Art D-Tour in the Driftless Area

 

Today did not start promisingly, when I woke up feeling so lousy that I could barely move. I couldn't make it to Mass, and I hardly had the energy to make breakfast, but Travalon said we could do the Art D-Tour, and I thought, well, that's in a car so okay. Both my neighbor and the Dairyman's Daughter had talked this event up: it's a free tour of the Driftless Area in Sauk County, stopping at various places to see art, shop for produce, or admire antique tractors, and what a beautiful time of year to do it. So we went to the little bookstore in Spring Green to get the map and some coffee, and that perked me up enough that I was able to climb St. Anne's Hill in Plain to get to the shrine. That was the equivalent of twenty flights of stairs! according to my phone. There was an amazing view, and Travalon brought his good camera.

This is looking down at St. Luke's, the Catholic church in Plain, which has an amazing fish fry Fridays in Lent.

There were Stations of the Cross going up the hill.

This is the inside of St. Anne's Shrine.

And this is the outside.

Here I am heading back down the hill. Up was hard, but down was scary! This is beyond the steep part - at least they did have a handrail.

Look at these gorgeous autumn colors!

And this cool terraced hillside!

Then we drove along the path, admiring the artwork and the beautiful topography of the Driftless Region. 

The path was a figure eight, but we only did one-half of the eight. There were forty stops, and we saw twenty. One was a park in a town called Witwen, where the Hispanic Knights of Columbus were selling tacos and tamales and Mexican street corn. We also got some fresh kale at another stop, and we had it for dinner tonight. So delicious!

On the way home, we stopped at the Springfield Hill segment of the Ice Age Trail. It's a loop that goes around a pond and up a hill into some woods.

We saw this beautiful kingfisher, but just as we got it into perfect focus, it flew away. Please enjoy this photo of it not quite in focus.

We also saw this interesting tunnel, but we didn't go in it. Next time.

This building used to belong to an early settler named Fred Hahn.

Here are a couple of shots from the hill.

We kind of hurried, because I thought my band had practice today, but Hardingfele did the hard work of going there to find out, and nope - no practice. I was running late after the hike, and she texted me and said don't bother showing up. Anyway, now we have 3.7 cumulative miles toward our 40 on the Ice Age Trail. We went to evening Mass, then I prayed one of my new Franciscan rosaries in honor of St. Francis, since today is his feast day, even if it is overshadowed by Sunday. (I tortured Travalon by praying the other one on the drive home yesterday.) Tonight at Night Prayer, the Dairyman's Daughter said she had only done half the D-Tour herself, and we met up with our neighbor at the stand selling the fresh kale, so I will have to find out if she did the whole thing. We did pass a guy on a bike who had stopped to consult the map, and I thought, man, that's really hardcore - biking the D-Tour! Speaking of bikers, as we were leaving the park with the taco stand, the people in front of us dropped a bill on the ground. I think it was only a dollar bill, but before I could pick it up and run after them, a motorcycle almost ran me over so that he could swoop over and pick it up. Talk about a jerk! Just like the guy who flew a drone right over the boat when Tiffy, Travalon, and I took the Devil's Lake Tour. Captain Katy said, "Times like this are when you wish you had a gun." Why are there so many jerks out there? At least most people aren't jerks.

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Return to Marytown

 

Today Travalon and I headed to Marytown because he had never been there and I thought that was where I saw a Sacred Heart chaplet that I didn't get at the time but now can't stop thinking about. We hit the road and stopped for a short hike on the South Kettle Moraine section of the Ice Age Trail, where we discovered that this month, if you hike 40 miles (for the 40th anniversary of the trail), you get a special patch. So I signed us up (we're a team, and I'm the captain), and to my delight the miles are cumulative, so we each really only have to hike 20 miles on the Ice Age Trail. Today is the actual anniversary, and I'm glad we discovered this so early in the month - it would have been a lot harder to accomplish if I had learned about it on the 28th. Here are a couple of photos.

Then we stopped in Richmond, Illinois for lunch at Dog N Suds, a drive-in Travalon remembered from his childhood. He remembered that there used to be a number of antiques stores in town, but we only found one that was open, and I got a couple of rosaries, a pair of earrings, and a yellow quartz crystal. Then we continued on to Marytown, and the gift shop was set up slightly differently than I remembered, so the place where I had seen the Sacred Heart chaplet was gone. Or did I see it somewhere else? I did find two beautiful Franciscan seven-decade rosaries, and as I was debating which one to get, I noticed they were 60% off so getting both of them was cheaper than I had expected one to be. Travalon got a Lego set of the Last Supper. Then we went into the church, where they have perpetual eucharistic adoration.

This side chapel full of candles is beautiful too.

Then we went to the display on St. Maximilian Kolbe and the Holocaust. I cried the first time I saw it, so I thought I'd be immune this time, but nope - it made me cry again. Here is a map with the number of murders listed for each country.

Here are a couple of pieces from Auschwitz: a brick and some barbed wire.

The parts that made me cry were the pictures of the children being led to the gas chamber, and the story about the guy St. Maximilian Kolbe traded places with. He lived to be 95 after being spared, and he didn't waste all those extra years - he spent them telling everyone about the saint. 

Here is a photo of the outside of Marytown.

We drove back north, to Bristol, Wisconsin, and stopped at Lake George.

In Bristol there are twin antiques shops right next to each other, and they seem to be affiliated. I went to the first one and found two rosaries just as they were about to close at five, and then they called over to the other one, and they stayed open as I ran over there and found five more rosaries. 

Our next stop was Lake Geneva, where we took a walk on the lakeshore path.

 

There are beautiful houses in Lake Geneva. Some look very English.

We drove through Delavan but didn't stop to take a picture of their eponymous lake. As we were driving past Janesville, we saw a silo on fire! Travalon said, "It looks like a volcano!" I asked if I should call 911, but he said they probably already knew. We got to where we could take a picture, but this is the best of the sorry lot. You can't really see the five shoots of water the firefighters were aiming at the blaze. The row of lights is a cow barn, or at least some sort of barn, so I was praying like crazy that the fire wouldn't reach the animals in it. Can you imagine how scared they must have been?

Other than the scary fire, it was a wonderful day. And that is despite the constant drizzle all day.

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Travalon's Adventures

 

I didn't have any adventures today, although I did have great success with something (an Access database I am building) at work. Travalon, however, has been getting out and about. This week he started doing Door Dash, delivering food from different places to people who don't want to leave their houses. He doesn't really have any entertaining stories from that, but today when he got done, he hiked at Pheasant Branch and took some photos. 

Then when he got home, he saw our crazy neighbors!

These are the two rosaries I got at the Lake Mills antiques store, along with the chiwara. I prayed with the one on the left this evening. Usually I use them in the order I got them, but sometimes I mix it up and use them right away. It kind of depends on how many I get at a time - I'll usually save a big bunch. 

People may be wondering if I have a favorite rosary. Not really - I love them all. Some are more beautiful than others, and some have an amazing vibe. That one that used to feel resistant now has such a joyful vibe that I can feel it across the room. It draws me like a magnet. I really hope that the girl who owned it is the person who greets me when I die.

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