TRAVELS WITH MABEL

a personal account of traveling - from the RV's point of view

[travelswithmabel]

Last tales of Wisconsin

Spent one of our last evenings having dinner by the river. Paul got a specialty drink that came in a bucket:

He was hoping for more coconut in the drink. I’m just glad his bucket matched the rest of his blue ensemble. (haha)

We tried a float trip for the first time ever ~ no pictures because I didn’t want my phone to end up on floating down the river with us. The first hour or two was very relaxing but rather boring. The Wisconsin river has a very slow current. Consequently after turning the bend for the last half of the float the wind actually picked up and started pushing us backwards! After getting stuck on sandbars, I got out to pull our tubes. We ended up going back to the sandbar so I could get back in the tube. Paul decided to give the pulling a try and got in over his heads so he couldn’t hoist back up in the tube. After two capsizing incidents plus my graceful (NOT) exit --- well let’s just say that we’re not anxious to take a float trip again.

Mabel got to experience her first campfires on our last few nights - so we could have s’mores of course! Found these at the store:

The idea of square marshmallows to fit graham crackers sounds great, it’s not. It’s just too much marshmallow and overwhelms the treat. Unless you’re a marshmallow junkie, I recommend using good old fashioned regular shaped marshmallows.

Another trip in the books with Mabel - hoping to get out one more time this Fall. We are truly enjoying our first season with Mabel and looking forward to many more.

[travelswithmabel]

Giant Carousel and Organ

Featuring 269 carousel animals (no horses though), 182 chandeliers and over 20,000 lights is this sparkling carousel:

And for my music pals, check out this organ --- I have no idea how you could reach most of the outer stops on this thing:

[travelswithmabel]

Burma Shave road signs

These are a riot! Burma Shave started in 1925 as a liniment but evolved into the 2nd highest selling brushless shaving cream in the USA. What boosted their sales? These seriously goofy sequential highway road signs. Enjoy:

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200-foot Whale model

In a room filled with nautical exhibits is a huge (life-size?) whale battling a gargantuan octopus, we slowly walked up ramps up several stories to get these pictures:

Having never been near an actual whale, this was definitely awe inspiring. Check out the boat in the whale’s mouth:

It was definitely an unusual collection of so many things! More to come...

[travelswithmabel]

To Infinity & Beyond!

Jutting out 218 feet with no support is the Infinity room - here’s a view from 154 above the ground:

With over 3,000 windows in all to create this optical illusion, here’s the view looking out from the same spot:

Obviously this house is set up high in the woods - at a later point in our visit we found Lookout Point:

And here’s a couple of goofy kids taking a selfie by one of the rocks by Lookout Point:

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“World Famous” House on the Rock

So remember our Ohio visit to the Garden of Tranquility? Well this is like that only multiplied by hundreds!! Described on the website as

It was interesting, to say the least. Check out the website for more info if you really want to:  https://www.thehouseontherock.com/

Meanwhile here’s a few photos from our visit:

A LOT of Asian influence with plenty of dragons. Check out this three-headed dragon carousel seat:

Kinda cool in its own way. More “unique” stuff in the following posts.

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Wisconsin Theater

We found a fabulous outdoor theater that easily rivals St. Louis’ Muny: American Players Theater (https://americanplayers.org/). We got tickets to see “Born Yesterday” - check out this set!

And they rotate shows so this set has to be dismantled and rebuilt daily! Here’s a couple of happy theater goers and their seat’s view:

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Last stop in Baraboo...

We missed the circus parade but were able to tour the Al.Ringling Mansion. What a fascinating piece of architecture and display of showman-like oppulence on the first floor with a more homey living space on the 2nd floor. You can see great pictures on their website, but this is what caught my eye:

A rectangular piano?!? Of course I had to find out more. Thanks to google, I learned about the Knabe Victorian Square Grand Piano:

William Knabe & Company was one of the finest piano builders in American history. Knabe was the official piano of the Metropolitan Opera and was knowns for its sweet yet robust tone quality which was ideal for vocal accompaniment.

So ya learn something everyday!! Hope you enjoyed our tales from Baraboo Wisconsin!!

[travelswithmabel]

More Crane photos

The Sandhill Crane - from America. Sandhills “paint” themselves with mud and rotting vegetation before nesting for camouflage. Farmers consider the sandhills a nuisance as they damage newly sprouted corn seedlings. The foundation is working with farmers to create pesticides that prevent cranes from damaging the crops.

The Whooping Crane - back from the brink (22 in 1941 to 600+ in 2012), this is one of conservation’s most inspiring success stories, although they are still the rarest of all the cranes. This is a fascinating video about a particular whooping crane named Tex:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsDYhdaJL98

The Blue Crane - Standing in front of a painted wall, these cranes look like part of the painting. They are the “ballerinas” of South Africa and are dependent upon dry grasslands and other upland habitats (13 of the 15 species rely on wetlands)

The Black Crowned Crane - cranes are traditional symbols of good luck in many countries around the world, and in Nigeria the Black Crowned Crane is the national bird. In one locale, people believe that anyone who captures and eats a crane becomes insane so in many cases people avoid them due to superstition. 

And the showman of them all: the Grey Crowned Crane - a lovely African folktale explains how crowned cranes came to have their feathery crowns. As the story goes, the cranes befriended a great king who had been lost in the desert. Parched and exhausted from the hot sun, the cranes sheltered the king under their wings and helped him to safety. Out of gratitude for his rescue, the king gave the birds crowns of real gold. His generous gift soon proved to be both a blessing and a curse. People marveled at the sight of the gold, but they were also so envious they began to kill the cranes and steal the golden crowns. Heartsick, the king sought to remedy the grief he had brought to the friendly cranes. With a magic wave of his hand, he transformed the crowns of gold into light, shimmering gold feathers. 

[travelswithmabel]

International Crane Foundation

Why Cranes? “The fate of cranes mirrors the health of the places they inhabit. “

The 15 species of cranes live in diverse habitats world-wide. Studying them offers the opportunity to examine, on several continent, the general health of land and water ecosystems and the life they support. Since the number of cranes have decreased, it is a signal that key crane habitats, both grasslands and wetlands, are being seriously altered or damaged on a worldwide scale. (and for those of you wondering, I bought a book with this information - I’m not a crane savant!).

So have a look at some of these interesting creatures:

The Black Necked Crane - a native of Tibet, China, India & Bhutan. Its shorter limbs and stockier build enables it to endure the harsh weather in high altitudes.

[travelswithmabel]

Since Mabel can’t accompany us on our day trips these entries are all composed by Amy:

Baraboo WI - home to the Ringling Family (yup, the circus folks), Circus World (a museum of all things Circus), the International Crane Foundation, and Driftless Glen Distillery. Upon arrival we notice a LOT of cars and the main street is cordoned off. Hmmm - something big seems to be going on. Since we can’t find parking we decide to go to the distillery for lunch and a tour. We discover that today is the Annual Circus Parade, the Busiest Day of the entire year in Baraboo! The parade had started and would have been difficult to see arriving behind rows and rows of bystanders, so we chose the distillery lunch and tour/tasting. Thanks to gorgeous weather we ate by the Baraboo river and watched kayakers float by. This was a lovely way to start our afternoon in Baraboo. On to see the cranes...

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Thoughts on a rainy day

[travelswithmabel]

“Nature speaks in a universal language, a language of beauty, power, awe and rapture. There is something vast and universal that comes through nature wherever you come face to face with it in the world. And it proves to me that there is a unity throughout nature, and diversity is part of that universality. We human beings are a product of nature and I believe that humans also share that deep affinity with one another and the rest of nature. It is possible for us to emulate nature's grace.”

Musings from Colin’s World (Tauck email)

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Wisconsin Dells

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Wisconsin Riverside Resort

#queenmabel #wisconsinrvtrip

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BACK TOGETHER AGAIN!

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Always Something

As usual, Paul continues to take great care of me. In addition to replacing the formerly broken light shade over the table, he arranged for new slide covers due to defects in the original ones. Upon entering the inside, a musty odor was lingering. My freezer compartment is actually comprised of 2 separate compartments and neither had a Damp Rid packet in them; thus the musty smell. So several refillable tubs of Damp Rid and multiple fridge/freezer boxes of Arm & Hammer are now on board. I really got a great set of folks taking care of me. Did I mention replacing the burnt out bulb on the exterior floodlight? I feel like a queen. Hmmmmm... Queen Mabel. I could get used to that!