Did Someone Say RV Road Trip?: Wisconsin

Roadside Stop

The Best Water - Ashland's Artesian Water

When the local water tastes bad, I tend to drink beer. If I buy the same brand, the brew tastes consistent and refreshing. Not so with water! Water – simple H2O – can taste very different as I have learned while on our “RV Road Trip.” Some water reeks of chlorine, some of lime. One time the water looked yellow. It smelt bad so I drank only bottled water from a commercial filtered dispenser that cost me 25-cents to fill a gallon jug. Although our coach has a water filtration system, if you start with bad tasting water, no amount of filtering can make it taste anything but nasty.

Only once have I found water that tastes pure and good. This water runs free from an Artesian Well in Wisconsin. Naturally purified, the water does not need pumping. It flows upward from the groundwater through an open pipe. Anyone can fill a glass or jugs, just wait your turn outside the tiny wooden shack at the City of Ashland’s Malowski Beach. A roadside stop for a quick drink was all I needed to declare this water the best I ever tasted during our travels. It’s the best I tasted in a lifetime!

For ten days, we camped near Ashland and I made several trips to the Artesian Well for refills. We even made one last stop there on our way out of town and savored every last drop!

Wisconsin Logging Site: Not Your Ordinary Wood Pile

If you pop your head in the unlocked office door, if you wave to the security camera, and holler “Hello” loudly as you walk around the property and no one responds, are you trespassing? I’d say “No.” So we continued without escort to venture closer and closer to the stack of logs Ed and I noticed during our drive on a country road outside Ashland, Wisconsin.

This was no ordinary wood pile! The logs formed a mountain showing off the concentric circles – the growth rings – of each cut tree. Logs wedged on the end of the stack kept the mountain from cascading in a disastrous roll sure to crush anything in the path.

Train tracks ran parallel to the log mountain. And, more piles across the tracks gave the illusion of a landscape of rolling hills.

Ed and I wandered around this industrial site carefully. And, even though Ed loves big logs for our campfires, the massive size of these cuts caused him to pause. He didn’t even consider grabbing one as a souvenir for fear of causing an avalanche.

As travelers, we stop at places like this because it gives us a glimpse of the economic engine behind the façade of a town’s painted murals, quaint specialty shops, and antiseptic visitor centers. It builds an appreciation for the raw materials before they go to market to become a household product. And, it reminds us of the hard working, extraordinary people found in each community we visit.

July 15, 2009

An American Indian Cemetary

Wind chimes jingled as I walked reverently through the cemetery. For some only simple wooden crosses marked the grave. Other grave decorations were much more elaborate. Great carved wooded eagles with wings rising up and bears standing on hind legs set where traditional headstones might rest. White linked chains fenced the perimeter of some burial sites. A cast iron gateway created a courtyard for one plot. Sun faded pink, yellow, blue and white silk flowers honored many of the dead giving the flat field splashes of color. American flags waved for the veterans. And, statues of elves, parrots, Mickey& Minnie Mouse, and a Dalmatian made me wonder about the significance of their presence.

In an older section of the cemetery, weathered headstones leaned at angles. Many of these people laid to rest here had died over 100-years ago: John 1873 -1904; Our Darling 1905 – 1906; Mary Leamux died 1899 21-years; and Chief Antoine Cloud 1842 - 1910. Giant pines and a huge stone cross cast quiet shadows over the graves. No wind chimes rang here.

These cemeteries are located in Odanah, Wisconsin

on the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Tribe of

the Chippewa Indians.

July 15, 2009

Northern Great Lakes Visitor's Center

The Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center near Ashland, Wisconsin is a place that you can return to again and again. Admission is free. Go alone or take the family. There is something for everyone – exhibits, films, a trail, and a special outside kid’s area. I visited the Center twice during our stay on Lake Superior.

When I first stopped at the Visitor Center, I arrived too close to the 5 o’clock closing time to spend more than 45-minutes there. I approached my short visit this way: up high and descending to the exhibits.

From the top of the Center’s five-story observation tower, I enjoyed the panoramic view of the Chequamegon Bay from the outside catwalk. The landscape was flat with farm fields, grassland, wooded acres, and a pond where cattails thrived. In the far distance, I could see the outline of the Ashland ore dock jutting into Lake Superior. A strong cold wind gusting forced me back inside the window enclosed observatory where I could study the displays explaining the landscape around me.

On the next level, I found an exhibit about winter life on Lake Superior. The more I read, the more I wanted to plan a return trip in January or February. That’s when part of the Lake freezes and the ferry is docked. Residents on the island communities travel on ice roads over the frozen lake to get to the mainland. Some use snowmobiles; others actually drive their vehicles on the ice road. How cool is that! An authentic sign on display warns: “Ice Road Travel At Your Own Risk.”

Historical photography hangs on the walls outside the Wisconsin Historical Society Archive & Research Area on the second floor. This pictorial exhibit documents the families and workers who settled the region in the 1930’s and 1940’s. As I browsed these black and white photos, I overheard a woman discussing the exhibit. She had intimate knowledge of the people and places. She pointed to the faces in the photos calling them “Dad,” “Aunt,” and “Uncle” while she talked to her lady friend about fond memories of summer passed on Lake Superior.

I had just enough time to stroll through some of the first floor exhibits before closing time. I enjoyed the mining display the best. I could peer through a dark tunnel where lanterns barely gave light. A rail car waited to be loaded with the ore. A box detonator with the “T”- shaped handle tempted me to push down. When I gave in to curiosity, I mimicked the old time movies and used a two-handed grip to push down. Sure enough an explosion rocked the tunnel – the boom echoed, lights flickered and a simulated explosion clouded the tunnel view! I waited for the exhibit to re-set, and then did it again! This time more lights flickered, it was the Ranger – not me – grabbing visitor’s attention. Closing time would be in a few minutes.

Several days later when I returned to the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center, I took a new approach. There are many films available to view in the theater. With no rigid schedule, visitors just pick a film and on-demand the Ranger will start the show. I selected one about how Native American Indians in the region are working to preserve and practice their historic language. Other visitors slipped in and out of the theater, but I stayed for the entire length of the film learning much about this little known topic.

I needed to stretch my legs after that 45-minute film so I walked outdoors to the boardwalk trail. This ¾ mile trail is called the Transition Trail. It begins surrounded by tall waving grasses, an invasive non-native species called Eurasian Reed Canary Grass. Because the grass offers little food or protection, few birds or animals are seen along the trail. The trail winds from waist high grass through a grove of towering trees. Some pines have lost their anchor in the ground and lean into other trees. When they swayed in the wind, their bark creaked like an old board in Grandma’s hardwood floor. Where sunlight broke through the trees, wild flowers grew. And here and there, budding blackberry bushes showed signs that fruit would ripen in a few months. Benches long the boardwalk trail invited me to sit a bit but not for exertion. The trial was easy and flat. I sat just to enjoy the music of the trees and wind.

A “Y” in the trial presented a choice: go left past the cattails in the pond back to the Visitor Center or go right to the Nature Discovery Area. I chose right. This “Let’s Go Outside” area is designed for kids. Colorful rubber boots of all children’s sizes give parents no excuse for stopping the kids from playing in the tiny shallow pond. At the next outside station, they can crawl through a manmade hut that replicates a beaver dam. In another area, there are nets to catch butterflies. One play area has kid-size pieces of tree branches and rocks to handle for close inspection. And finally, a timeless sand box invites kids to enjoy themselves with pint-sized trucks, buckets and shovels.