Gnome, sweet gnome

In the eighth grade along with 20 or so of my Catholic school classmates from the Chicago suburbs boarded a bus for our class trip to Little Norway, House on the Rock and Cave of the Mounds in southwestern Wisconsin. These intriguing Wisconsin visitor must-sees have yet to lose their appeal, even after living in Wisconsin for nearly 10 years. I was drawn back recently and was even more excited than I remember being as a 12 year old. Andrew and I drove from Milwaukee a few hours west with the intention of seeing making it to The Cave on the Mounds the first day of our two day adventure.

I had forgotten all about Little Norway until I was reminded by a billboard featuring a smiling nisse (elf). Luckily I was able to convince Andrew of the fun that awaited us inside the grounds that resemble the hilly Norwegian countryside settled by Norwegian immigrants Osten and Birgit Haugen in 1865. Touring the old homes, we saw vintage farm tools, drinking bowls and pieces of a Viking ship now housed in chapel built for the Chicago World's Fair.

The next attraction was a little more than vintage, it began to take shape in a limestone rock millions of years ago. Following the cavers motto, "Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time," we followed the guide eyes wide open, hands in our pockets, as we began our spelunking trip into the Cave of the Mounds. We came across hundreds, probably thousands, of stalagmites and stalactites sprouting from the floor and ceiling, in some places forming columns, in others taking the shape of bacon, ribbons or bee hives. In true "the more you know" fashion, the tour guide dropped a few knowledge bombs along the path carved our by the discoverers more than 60 years ago. For instance, it takes approximately 100 years for cave onyx (or calcite) to grow 1 inch and the cave has a 6-foot fossil of a giant cephalopod, a relative of the squid.

Continuing on the visiting sites of my childhood, we drove to Governor Dodge State Park to set up camp. Some of my best summer vacation memories took place at Governor Dodge. Hiking (including my favorite trail to the waterfall), fishing, cooking S’mores and hotdogs around the campfire, horseback riding, swimming in the lake and playing board games in the screen tent when it inevitably would rain. I wish I would have remembered that screen tent, because the rain made a guest appearance that evening, but it did give Andrew a chance to use his boyscout skills. He made a makeshift tarp awning, and built a fire with birch kindling gathered on the way into the park from dinner at the pub down the road.

Early the next morning we packed up camp (wet tent, tarp and all) and headed to House on the Rock, the last of the Southwestern tourist attractions on the list. House on the Rock is a quirkey house built, you guessed it, on a rock, filled with awesome eccentric collections (minus the doll carosel, dolls are creepy). My favorite has always been the infinity room, a hallway with floor to ceiling windows that juts out past the rock the original house. It gets smaller as it goes out, giving a very Willy Wonka-esk feeling to the space. The original house is a perfect 1970s party house. Plenty of seating and gathering space, shag carpeting and "love pit" style living areas. The chotchkies that pepper the space are interesting and surprisingly not cumbersome like some knick knacks can be. The second best room in the three-story nautical space with a huge sperm whale sculpture filling the center of the three story space top to bottom. There is a ramp that spirals up the three levels around the whale giving visitors a chance to admire all of the maritime paraphernalia House on the Rock visionary and creator Alex Jordan acquired. Another great feature of House on the Rock is the carousel, all exotic and hybrid animals, no horses. There is also a fantastic Rube Goldburg machine sharing a space with a 1950s style soda shop complete with realistic, yet harsh, roadside Burma Shave billboard ads. We made our way through all three of the tour areas, awed around every corner by oddity after oddity on display. Like every good attraction you can't leave House on the Rock without going through a gift shop, but, I resisted the urge to purchase fudge on the way out, and after a day in the bizarre world of Alex Jordan we were headed back to Milwaukee, proving you don't always have to leave Wisconsin for adventure. I would learn this lesson again the next weekend up in Athelstane. More on that soon...