Southern Wisconsin

     Labor Day Weekends are usually hectic with crowds and traffic congestion, but I was nearly alone in Portage, Wisconsin (click here for map and town info).  At a $12 campground with electricity, I had only one other campmate in the entire campground, a $4 swim at the nearby community indoor heated pool with only three other swimmers, and a great sunrise. I was a happy camper :)

My biggest decision on Labor Day was whether to paddle the Baraboo River or bike the 400 State Trail from nearby Reedsburg to Elroy.

     I decided to bike part of the trail which frequently crossed the winding Baraboo River. Unlike some bike trails, this surface was excellent. Didn't have to watch for rock and root obstacles, could speed at 15 mph and admire the scenery. The scenery was primarily wetlands and prairies with little trees.

When I got off my bike to take this photo, a couple dozen mosquitoes pounced on me.

     The reason for so many mosquitoes is the Baraboo River. It frequently widens into wide swampy no-current areas, and then occasionally narrows to five-foot wide sections, parallel to this bike path. Spring and fall months are probably better times to do this trail.  And if you're a big fan of preserving wetlands and prairies, you probably know of local legend Aldo Leopold, author of the classic "A Sand County Almanac". Ironically, I had read that great book several years ago.

     By the way, do you ever want to know if it's too buggy outside? Livestock will tell you. Just glance over at a cow or a horse in a pasture, and if their feet are stomping and their tails are swishing nonstop, there's too many mosquitoes and flies.

   Before the bike ride, I stopped for lunch in a little town called Wonewoc, and read this sad sign. It takes great writing skills to say so much in so few words.

I'm a country girl, so country roads in Wisconsin are fun.

     But Wisconsin's county roads are single and double letters (not numbers), which I don't think is a good idea. If someone lives on County Road PF, would they say "I live on Phiff Road" or "I live on Pea F Road"? And if the phone connection is bad, would you have to use the NATO phonetic alphabet? Such as "I live on Papa Foxtrot Road"? And for someone with a slight lisp like me, would their T's sound like P's? Or their D's like B's?

So if this county road is YZ . . . .

. . . and this county road is ZZ, here's a teaser for you high IQ folks, what would the next county road be?

Love the orderliness of crops.

In a few weeks, Wisconsin farmers will be harvesting a good crop if the good weather holds up.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this little guy smack in the middle of one of those lonely lettered county roads.

     It blinked a bit when I approached, but it seemed content to sleep there for awhile. I waited for Mama to come to this guy's rescue; nada, nothing, no watchful hovering owl. I've seen too many casualties on the road. This little guy wasn't going to be one of them.

    So put a t-shirt on top of it, wrapped it without any objections (didn't try to fly away), held it in my lap while I drove to . . . hmm, the nearest farm? Surely farmers would know who to call, as every town has a wildlife rescuer, don't they?

     Maybe that farm was too big of an operation to care about a little owl, because they all laughed at me and offered no help. I wasn't going to leave this little guy with folks who had non-maternal attitudes like that. So I continued driving until I saw a sign "Tower Hill State Park".  Aha!

     An employee of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources just happened to be there when I knocked on their door, and he was a wildlife specialist! We watched the owl, waiting for a sign of . . . . normalcy?  The employee identified it as an adult (or young adult) Eastern Screech Owl.

 

     The outcome? It continued to be sleepy-like but would occasionally open its eyes and move around a tiny bit; perhaps it was sick. Mike caged the little guy and said they would determine in the next day or so whether it can be rehabilitated. Doesn't Mike look like the perfect maternalistic warm-hearted guy to be a wildlife specialist? I trust him completely with my little guy.

     Nearby the state park is the Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's design. In the upper right corner of the photo, you can barely see the home. The next two-hour tour was a few hours away and with a senior discount, it would cost $47 so I nixed the tour.

     The tour of only the Studio (for architects) was $16 for seniors. Decided to forego that tour, too.

     Nixed the nearby House on the Rock, Wisconsin's third biggest tourist attraction (according to the clerk). Their driveway and parking lot was garishly decorated with about 100 of these urns (about 12 feet high). It would cost me $25 to see more of this rich man's eccentricities (such as the world's largest carousel). Not my style.

So back on the road again . . .  and lunch is a watermelon.

     I'm leaving Wisconsin today by the way. Haven't decided yet if I'll take a right turn to Iowa or a left turn to Illinois.