Short Trip to WI, Days 2 and 3

After a reasonable sleep I woke early - especially by WI time zone time.  The hotel was quiet which is all that is needed, but there were some large "wumps" that occurred a few times in the early morning.  It wasn't that they were that loud, but they did create visions of the bike getting blown over by the wind.  Thankfully, that didn't happen.

With ample time to get ready, I was out to see the House on the Rock around the time it opened.  I originally heard about the House on the Rock from Wing World magazine.  The new editor was taking a (car) trip and wrote about it.  I'm pretty disappointed in the changes to Wing World from the member oriented magazine that it was.  The new editor (Kevin Whipps) writes most of what is in it now, turning it into his personal blog.  This wouldn't be so bad, but for a magazine directed to aficionados of touring motorcycles it is odd that most of what is written is by a guy who doesn't ride motorcycles.  He attempts to address this in a recent editorial, but it still doesn't work - editing and writing are two different things.  A virgin writing a column about sex is unusual, but OK.  A magazine about sex written by a virgin is just wrong.  Credit given to Mr. Whipps, if it wouldn't have been for his rental car trip, I wouldn't be at the House on the Rock on this torrentially wet April day.

And how to classify The House on the Rock?  It is part museum, part American Kitsch, part fantasy, part history lesson.  It really defies classification.  Information on its history can be seen on the web site, but it is the creation of Alex Jordan, started as a retreat/studio and it grew from there (and got more eclectic).
It is separated into a welcome center, and 3 sections.  It is hard to get the overall view while there, but from Google's satellite view, the overall layout and scale a little more understandable.

As of now, the tour of all three sections costs $28.50 with a discount if tickets are prepurchased online.

The tour starts by seeing some water gardens which gives a premonition of what is to come.

From there, it moves into an exhibit type room where the history is explained in greater detail.  I usually don't spend much time in places like this, but I new I had several hours to kill, so I looked over much of the information.  It was more interesting than I had thought.  I was, however, a little disappointed at this point since what I was seeing was more museum-y than I had been led to believe the house was going to be; my disappointment was soon shown top be ill-placed.  The history lesson does bring something to the overall experience.

After the museum-like building, the atmosphere changes to more unusual, almost foreboding.

The gate house and the main house feel more like an actual residence of an eccentric.  There are huge sitting areas with built-in furniture, sort of like the Brady Bunch if they were even remotely interesting (with sincere apologies to Alex Jordan).

There are plexiglass faux stained glass windows which creates interesting play on color and light along with huge fireplaces that must have been exquisite when the building was used more privately.  The bizarre decorations look like they could be right at home in my house - um, maybe...

The infinity room is the most identifiable feature from the satellite view above.  It is a room which juts out about 200 feet over the forest floor.  The views are magnificent, even in the dull weather.  I expect it is equally stunning, if totally different in the summer greenery and winter snow.
One of the great things about seeing The House on the Rock at the end of April was that it was nearly deserted.  This is probably not so good for the attraction, but made it very enjoyable to move fast or slow through it without screaming kids, crabby parents, etc.  It was just me and a few retired people.  Experiences like the pictured Infinity Room are probably not possible on a Saturday in June (imagine this crowded with people).

Near the end of Infinity Room is a window to look down.  I was glad they left the paper wasp hive, I expect Mr. Jordan would have approved the blend of nature and exhibit.

After the Gate House and the Main House, the feel of the tour changes to more one of exhibit.  There are collections and oddities of all kinds.  Some areas feel like museums, others are whimsical fantasies.  It is hard to tell if some artifacts are real, recreations, or something else all together, but it really doesn't matter.

After the Infinity Room, the Heritage of the Sea was nearly equally interesting, but totally different.  The exhibit is centered around a giant 200 foot whale fighting a colossal squid.  It is impossible to understand the scale of this from a simple picture.

The whale is ringed by a spiral walkway filled with aquatic-themed exhibits of all kind.  Having an interest in early sea voyaging, I found much of this fascinating.  There are countless pieces of scrimshaw on display as well.

Other things to give a flavor of what the House on the Rock might be?
A Rube Goldberg Egg Counter (think Willy Wonka, or Dr. Seuss).

The cars  on display seemed a little out of place, but how often does one get the chance to see a Mercedes 300SL Gullwing (and note the car behind it completely covered in tile, yes tile).

An enormous carousel with a seemingly infinite amount of antique real carousel animals around in conditions ranging from pristine to decrepit.

A huge outdated electric generator?  (at first I thought it was an old still - which there was one right behind me when I took this picture)

There are also numerous very old calliope music machines that range in size from diminutive to enormous.  The occasional music playing in the background adds a surreal quality to the exhibits.  Sitting there alone listening to Nearer My God To Thee on an antique music maker surrounded by the unclassified was almost creepy.

Frankly, with the sparse attendance a lot of this was borderline creepy - and I loved it.

Mr. Jordan had an interest in weapons and armor and there is a huge display of what I think was authentic guns.  Even if not all authentic, some guns like this carved ivory model are too interesting.

Or, what the FAA would have been worried about if air travel had existed in the early American frontier days.

I'm not sure if the armor was genuine, but I'll believe at least some of it is.  They even had an exhibit including a life-sized fiberglass elephant in plated armor.

Some parts were rather uninteresting, the doll exhibits where an experiment in horror (really).  However, they were easy to glance at while walking through, lest the anthropomorphised dolls rise up and attack.  That is one of the great things about being the overall experience, there has to be something for everyone.

While doing the tour, I was struck by the amount of roof-leaking exhibited by wet carpet and buckets to catch water.  This is a victim of architecture by form over function.  I also understand this is true of Frank Lloyd Wright - where his buildings often had ever-present leaks, if not immediately, soon after being built.  There is a tenuous connection between Frank Lloyd Wright and Alex Jordan in that The House on the Rock is sort of what Wright's architecture might have been if he was on LSD (instead of being just a sanctimonious prick)?  Both Alex Jordan and Frank Lloyd Wright have ties to Wisconsin too, hmmmm.....
The weather during the tour did not help much with the leaks as most of the time it was pouring rain.  However, by the time I left the worst had passed before I retrieved my helmet from the nice lady at the cashier's desk.  I'm not sure the overall experience would have been the same at the height of the tourism season, but given the time and my frame of mind, The House on the Rock was well worth the cost of admission and a few hours of my life.

Once the tour was complete, I drove a few miles north to an overlook of the area.  The only thing that can be easily distinguished is the Infinity Room, which I doubt is more than subtly viewable during the summer when everything is in full greenery.

With the worst of the weather passed, I headed to see Maria and Nicole.

We visited for a while before going to Kitcho in Fort Atkinson for dinner.  The sushi was great; the spicy salmon rolls were unbelievable!  The meal ended oddly when we got fortune cookies - I thought that was Chinese, not Japanese.  But, since fortune cookies are an american invention anyway, I suppose it was an acceptable end to the meal.

After that we finished the evening by watching the two episodes of the TV show Fargo.  I love the movie, and so was wary of watching the TV show.  But, it was actually fairly good.  It had a Fargo flavor without capitalizing the movie too much.  A lot happened, and a lot of people died in the first few episodes so it will be hard to keep it going without becoming David Lynch-esque.  Possibly that would be a good thing if it ends before becoming the second season of Twin Peaks, but, since I don't pay for TV at home, I'll probably never really know.

After numerous overnight thunderstorms (I was glad the Trophy was safely in Maria and Nicole's garage), Tuesday woke to a drizzly rain.  Since both Maria and Nicole had to work, it was time to hit the road home after a quick light breakfast of toast and coffee.

The rain continued intermittently and with varying intensity for the first couple hours.  At the only toll booth on Interstate 39, it was torrentially raining as I went through making it difficult to dryly get out $1.90 for the toll.  I hate this toll booth anyway, it isn't near enough Chicago to even exist, so all it is is just Illinois being Illinois grubbing for money.  Illinois remains a state which seems to go out of its way to be unfriendly.

The one upshot of the rain was a chance to test the Triumph Trophy's handling and tourability in wet weather.  It performed flawlessly, especially given the still-high winds.  Getting the windscreen just right resulted in relative comfort, but I need to buy a shorty rubber ducky antenna since stock unit shakes violently when the windscreen is adjusted so the air hits it.  The Zumo GPS functioned well too, even with all the rain.
The cold temperatures and wet weather combined to make a clammy ride down to Bloomington.  From there, the temperatures warmed rapidly making jungle rot feel like a real risk.  Luckily, after another hour or so, the skies cleared and temperatures warmed to near 80, drying things out nicely.

Trip Statistics (from the bike's onboard computer):
1008.9 miles
20.0 gallons of fuel
50.4 Miles per Gallon (average)
57.7 Miles per Hour (average for the trip)
17.5 Hours of riding for trip (inclusive of all time the bike was running)

I was home by around 3:30 with plenty of time to unpack and wash the now thoroughly grubbified bike.  It had been a short trip with a unique experience at the House on the Rock, good weather, wet weather, cold weather.
And, one day to recover until returning to the nightmare of work.

Short Trip to WI, Day 1

Much like the last few years, I had extra vacation from the previous year.  The company I work for makes the previous year's vacation be used by the end of April so I had a few "forced" days off.  The first few days was spent doing stuff around home, but I couldn't stomach the thought of not doing anything more interesting with at least some of the time off.
So, I planned (sort of) a trip to Wisconsin to see the House on the Rock and Maria and Nicole.  This was also a good opportunity to take a first trip on the Triumph Trophy and test the new Zumo GPS.

As the trip time came close, the weather looked terrible.  But, weather can't dictate vacation and there is no better test of bike and equipment than a motorcycle trip in crappy weather.

The morning to leave arrived and I was packed and out the door by 8:00.  It was sunny as I left, making the GPS really hard to see.  But, weather started good and as is usually the case, traffic on Sunday morning was virtually nonexistent.
Getting around Indianapolis was easy by Indianapolis standards, but the wind was significant.  Once around Indy, I headed north.  The wind grew more intense and almost directly from the east.  The east wind was indicative of the very low pressure system that was to come through the area bringing very heavy weather to the South and Midwest.

Getting off the interstate on US 24, I stopped for gas.  As I was leaving the gas station, the GPS was basically impossible to read, despite the presence of high clouds thinning the sunlight.  I pulled into a vacant parking lot and unloaded the saddle bag with the tools and adjust the GPS bracket down a few degrees.  What a major difference!  That small adjustment made the GPS go from basically unseeable to very visible, even in the sun.
The success with the GPS mount was followed by very nice weather.  The temperature warmed quickly into the low 70s with mostly sunny skies.  It was still windy, but the wind was from the east still so it didn't affect the bike other than giving me fantastic fuel economy.
The joy of the wind to my back lasted until I got to I-39.  Headed north, the east wind became constant work, making maintaining land position difficult.  It got a little better as I got off the interstate, but only due to the lower speeds.  Wind speeds increased as I went north, the gusts as hills blocked the wind caused a few nerve-wracking moments.
From this point, I followed the GPS, which is pretty big departure from my normal way of travel.  The new Garmin Zumo does turn-by-turn where as my older Magellan  Meridian was more like a moving map.  I see benefits to both approaches, but after the investment in the Zumo, I am committed to working with it.  I don't like the "3-D" view of the GPS, choosing the overhead, north up birds-eye view instead.

I continued north and west as the wind grew more arrogant.  By the time I got to Dodgeville and the GPS got me right to my motel, I was ready to be done.  I checked in and marked the occasion by a picture of the bike in front of the hotel.  At this point, over a third of the miles on the bike are from this trip.

I ran down to the gas station and got snacks, followed by Subway to take back to the hotel for dinner.  A few minutes after I got back to the hotel, the first rain of the trip started.  This is also the baptismal rain for the Trophy.

Once settled into the room, the radar suggested I was pretty lucky in not hitting any rain until parked for the night.