on the road again

yesterday, which feels like years ago, we headed north and then west after our fllw tour. while wisconsin is beautiful, it was somewhat obscured by the rain, so we just drove as fast as we could, weather permitting. when we passed over the mississippi river into minnesota, we were greeted by some very ominous looking clouds coming over the cliffs. however, once we crossed said cliffs, the sun somewhat magically came out, much to our relief. (the picture at top was taken at the minnesota welcome center). after a few more hours of driving we decided to spend the night in none other than...blue earth, minnesota. of course, it was still daylight when we pulled into our motel at 9:30, so night at that point was a bit of a stretch. at this point we had spent most of the last three days driving, so we were pretty wiped. and minnesota, at least the rural southern part we drove through, was not too terribly exciting--much like the parts of wisconsin we had seen, though still pretty. and for the record, i did enjoy the parts of minneapolis i got to see when i spent a weekend there a couple years ago.

when we woke up in the morning, we discovered that not only does blue earth claim to be the home of the ice cream sandwich, but it is also home to a 60+ foot tall green giant. no joke--that's him to the left. we stopped for a quick gander and then, once again, hit the road. pretty soon we passed into the land where i have decided that dreams come true--south dakota. a lot of my desire to go on this road trip in the first place originated with sd--the badlands, rushmore, the black hills, and north by northwest, the great hitchcock film. we pulled into the visitors center at the first rest stop, and were greeted by a giant tipi, as wiki tells me it is now spelled. we discovered later that many of south dakota's rest areas have them--i suppose that if tourism was one of your state's largest industries that you would play it up too.

one of the first things we ran into in south dakota was just as bizarre as the jolly green giant--a rather large sculpture garden just sitting off the side of i-90. we decided to explore further, having had a review in its favor given to us by the biker couple at the b&b back in wisconsin. this is what we found:
and yes, that is a giant bull's head in profile towards the back. we wandered around a little, but not too far because we didn't want to have to pay to enter. my favorite was this fish, which was on the drive up from the highway to the rest of the pieces. this sculpture garden was outside of mitchell, and in mitchell proper we saw the under-whelming corn palace, which is decorated with corn on the outside, and has murals made of corn on the inside. originally built in the late 19th century to try and draw more immigrants to populate the region, it is little more than a hokey tourist draw. and i say that while still appreciating the history behind it and that it is frequently used as the town convention center for community events and basketball games. oh well, there you go daddy. i saw lots of dead and dried corn.


needless to say, we did little but stop and see it and then move on. we made it as far as wall, south dakota, which is as far as we were aiming to get. wall is, of course, famous for its drug store. why is this store so famous you ask? because it is. in the early 20th century the owners of wall drug realized that they did not have enough customers to keep themselves afloat, so they started to give away ice water and plastered the roads leading to wall with signs advertising this. soon their operation expanded and it became famous simply for being famous. it now occupies an entire block and sells just about anything that can pass as touristy or drug store related. it also has a good bookstore, specializing in local books, and still sells coffee for just 5 cents and gives away ice water. while almost as hokey as the corn palace, i think that wall drug is still worth a stop. if you find yourself near here, grab a coffee and watch the locals eat breakfast in the cafe and enjoy the fantastic collection of western art on the walls.

we spent the night at the sunshine inn, a nice mom and pop run motel in wall, and recommend it if you happen to find yourself here. we prepared for our day in the badlands national park, which i was very, very excited about.
this morning we started out at wall drug, where we both had 5 cent coffee and delicious gigantic cinnamon rolls. you can tell that it is early in the morning because my eyes are still practically closed. from there we headed out to the minuteman national historic park, located just a few miles from wall. for those of you in need of a history lesson, the minuteman missile system was in place for over 30 years during the cold war, serving to deter the soviets from sending any missiles our way. each one had the power of 3/4 of all of the bombs used during world war two. the stations, like the one pictured below, were scattered all across the plains states. today, this one is preserved as a historic site. the missiles were of course underground, manned by two people at all times, ready to aim their missile at a moments notice--it could have been in moscow in only 30 minutes, hence the name of the missiles. people driving by probably just thought that it was part of a power station or something. it made me glad the cold war was over--but then, are we really any less paranoid about national security today? after a quick stop, though, we were on to the badlands!

the america of frank

the hillside school at taliesin

frank lloyd wright was raised in wisconsin, and considered his family farm there home until his death in 1959. his very first building was, in fact, a commission for his aunts, who ran a school on the estate in 1889, if i am remembering correctly. called hillside, fllw rebuilt it several times, sometimes because of fires and sometimes just....because. it eventually passed into fllw's hands and became his school of architecture, and was repurposed to that effect. the school continues to operate to this day, as does the community that fllw built at taliesin. it functions as a self-sufficient community, with the students doing farm work and older architects mentoring and leading the operation, as well as bringing in commissions. it is run by a foundation, and some of the mentors, now in their 80s or as old as 97, knew fllw himself. we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so if you want to see some, find them on the internet. nearby is what is known as the romeo and juliet windmill, which he created in the 1890s as a working windmill to power the school. everyone thought it would blow down because of its strange and unconveniontial design, but it didn't. at least not until the 1990s, when it was torn down and rebuilt. even cypress only lasts so long in the wisconsin weather.

fllw built his own home surrounding the crown of a neighboring hill, almost in the shape of a c. technically the house is taliesin (tah-lee-es-zin), meaning 'shining brow' in welsh, but the name is also used to refer to the entire estate. the picture above is of the entryway, while the one to the left is of the garden leading up to the top of the hill and the wraparound of the building. he worked on this house almost continuously until his death in 1959, often expanding it or making way for such innovations as the automobile. the building also saw such tragedies as the murder of his true love along with her children and seven servants by another servant. the house also was subjected to two fires and was redone more than even hillside was. by the 1950s, he and his students were only living in taliesin in the summer months (i can't imagine trying to heat the thing), and they wintered at taliesin west in arizona.

for those of you who do not know anything about fllw, he was all about creating freedom with his buildings, as well as a connection with nature. he makes extensive use of continuous lines and large windows, which are particularly effective in the beautiful wisconsin landscape. he also employs such techniques as using the same rock floors inside and out, as well as contouring to the landscape--for example, having the roofs match the slant of the hills, or at hillside having the building literally descend with the hill. interestingly, he also does this somewhat strange (but effective) thing where he has a purposefully low ceiling at the entrance into a room (and i mean low--maybe 6 feet; apparently he was short), and then a much higher ceiling in the room proper to create a sense of tension and release. it is also quite effective is she in addition, he makes great use of indirect lighting, glass doors, and creatively placed windows to create great lighting. he wanted his architecture to be a gift to the american people, and i certainly think he succeeded.

while it was quite expensive, we really did enjoy our 2 hour tour. our guide was great--apparently besides being an expert on everything fllw and taliesin, she works on her family farm as well. the only thing which would have improved our experience would have been no rain at all (it rained, thankfully, only while we were inside) or for our host to have a stronger wisconsin accent. in the bookstore and on our tour we got to talking with this group of 4 older women from richmond. they were part of a book club who had read a couple books about fllw, and so had decided to go on a tour centered on him, going from chicago up to taliesin. they were a lot of fun--i was glad that we met them. on our way out of town we passed through spring green, where even the fire department, banks, and churches are all styled after fllw, pictured to the left. talk about an impact. after a couple of hours of driving through land that looked a lot like this (though taken at taliesin), we left wisconsin for minnesota.

ode to the plains

iowa

dear farmers of iowa and wisconsin,

thank you for preserving what rural america should be like.

sincerely,

rebecca and laura

if i could mail the above message to every farmer in these two beautiful states, i would. i never thought that i would want to spend any time at all in iowa, but i find myself actually wanting to go back. there is something incredibly peaceful about rolling hills and fields of corn, even if they are barely sprouts. in addition, every farm that we saw was taken care of with pride and love--maybe this is due to the vast numbers of germans and scandinavians who settled in the area. while the one i got a picture of is all red, not all of them were. it really was beautiful, and with the exception of some high-tech grain silos, could be exactly as it was one or two hundred years ago.

we stopped in dyersville, iowa to see our first actually planned stop--the field of dreams movie site. even today it is actually still a functioning farm, and the souvenir shop is still run by members of the family, some of whom appeared as extras in the film. apparently they get an average 65,000 visitors a year--quite a lot for a farm in the middle of nowhere, iowa. there was a family playing catch on the field, and a few more people on the sidelines. we weren't able to go into the house, seeing as how people live there, but were able to walk around. unfortunately the corn was only sprouts, but it was still pretty awesome to see--and it's free, if you find yourself in the area. of course, it helps if you go on a day as beautiful as that we happened upon.

after leaving the field of dreams we happened upon a sign on the side of the highway for trappists, so we exited to go find the abbey. called the new melleray abbey, it was set in the beautiful iowa fields in the midst of some giant trees that must have planted when the abbey was founded about 160 years ago. we went into the church, pictured, to pray, only to find that someone was apparently being given an organ lesson. this particular monastery is known for its woodworking, and they had some beautiful walking sticks, birdhouses, and caskets for sale, although the last was a bit morbid.

after another hour or so of iowa, we came to wisconsin, land of cheese and green bay packers. the southwest corner of wisconsin, as we found out later, was the only part of the state not leveled by the glacier which flattened the rest of the state and great lakes. like iowa, it was beautiful, with rolling hills which turned into bluffs pretty quickly. we headed up to spring green, near the home of frank lloyd wright, on the docket for later. a little further north is the small town of plain, population 791. here we spent the night at the bettinger bed and breakfast, pictured below.run by the very friendly elderly couple jim and marie, we really enjoyed our stay. jim particularly, had a fantastic wisconsin accent since he was born in the northern part of the state. we ate a picnic dinner which we had picked up at a local grocery, and then hit the sack. we, or at least i, woke up groggily to a house full of cheerful folk ready for breakfast--rounding out the guests were a biker couple from kansas and an attorney and his wife from michigan. we sat down to a delicious repast of asparagus crepes, fresh fruit salad, fresh sausage, fresh pineapple pound cake, and fresh rhubarb sauce (like applesauce, but made of rhubarb, which i love). just a note about food in wisconsin: our host grew his own asparagus and rhubarb, and collected wild black raspberries for the fruit salad. in addition, there was a fabulous butcher shop in town with tons of delicious looking meat cuts, and i'm not even a meat person. this morning on our way out, in addition to the butcher, we visited a local cheese-maker, and stocked up for the rest of the trip. and this is real cheese, sealed in wax. talk about legit. currently, i am sitting in the visitor's center for taliesin, wright's home. tour in a couple hours, wisconsin below.