The Wonder Years: Green Bay WI to Fond Du Lac, WI

Monday April 5, 2021 - Today was a beautiful day. There was no wind, the sky was blue and the temperature was mid 70's. Weather has really changed since last week. Time to get out the cooler pants and top and put away the winter coat.

Even though we are not football fans we went over to see the Green Bay Packers stadium. It is open for tours but we declined and just walked around inside the perimeter, strolled though the Packers store and visited with some people we met outside. The stadium is owned by the City of Green Bay and the team is owned by the people of Green Bay.

The next item on the agenda was an antique store that was not very large and full of a lot of junk. However, John found a set of Tom Swift books. 22 of them are in the set so he will have to look for the singles he does not have. They are all in really good condition.

Next stop was down on the Fox River that flows from the Green Bay, which flows in from Lake Michigan. Found a nice pub on the shore to have lunch. After lunch we walked along the shoreline to enjoy the lovely weather.

Today is John's 77th birthday. We spent the day in antique stores which were disappointing. By 4:00 we were tired and found a restaurant that was special. The name of the restaurant was Mark's East. It is such a good restaurant it had survived doing the early days of the pandemic. People of Appleton, WI have been very loyal. We each had a small sirloin steak that included garlic mashed potatoes, sautéed vegetables and bread. Because it was John's birthday, they treated us to a salted caramel cupcake.

Wednesday April 7, 2021 - Our first stop this morning was a paper craft store just outside of Appleton. The small specialty stores are so hard to find. The owner does daily live classes. Found some things I had not seen before and am anxious to get home to try my new tools.

Found a couple of things in an antique store today. One was a Tom Swift book and the other was a picture. Nothing special but I liked it.

We are staying at the Hilton Garden Inn tonight. Hard to believe the price is $71. Next door was a pub called The Hanger that we went to for dinner. I had not had perch before but found it to be tasty. They always serve a slice of rye bread with the fish which goes back to an old tradition when they did not d-bone the fish. The rye bread was served to put the bones. on.

There are some distinctions regarding different types of eateries. There is the Pub and Grill and then there are the Supper Clubs. I gather that the Supper Club would be like Waterfire or Yakima Steak.

The architecture of the homes the area do not appear to be to different from Yakima. I should qualify that to homes that were built in the 1980's. We have not driven through newer areas of the cities.

Oshkosh is home to Oshkosh Corporation, formerly Oshkosh Truck, an American industrial company that designs and builds specialty trucks, military vehicles, truck bodies, airport fire apparatus, and access equipment. I never realized all the different manufacturers that there are across our country. There is a Kimberly Clark manufacturing plant in Appleton, WI.

Thursday April 8, 2021-During the night there was a huge thunder and lightening storm and did it rain. This is what we saw this morning when we woke up.

Pouring Rain and Wind

Today was a great day. The first thing we did was visit the Experimental Airplane Association (EAA) Museum. There are several sections of this museum including experiential, commercial and military airplanes. Started with some of the earliest planes and ended with the Space Ship One, the first private plane going into space. The museum also included a lot of history about WWII and a little bit about the Korean, the Vietnam Wars and the space missions.

The EAA organization is sponsored by thousands of people from across the US. Each year there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of people that either drive or fly to Oshkosh to participate in an air show. When I say fly some may fly by commercial plane but many of them come in their own planes. They park them on a large grass field and some set up tents and camp on the grounds.

A replica of Space Ship One was on display as well as a short documentary of the development and the successful flights. On display was also a replica of the Voyager that circled the globe in 9 days without re-fueling. This was just an amazing museum to learn about the imagination of some of America's brightest.

If you are interested in more detail about these experimental airplanes you should look them up on the internet.