New Salem, Wisconsin

We left Michigan for the final time this morning, and drove nearly all the way across Wisconsin on State Highway 21. Lake Michigan was a different animal from the one we met yesterday...the one with blue water and blue skies. The one we left this morning was gray and threatening. The wind had come up, and the temperatures were quite cold. We left wearing our winter woolies.

There were storms and high winds and waves in the forecast. You can see that the storm surge has driven the water up into the marshy areas where Smitty and I walked yesterday.

Just after crossing a river into Wisconsin, we passed through the little town of Marinette. It gave the appearance of a European town with its interesting and historic architecture.

And almost immediately thereafter, we saw this sign, which made me laugh. Wisconsin is a cheese state, as everyone knows. Cheeseheads, we salute you!

From there on, it was picturesque farm after farm after farm. I had my camera on almost all day trying to get shots of barns. Most were too far away, or sped by too fast (we did, not the barns) for me to get very good images, but I did get a few that were acceptable.

I wish I could have taken a picture of the warning sign we saw...yellow with a black horse and buggy...indicating the presence of the Amish. We did see a few Amish farms along the way, recognizable by the farmers in their typically Amish straw hats. My ancestry is Amish, and so I have a special place in my heart for these folks.

And we saw lots of cows, as you might imagine.

Even the shabbiest of barns are beautiful to me. In Wisconsin, we noticed that many of the barns have brownstone toward the bottoms of their walls. We assume this is because of deep snow.

Something else we have noticed in all of the states of the region is that signs are posted prohibiting parking between 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. We assume this is so that the snow plows can plow the roads.

Everywhere the leaves are changing color, and the landscape is quite beautiful.

Even though it was cold when we left the shores of Lake Michigan this morning, the weather was warm at our final destination of New Salem, Wisconsin. It is near 70 degrees tonight, and we have all of our windows open. It's nice to know we aren't into winter yet...not us, but you folks who live here...better get ready because it's coming.

On the way today, we stopped off at a quilt shop in Oshkosh. I'll tell you about that in a separate post. For now, I'm hitting the hay. It's early, but it's another long day tomorrow...and the day after that...and the day after that. We'll be driving near the southern border of Minnesota tomorrow on I-90, turning south about 3/4 of the way across the state and heading for Sioux City, Iowa. I don't know if we'll actually cross the border into Iowa tomorrow until I check the mileage, but we are moving along now...due west. More to come.