Continuing the story of our road trip, when we woke up Monday morning at our hotel in Savannah, it was raining. The weather had been beautiful the other two days, but we drove through a storm to Galena, where I suggested we take a trolley tour of the town while waiting for the rain to subside. The trolleys were very cute.
The one we rode on was pretty on the inside too, and our driver/guide was very entertaining. He was actually from Madison!
We saw all kinds of cool houses on the tour. Most of the buildings in Galena are made of red brick, and this one has beautiful tiles on the top floor.
After that we shopped a little and had lunch at an Italian restaurant, and then we headed back into Wisconsin. As we drove along, we saw a sign for the grave of Father Samuel Mazzuchelli, a famous missionary priest in the area back in the 19th century. This was in Benton, so we stopped and took a picture.
Across the street was a war memorial, so we took pictures of that too, since it is what the day is really about.
Here is the church Father Mazzuchelli (or, as the Irish in the area called him, "Father Matthew Kelly") built in Benton: St. Patrick's.
And this is the rectory where he lived for years.
There was a sign that stated an even older church built by Father Mazzuchelli was just down the road in New Diggings, so we went there and found St. Augustine, which is not actively used these days, although they do have Mass there once a year.
In New Diggings there was also a biker bar, not as elaborate as Poopy's, but we stopped there for a drink.
Then we went to Shullsburg, which Travalon wanted to show me because he said it is a small Galena, with old buildings made of red brick. (Though it does not have the spectacular geographical surroundings of being built into a cliff overlooking a river.) There is yet another Father Mazzuchelli-built church there called St. Matthew's.
We went to the mining museum there and took a tour with two young teen guides. They took us down into the mine shaft, and here is a picture of that:
In the part of the museum above ground, they had all sorts of historical things, like the hats being sold at a store in the 1920's. Check it out - this one looks just like Famous Hat!
After that we drove to Brodhead, which is a small town maybe an hour south of Madison. Why? Because up near where we live there is a billboard that says: "Visit Brodhead," so I was curious. What's there? It does seem like a funny place to put the billboard; Travalon says it should be down near Rich's house, because the people driving that way would be going the right direction to head there. I did wonder why the billboard is on the way to the airport - are people planning to fly to Brodhead?
On the way there we saw a rainbow.
There is some pretty architecture in Brodhead, and this lovely gazebo, but not much was going on the evening we were there. We just walked around town a little and had dinner. Weirdly, their Catholic church only seems to have Mass on Wednesday evenings, not on Sundays at all.
We did find yet another war memorial there, so that was appropriate for the day.
There is supposed to be a covered bridge just outside of town, but we never found it. We will just have to head back sometime and look for it, and while we're at it we will take a hike at the evocatively-named Magnolia Bluff, which is right along the way. So stay tuned.
Famous Hat
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