Wisconsin Dells to ?

Wednesday, April 13, 2021 -  I should probably apologize for my blogs being so long.  This is my way of reminding myself what we did, where we went and anything else of interest.  I figure when I'm in my 90's I can re-visit all of the great places John and I have traveled.

Today we left  Wisconsin Dells to Tomah, WI.  The store we wanted to visit opened at 10:00 so we wanted to leave by 9 to open them up at 10.  We were about 30 minutes late.  The store was nice but we did not find anything we were interested in.  You may think we are silly hopping from antique store to antique store but it is like visiting local museums of Americana.  There is no entrance fee but sometimes we have to pay to get out.  

Our next stop was Sparta, WI.  We see many of the same items from one area to another.  Amazing how the prices change from one area to another as well.  For instance the price of Hummel's and Royal Dalton figurines vary from area to area.  Some as low at $15 each to a high of $200.

A few miles northwest of Sparta, WI is Onalaska which is just outside of La Crosse.  We stayed in Onalaska for a couple of days.  There were several stores in La Crosse which we visited.  We saw a lot of lovely items but left them all where they were.  

The elevation of La Crosse is about 550 ft.  I talked to a local and he suggested we drive up to Granddad Hill.  He said it was a beautiful view and it was.  When we got up there the elevation was just over 1,000 ft.  We could see across the Mississippi River to Minnesota and up and down the river.  In the late 1800's some industrial people were wanting to remove Granddad by removing the trees and picking away at the hill.  Mind you most of this area is pretty flat.  Anyway, a group of people got together to save the hill.  Today they hold celebrations on the hill and there are many walking trails winding around the hill.

Granddad Bluff View

Downtown La Crosse, WI

 There are three rivers that come together, the La Crosse, Black and Mississippi.  In some places it looks like some of the area is flooded.  There are several islands and peninsulas connected to the river.   

From La Crosse we drove northeast along the Mississippi River to Winona.  There we found 3 really cool stores.  One older gentleman had a very small store in the basement of an old building.  It was not  big but the treasures were great.  We are looking for a particular Saturday Evening Post.  He said he knew exactly which edition we were looking for.  However some repairs had to be made in the store and all of the Saturday Evening Posts were put in boxes and stacked in the corner.  It was an area of about 10x10 stacked to the ceiling.  But he said when he got the corner cleaned out and found what we are looking for he would give us a call.  I doubt we will ever hear from him, but it gives us hope.

Winona has a levy that runs along the edge of the river to minimize any flooding that might occur.  We saw 3 barges tied together being pushed down the river by a tug.  We also found out that the majority of the trees in the area are aspens which means that in the fall most of the color in the trees is yellow.

Mississippi River, Winona, MN

From Winona we headed west toward Rochester, MN.  This is the home of the Mayo clinic.  Like many health organizations today there are Mayo clinics all around.  Between Winona and Rochester are some beautiful rolling hills.  A couple of  hills you would think you were driving over Snoqualmie.

One unfortunate thing we have found around the county in small towns that the malls seem to be closed or very empty.  Part of it is most likely COVID.  The other reasons, I think, have to do with the tech world we are in.  

There are 5 antique stores in Rochester, a city of 100,000+ people.  We visited all 5 in about 2 hours and found nothing.  The next morning we were going to meet some friends about 15 miles away so we hurried through the stores.  

Saturday April 17, 2021 - This morning we found the hotel did not really have breakfast so we drove to Stewartville, MN to visit a store and have breakfast if there was a restaurant.  And boy was there ever.  A little hole in the wall but it sure was good.  From Stewartville we drove to Hayfield to visit friends that formally lived in Selah.  We had not seen them for about 1 1/2 years.  They had moved to MN because that is where Nyla grew up.  We visited for a couple of hours and then drove to Austin, MN home of the Hormel Spam Museum.  When John and I were here a few years back I had purchased a can of Spam that is shipped only to the Philippines. I could purchase it on line but the shipping cost more than the Spam.  Today I was anxious to purchase a half dozen cans of this special Spam.  Apparently there is an aluminum shortage and Hormel is not making that particular "flavor" for the time being.  A couple of gentlemen that were hosting today said they would go back into warehouse to see if  there was some available.  Waa La - out they came with two cans.  We completed going through the museum and visited the gift shop.

The museum was fun to visit again.  But mostly it was fun to visit with Don and Nyla.  Hopefully we will be able to come back to this area and visit them again.

After we parted, John and I decided to stay in Austin.  We had laundry to do and needed time to unwind.  Tomorrow we will drive to Albert Lea, MN