Wisconsin River Bluffs

 

Here are a couple more pictures from Halloween: another selfie of me with earrings in this time to complete the look, and Richard Bonomo's absolutely terrifying pumpkin.

This morning, when we went out to brunch, Rich's hot cocoa was a work of art. I have featured his hot cocoas on here before, but I have to say this one looked more impressive in real life than it does in the photo.

Travalon and I taped the Packers game, which is probably for the best because we would have been disappointed to waste a beautiful day watching it. Did they have to lose to the Vikings, who are having such a bad season otherwise? The answer is yes, if they are going to get that many penalties. It's not so much that the Vikings beat them as that they lost the game themselves.

Travalon and I drove down Highway 14 to Highway C to 130 to 133, to see the road along the south side of the Wisconsin River that we hadn't seen yesterday when we stayed on Highway 60. We pulled off onto a boat launch area and took some photos.

Then we kept driving on Highway 133, through the town of Avoca. Travalon was happy to see it, because that is the name of the town in Ireland where Ballykissangel is set. We found this caboose there.

And several golf cart crossing signs, which I had not seen before, but Travalon tells me they are all over the place in Florida.

And we also saw this beautiful old stone building, which did not have any sign indicating it is a currently functioning business, but it does say "Entrance" on the door.

Then we drove to Muscoda (still pronounced Muss-kah-DAY and not Muss-KOH-dah) and took a walk at the riverside park. We found some trails in the woods behind the high school, which is called Riverdale, although there is no evidence that the Archie comics are based in Muscoda. Here are a couple of photos of the Wisconsin River.

And here are a couple of photos of the trails in the woods.

The garbage cans at this park all have morel mushrooms painted on them for some reason.

Then we drove through Gotham, and Travalon took a photo of the defunct Bat Cave Bar. 

We drove back east on Highway 60 again, and there were some stunning bluffs at spots where we couldn't stop to take a picture, since it was one lane of traffic in each direction with a bluff on one side and a sheer drop to the river on the other. You will just have to drive the road yourself if you would like to see them. We stopped at Arcadia Books in Spring Green for some warm beverages and a book about Wisconsin road trips, and right outside of town Travalon took some photos of the bluffs with the last traces of autumn foliage.

There are some gorgeous rock formations on Highway 60.

We tried to take pictures of my favorite hill, right at the start of Highway 60, but the sun was right behind it and they didn't really turn out. We went to the VFW Park, and Travalon took some photos.

Then we did drive back to the start of Highway 60 to take some pictures of my favorite hill. It doesn't seem to have a name on any maps, so we kicked around some ideas (Travalon suggested Bluto's Bluff since he is on a Popeye kick lately), and we finally decided on Berigan Bluff after Bunny Berigan, the big band leader from Fox Lake. Sauk isn't that close to Fox Lake, but we don't know of anything else in the state named after our native son.

There was also a bluff with trees that looked like they were lining up to jump off of it.

Another shot of Berigan Bluff. You can see it when you head west on Highway 12 from Madison, just as you are approaching Sauk City. It looks like a little mountain in the distance.

And of course in Prairie du Sac there is Travalon's favorite Sinclair sign.

The service station there hasn't been owned by Sinclair for years, but it recently changed hands so Travalon is afraid the new owners might take the sign down. How sad if they did, since it's so iconic.

Famous Hat