2017 MinnWisMi - Chippewa Falls to Thorp

Saturday - September 23 - Chippewa Falls to Thorp
Today is a copy of yesterday. It was 70F at 7:00 with predicted real feel temps in the high 90's this afternoon. We still stop for pictures though.

This sign is all about Chippewa Springs, the pure waters of which Ezra Pound describes in a poem "as the love potion that Hiawatha used to woo the beautiful Minnehaha."

This is the original spring house built in 1893.

Bottling the water looks a little bigger today!

Lake Wissota

The Yellowstone Trail was the first transcontinental highway through the upper tier of the states, established in 1912. Some original sections like this still exist here and in Montana and Washington. County X is the old Highway 29, which is now a 4 lane highway about a mile to the south of here. Using this as our route is an happy accident.

Our first stop with our new cheese guide and map. It is named Yellowstone because it is on the historic Yellowstone Trail. We bought some curds. When Donna asked why they were so squeaky, the answer was it is cheese music being played by our teeth on the tight protein strings of the fresh cheese.

Stopped for a shade break.

Not bad for an upside-down-on-top-of-the-helmet-while-pedaling shot.

Our introduction to Thorp.

The Aroma Cafe was a fine place for lunch...good food and cool. They also had a brochure that explained the fireman cow and that there are 24 more around town.

The Pumpkin Cow

We had to look close to figure out that the aluminum can wants to become a bike.

After checking into the motel, we pedaled out to our 2nd cheese stop, Marieke Gouda.

So much Gouda to choose from and so little space to carry it! I (Donna) did get a tiny cup of Cranberry Gouda chunks to go.

The owners are originally from the Netherlands.

Looks like cheese heaven.

They had ice cream too and we didn't have to carry that!

Flower Cow was in front of the motel along with Petunia calf.

All the cows have similar plaques.

Since tomorrow is supposed to be really hot again, we went to Mass this evening at St. Bernard's so we could get an early start.

This picture doesn't really do justice to the window. While I (Donna) was taking it, a parishioner came by to chat. He told me that the other church (St. Hedwig) outside of town had been abandoned when the 2 parishes combined in 1974. It had similarly beautiful windows that had been removed and put in another church in Wisconsin. The building is now being renovated to become a recording studio because it has such amazing acoustics.

It is Homecoming Weekend here, so there were lots of dressed up high schoolers at dinner at the Thorpedo Restaurant.