 Sunday
65 degrees this morning. Another beautiful sky as we head west and north, bypassing downtown Chicago. The traffic is not too heavy this Sunday morning, as we pass exits for O'hare Airport. We notice several gas stations with prices over $5 a gallon!
We enter Wisconsin about 9:15 and soon after pass through the town of Mount Horeb which has Norwegian roots and is known as the Troll Capital of the World. Trolls are from early Scandanavian folklore. They often guard treasures and the town of Mt. Horeb says they guard and protect their town. This shop, Open House Imports, began the troll theme in the 1970's and many of the town's businesses followed suit. (www.trollway.com)
Next stop is a National Natural Landmark, Cave of the Mounds in Blue Mounds. Discovered in 1939, the cave is a cool 50 degrees and has many active formations and pools. We take the tour through some wide open spaces and some pretty narrow passages (as in turn-sideways-narrow). (www.Caveofthemounds.com)
It is a "wet" cave, meaning it is still transforming.
They have a nice outdoor garden too which we enjoy while dodging a few showers.
Next stop is House on the Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin. This is one of those highly advertised places that we were a bit skeptical about visiting. But we are glad we did. It began as a lofty artistic retreat built on a rock outcropping in 1945 by Alex Jordan. Over time, he assembled a huge number of collections and added additional buildings to house them. Much of the structure is built of stone and glass. It opened to the public in 1960. (www.houseontherock.com)
Special collections include huge automated musical machines (operated with purchased tokens), from player pianos to a full blown animated orchestra!
Other collections include weapons, armor, automated banks, organs, doll houses, stained glass lamps, windows and tables, aviation and automobile items, old west items and oriental statuary, and much much more.
There was a huge collection of Fabrege eggs, scrimshaw and beautiful ivory carvings.
There are a few outdoor garden areas as well.
The world's largest carousel is a main attraction, plus another carousel populated by dolls. It goes on and on.... we spent 3 hours and could have spent twice that, easily.
This is one wall of the ladies' room.
A collection of huge urns and pots are scattered around the outside, each with a variety of reptiles, dragons and other creatures as well as flowering plants. It has to take a small army of caretakers to clean, repair and maintain this site! We're exhausted just walking through it!
There is a large House on the Rock Resort nearby, complete with golf course and spa, so not much in the way of boondocking as a city ordinance doesn't allow it here. So we visited a Walmart in Richland Center, about a half hour away.
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