May 11th

I crossed over the Mississippi River into Wisconsin this morning and I will be in the Eastern time zone by tomorrow night but I still have plenty to see in the Midwest.

My first stop today, the House on the Rock, is hard to describe in words or in pictures. Alex Jordan was a college dropout doing carpentry and construction work for his father in Madison Wisconsin. He often picnicked on top of a large glacier rock in Spring Green in the western part of the state and had the idea of building a house on top of that rock. And he did it – designing a room at a time in his head and transporting all the materials up by pulleys and ladders. Just for kicks, he later added an “Infinity Room”, which sticks out many feet over the valley without external structural support.

Then I travelled to Madison, whose downtown area is a drumlin between two large glacial lakes (like Spectacle Island in Boston Harbor). And the city was jam-packed, as it was graduation day at the University of Wisconsin.

I had a guided tour of the State Capitol building, capped off by a walk around the outdoor observation platform under the dome. Nearby were the Wisconsin Historical Museum and the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, featuring Wisconsin’s participation in all of the country’s armed conflicts, all the way from the Civil War to Afghanistan.

I took some pictures of downtown Madison from across Lake Monoma and then drove to spend the night in Milwaukee.

Today’s song is the theme song from “Laverne and Shirley” – “Making Our Dreams Come True”. RIP – Penny Marshall!