2017 MinnWisMi - Wittenberg to Farmer Gene's Campground

Thursday - September 28 - Wittenberg to Farmer Gene's Campground
aka Green Packers Home Game Day.
This is the day that has influenced much of our last week or so. Doug needs a shot in his eye on a monthly basis right now. Back in August, the Green Bay doctor originally scheduled him for tomorrow. HOWEVER, the only room we could find in Green Bay was $350 per night. Then we discovered that the Packers were playing at home on Thursday NOT Sunday. The doctor's office graciously moved his appointment to Monday so problem solved for lodging in Green Bay. HOWEVER, we are headed to a campground about 20 miles south of our intended route because there are no motel rooms available in a 50 mile radius of Green Bay tonight for any price because it isn't just any home game.....it is against the Chicago Bears, the longest running rivalry in the NFL and the 2 cities are only 3 hours apart!

It was a chilly morning and we only had 20 miles to ride so we waited until a little after 10 when it got to the mid 50's.

That brought us to Tigerton about lunch time. The Rocks for Fun Pasty Shop caught our attention right away.

We ordered 2 pasties to go fresh out of the oven.....

.... and headed to the Community Park.

They were scrumptious!

Dark clouds snuck up on us while we were eating. We donned our rainjackets in Split Rock but it really only sprinkled for a little bit.

And we are here!

Grandpa Doug is jealous....he thought he was the best! (at least the grandkids always make him feel that way)

The other attraction was that this campground has cabins AND since it is the off-season, they are half off. Works for us!

And they even have a view of Kinney Lake.

It looks like a great place for kids. This is one of 4 playgrounds scattered around and there is a wading pool and big pool in the summer. They have already been winterized.

The miniature golf course was available though so we played 2 rounds. Donna won the first round.

Doug won the 2nd round.

Getting a little journaling done. We are the only ones in a cabin so it is very quiet. No wifi and hardly any cell reception either.

We stopped at Lake Kinney dock and beach on our way to dinner at the campground's bar and grill.

There were quite a few people in Packer colors at dinner and that was almost the exclusive topic of conversation at the bar.

While eating, we looked at the weather app to check out tomorrow as there was wifi in the restaurant and discovered that a thunderstorm was on its way. We scurried back to the cabin, made the 1/4 mile trek to the bathrooms and back, then.....

..........settled in for the evening. The thunder rolled about 5 minutes later and 10 minutes later it rained really hard and kept at it. We were so, so , so glad we weren't in a tent!!

2017 MinnWisMi - Wausau to Wittenberg

Wednesday - September 27 - Wausau to Wittenberg
Since we knew that breakfast might take awhile we brought all our stuff downstairs beforehand.

It was a good thing as Doug's front tire was flat again when we retrieved the bikes from the garage. He got it fixed before breakfast.

Our host and breakfast cook extraordinaire totally spoiled us and said to call if we needed any help while still in Wisconsin.

We finally got on the road at 10:00 and it was 52F. It didn't get much warmer than that all day.

We were so happy to reach Skyline Lane. We only had to stop twice on the way up the hill, the steepest we've seen this trip. We had looked at several routes and all of them had this steep pitch out of the river bottom. We had had to walk up it to get to the museum yesterday so we were mentally prepared. Still it was a relief to have it out of the way early in the day.

Big boys being used to squish the silage. We watched for a little as the tractors did their well-coordinated dance. Our sound of the day was the wind blowing through the corn and our smell of the day was from trucks hauling newly harvested silage.

This was a good sign as it was a long ways between bathrooms out here.

Plover River restoration kudos

Doug really appreciated this guy's mustache....they could almost be twins 😉.

Our lunch stop in Birnamwood. Our host also bikes and she was quite jealous of our day.....and the tailwind.

This is a typical log truck here and in Minnesota. We've seen quite a few but this was the first one that was stopped. Most of them do carry the logs sideways like this also.

As we pulled into Wittenberg, we spied this dental office. Doug had chipped a front tooth at breakfast yesterday and the dentist close to where we were staying in Wausau was out of the office for 2 days. This dentist actually had a slot open to fix Doug's tooth. The receptionist said if we had been an hour later it would not have worked out. We were feeling pretty darn lucky!

Wittenberg is known for its murals so we went looking around town after Doug got done with the dentist. This one is on the hardware store.

On a restaurant.

You have to look at this one awhile.

The veterinarian's office 

The fire hall

The city park

It makes you feel warmer when it's snowing.

Doug communing with Vincent van Frogh.

The only sun we've seen all day. What a contrast to a couple of days ago!

2017 MinnWisMi - Wausau Art and Rain Day

Tuesday - September 26 - Wausau
It rained overnight and is supposed to rain on and off all day. We had been hearing about the Birds in Art exhibit at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum for the past week and it seemed like the perfect place to spend a rainy day.

The art theme for the day really started right where we are staying.

This theme is carried throughout the house wherever there is stained glass

The stairs to the left lead to the 5 bedrooms.

Almost everything in the house is original except for the steam showers and toilets in the guest bathrooms.

These doors lead to a large covered porch. It was a little cool to fully appreciate it today.

The lighting fixtures all have the tulips.

We walked by the Yawkey House on our way to lunch. It was also designed by George Maher and is open for tours but we had other plans.

The 319 Bistro had the best tomato soup. We had ordered a sandwich which came with a cup of soup but wished we had just ordered a bowl of soup.

They also had some creative ice cream names.

Now to the museum.

These beauties greet you at the edge of the parking lot.

Part of the shininess is from raindrops. 

They won the National Medal for Museum and Library Service this year. Leigh Yawkey Woodson had 3 daughters who established the museum to honor her.

The art and the space were both amazing.

They draw artists from all over the world for this annual fall exhibit.

This is a detail from a piece all done with cut paper.

This is part of a painting NOT a photograph!

Another piece of the same painting.

The whole picture

Doug was very inspired by the quality of the decoys. The one he is working on at home better watch out!

This was in the children's section but Donna is short enough to fit.

We stayed dry on the walk back down the hill (it was a steep one!) and had some time to relax before walking to dinner.

Thank you, Wausau, for being such a wonderful place to spend a rainy day (can't really call it a rest day 😉).