Wisconsin, Part 2 - Cheese and Cranberry Day [240629]

Saturday was a day of mini-adventures, as we headed east across Wisconsin.

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Unfortunately, the previous night's thunderstorms didn't do much to lower the temperature so Friday night was something of a hot, restless night.  We had blue skies by Saturday morning, though.

On our way out of La Crosse, we drove up to the top of Grandad Bluff.  One of the bluff's claims to fame is that it was the site of the first celebration of the Holy Eucharist in La Crosse (in 1850).  There's a plaque up there commemorating that event.

Most people, however, go up there for the view.  From the top, you can get a view of a portion of the Driftless Area of Wisconsin - an area that was never touched by glacial ice, and so retains all of its original rugged ridge-and-valley topography (which usually gets evened out by passing glaciers).  On a clear day like today, you can also see into parts of Iowa and Minnesota.

Also visible in the distance were more areas where flooding was evident.

The warm, humid air had a ton of flies active - all of which seemed to delight in buzzing around Tom's head; so he eventually donned his mosquito net head covering to get some relief.

There's also a cute little shelter house at the top, built from stone quarried from the south side of the bluff.

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Our next stop was 13 miles to the northeast:  the Le Coulee Cheese Castle in West Salem.  We're not sure about the origin of the shop's name, since it was not castle-like - nor even particularly large (with just a couple upright refrigerator cases of cheese).  But we ended up leaving with 3 hunks of different "Wisconsin cheese" to try anyway.

The Smoked Cheddar was an easy pick, while the Honey Clover and Mediterranean Sunset were recommendations from the shop's cheesemonger.  (All were very tasty! 🙂)

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From there it was 48 miles northeast to the little village of Warrens, WI to visit the Discover Cranberries & Cranberry Country Cafe.  Warrens is the "Cranberry Capital of Wisconsin", and 60% of the country's cranberries are grown in Wisconsin - making it the world's largest producer.

The ground floor is a cafe and gift shop, while the basement contains a museum which covers the history of cranberry cultivation in Wisconsin.  Some of the interesting "cranberry facts" we learned include:  the name "cranberry" comes from the German words for "crane berries" because the flowers resemble Sandhill Cranes; contrary to what years of Ocean Spray commercials have led us to believe, cranberries don't grow in water - they grow in sandy soil, and the fields are only flooded at harvest time for more efficient harvesting (because the berries float and can be "combed" off the submerged plant without hurting it); less than 5% of the cranberries grown are sold fresh, with the rest turned into juice, sauce, dried cranberries, and other products.

The museum also had a large collection of "cranberry farm equipment through the years".

Bzzzzzzz...

We drove past some of the cranberry fields on our way out of Warrens.  You can see how they're sunken in below ground level, so that they can be flooded at harvest time.

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Another 9 miles south brought us to the city Tomah, home of a 24 hour laundromat where we did some laundry (ah, the glamour of vanlife!).  We also used the WiFi there to FaceTime briefly into a family gathering back home.

Tomah was also the home of the Walmart where we'd be staying the night.  Grocery shopping, dinner, and working on the South Dakota, Part 7 blog capped off the day.