Wisconsin: Eagles, Beer, Cheese Curds, Tourist Traps, and Other American Things
I took the scenic route from Apple Valley to my next stop, La Crosse, WI. And by the scenic route, I mean the Great River Road. Definitely one of my favorite rides thus far; I'd go so far as to call it a must if you're doing a 48 state road trip.
Eagle Summit March
On the way, I stopped at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN, where I met Angel, Was’aka, and Latsch.
Here I learned some fascinating facts about our national bird:
1. Eagles tend to get larger the further they get from the equator. Warmer weather means they can’t afford to carry any unnecessary weight and are thus smaller down south (like Was’aka). The biggest bald eagles are in Alaska, which also has as many bald eagles as the entire lower 48 combined.
2. In the wild, eagles live 20-25 years. In captivity they can live 35-40 years. Amazing what a balanced diet and health care can do.
3. Once an eagle hits adult maturation (~5 years old), its appearance stops changing. Thus it’s impossible to guess the age of an adult wild eagle - a 6 year old will look the same as a 25 year old.
4. Eagles spend 90% of their time perched. Imagine if we only spent 10% of our lives working.
5. Eagles have this weird mating ritual where they lock claws and tumble toward the earth to test the fitness of their potential mate. Kind of like a crazy game of chicken - let go too early and you don’t have the mating chops, too late and you're dead. While not technically monogamous, bald eagles return to the same nest site each year and thus will continue to mate with the same partner as long as that partner proved to be helpful in raising healthy offspring in the past and still appears to be healthy.
6. An eagle can eat up to 40% of its body weight in one sitting. I forgot to write this one down in my notes so this is just off memory and may be wrong.
7. Bald eagles are no longer endangered as we stopped dumping absurd amounts of DDT in the water supply. A rare success story.
8. The eagle screech you’re familiar with from movies and TV is a fake. What you’re hearing is actually a red tailed hawk. Bald eagle screeches sound more like a witch cackle, which is more unsettling than freedom/patriotism inducing.
9. There are channel catfish weighing over 100 lbs in the Mississippi. Talk about a whopper. I know, this isn't an eagle fact, but I did learn it at the National Eagle Center, and I think it is something you should be aware of.
La Crosse: A Town Not a Sport
In La Crosse, which happened to be celebrating its Wisconsin famous Oktoberfest when I passed through, I stayed with Carol (If you remember Darr from my Camp People post this is his mom) and her husband, Brad.
Carol is originally from Philadelphia but spent much of her adult life in Louisiana. She’s a psychiatric nurse practitioner who does remote medicine. She loves traveling and is working to become fluent in Italian. From Carol, I learned that the secret to fluffy eggs is sparkling water.
Brad is originally from Detroit but has been in Wisconsin since college. When Brad built his house, he was the only one on top of the hill overlooking La Crosse; now there are about a dozen other homes on the same road. Brad is an orthopedic surgeon and loves to golf. He even gave me a lesson in the golf simulator he built before I left the next morning.
Carol and Brad met through a catalog and dated 5 years long distance before getting married somewhat recently. They’re currently splitting time between La Crosse, WI and Covington, LA, but are strongly considering a move to Denver as they each have children who live in Colorado.
At the suggestion of Carol and Brad, I tried to take the scenic route to Milwaukee… until I made a wrong turn and ended up on 90. Still the little bit of country roads I got in before I hit 90 was quite scenic, and ending up on 90 meant I passed through Wisconsin Dells on my way to Milwaukee.
Wisconsin Dells: A Stop Years in the Making
I’ve passed signs for Wisconsin Dells every time I’ve driven through Wisconsin and have always wanted to stop. In need of both gas and Taco Bell, I had the perfect excuse to stop.
Wisconsin Dells initially became an attraction for the beauty of the natural lakes there, but has since grown into a tourist trap centered on boat tours and water parks. This time I came strictly for the natural beauty, but I haven’t ruled out returning for the water parks.
First I went to the state park, which featured some great overlooks. The Dells reminded me of an inland version of Pictured Rocks (boat tours and all!).
After that I tried to go to Stand Rock, but turns out you have to go through a bunch of private property with no trespassing signs to get there and I didn’t feel like risking getting shot that day. As I could not reach it to take pictures, you’re gonna have to google Stand Rock if you don’t know what it looks like.
My final stop in Wisconsin Dells was, of course, Taco Bell. Gonna be honest, it’s been over a month, and I left myself very limited notes on this Taco Bell, so my review is somewhat lacking.
Food: I ordered a cantina chicken soft taco, a spicy potato taco (I believe this was a free reward), and a Fresca style Crunchwrap supreme with guac. My notes indicate the food was average. All I can remember is that the guac on the crunchwrap didn't hit as hard as I hoped it would.
Atmosphere: The decor was a bit understated by Taco Bell’s typically flamboyant standards, but the teal backsplash, black ceilings, and industrial style furniture did create a bit of a vibe. Can’t remember if there was music playing, which means it couldn’t have been that memorable if there was.
Cleanliness: As you can see from the photos there were a few straw wrappers lying around, but an employee was dispatched to clean while I was there.
Staff: The dude who was cleaning was super friendly and told me that he thought my bike was sick.
Overall a solid Taco Bell visit. Not one to go out of your way to make a pilgrimage to, but definitely not the worst place to stop for a bite.
Milwaukee: Which Came First - The Town or The Power Tools?
In Milwaukee, I stayed with my friends Joe and Maggie.
Joe is originally from the northern Chicago suburbs, while Maggie is from Sheboygan, WI (not to be confused with Cheboygan, MI - see my point about all small towns in MI having a counterpart of the same name in WI or MN), so Milwaukee is quite convenient as it puts them squarely between their families. They also like Milwaukee because it offers many of the same big city amenities that Chicago does - a beautiful lakefront, good food and breweries, multiple professional sports teams, trendy young neighborhoods - at a fraction of the cost. I could totally see the draw of Milwaukee in the short time I was there - in addition to everything already mentioned, I was surprised at how pretty the entire city (at least the all the parts I saw) was - a cool mix of well maintained beautiful old architecture and shiny new glass buildings. I was also shocked by how big Milwaukee felt. I was expecting a city roughly the size of Cleveland or Pittsburgh, but discovered that the city proper population of Milwaukee is approximately 1.5-2x the size of Cleveland or Pittsburgh (the metro areas are similar sizes, but that’s largely due to much of Milwaukee’s southern suburbs being counted as part of the Chicago metro area).
Joe and Maggie both went to undergrad at Notre Dame but didn’t meet until Maggie’s sister (Emma) and Joe’s childhood best friend (Matt) got married a few years back (you’ll meet Matt & Emma next post - they were my Chicago stop). Back then, Maggie was in dental school at Marquette and Joe had just moved to Milwaukee for a job in private equity. Maggie is now a general/family dentist and Joe is still in private equity. When they’re not working, they enjoy golfing (Milwaukee offers a great metro golf pass that pretty much pays for itself after a few rounds), visiting family and friends, brewery hopping, and going to Milwaukee sporting events.
In Milwaukee, Maggie and Joe took me to Lakefront Brewery, which is famous for for its cheese curds, brewery tours, and fish sandwiches.
Growing up in Pittsburgh where Lenten fish fry culture is big, I thought I had had the best of fried cod sandwiches, but Wisconsin takes Friday fish fries to whole new level. In Wisconsin, fish fries have moved beyond Catholicism and Lent - they’ve become a secular cultural institution every Friday of the year. And their dedication to this craft shows - the fish sandwich I had at Lakefront was undoubtedly the best I’ve ever had. The cheese curds also slapped and they had a bunch of wild beers, including a blue corn lager and a green tea shandy.
The next morning, I went to mass with Joe and Maggie before heading out. The priest presiding was the celebrant of their wedding mass, which I thought was pretty neat. Most of the weddings I’ve been to have either been in one of the person’s home towns or back at Notre Dame. I imagine it must be a cool experience to go to mass with the priest who married you at the church you got married in every week - almost like a little anniversary reminder every week - but I’ve never been married so I couldn’t tell you for sure.
Keep soaring like an eagle,
KevBird
So wonderful. Like the eagles, I wish I looked the same at my age as I was at age 6!
ReplyDeleteLol that makes 2 of us - don't know if you can see it in the pictures, but I'm starting to get a lot of white in my beard :(
DeleteI worked at the Wabasha Clinic for a few years and have been to the Eagle Center... very informative and entertaining. I hope you were there at feeding time when they give them a rat or something similar to eat - gross and fascinating at the same time. And don't forget that water skiing was first performed just up the river a few miles at Lake Pepin.
ReplyDeleteAhh, how could I forget about water skiing at Lake Pepin! What a place!
DeleteAnd I did get to see Latsch tear apart one toy with some sort of food in it - more feathers flying than I could have imagined!