Road Trips Wisconsin Style

 House on the Rock: Come for the Wonder, Stay Because You Can’t Find the Exit

House on the Rock in Spring Green is one of the strangest places I’ve ever visited, and I mean that as both a compliment and a warning.

The highlight for me was easily the incredible collection of automated music machines. Some of them are absolutely massive, mesmerizing, and unlike anything I’ve seen anywhere else. I could have spent far more time watching those than I actually did. The carousel was another standout—beautiful, enormous, and wonderfully over-the-top.

The rest of the museum? Well…

Imagine if someone gave an enthusiastic collector unlimited money, unlimited warehouse space, and absolutely no one willing to ask, “But… why?” Then multiply that by about ten.

Every time you think you’ve seen the largest collection of random objects possible, you turn a corner and discover another football field’s worth of dolls, circus wagons, armor, model ships, antique weapons, taxidermy, chandeliers, or something else you never knew could exist in those quantities. I've heard some people compare it to Ikea, once you enter there is no way out until you have traveled over every foot of the place.

Spring Green is also the home of Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wrights experimental and personal home.  An idea would strike him and he was constantly changing the architecture, building rooms here - removing walls there.  I've talked before about how I admire his visionary outlooks but I find his houses to be rather uncomfortable.  I now know the reason why.  Wright felt that you should not have comfortable beds or comfortable seating.  Comfort leads to laziness and dull minds.  Wright only slept a few hours a night and was constantly creating.  I will say that after his death, his last wife took out her slab twin bed and replaced it with a normal bed.  

Taliesin

Flower In The Crannied Wall
Frank Lloyd Wright and Richard Bock 1902
Wright was so fond of this sculpture that he had replicas made for both Taliesin and Taliesin West, his house in Arizona.

Mom Wright hung over the fireplace

Taliesin had the best Raspberry Lemonade

I'm dating myself when I start talking about the actress Anne Baxter.  She was probably best known for her Oscar-winning roles in All About Eve and The Ten Commandments.  My ears perked up when I heard that she was Frank Lloyd Wright's granddaughter.  Not only that, but she was buried in the family graveyard, just down the hill from Taliesin.  Of course I had to run down there and pay my respects. There was an added bonus to my graveyard visit.  There was a family reunion going on for the Lloyd Joneses.  The Lloyd Joneses were FLW's mother's side.  They were more than happy to show me around the graves, pointing out who was related to who.  I had to leave before the potato salad came out.  

Oh yeah, and Frank was there also.

On another Wisconsin road trip, I happened upon a geographical marker in the middle of a soybean field.  I am constantly on the lookout for what I think are interesting spots.  Sometimes I find that nobody else shares that opinion.  Go figure!  This geographical marker was a little bit out of the way. I really expected that I would be all alone out there.  It was strange, one car after another came and stopped.  Once you have visited the marker, you can drive into town and stop at a small town gas station and pick up your commemorative medallion.   I am now an official member of the 45X90 Club. 

The big news of the day is that I have sold my fifth wheel.  I am a little bit sad, but I am also extremely happy that it has sold. Miko and I had some great adventures and made many memories cruising around the USofA.  It truly is the end of an era.