bigskypylot
Explorer
October 21, Friday, We needed to make miles into Pennsylvania for our tour reservation at 3pm at the Frank Lloyd Wright (architect) house called Kentucky Knob in Chalk Hill PA. It was a rainy day but we were excited about our in depth tour reservation with only 2 other people and Jeff our tour guide! It was the last one of the day so the mood was relaxed. No pictures were allowed in the interior but we were allowed to enjoy the spaces at a relaxed pace, as well as appreciate the extensive art collection that the owner, Lord Palumbo, housed inside.
Jeff the tour guide told us that Peter Palumbo, the present British owner was a kind man who happened to be visiting the house today. We just missed him, what a shame! Oh well, we hit The Falls Pub for some local interaction and I had probably the best burger on the whole trip! We had trouble getting to our reserved camp site in the dark and rain but we finally got there! I set my alarm for 6:45am as we had his most anticipated reservation yet to come. Fallingwater tour is tomorrow!!
October 22, Saturday, We had a restless sleep as we must have been worried about not hearing the alarm. We haven't set an alarm for a very long time! We calculated an hour travel time with a coffee stop across from Ohiopyle State Park's swollen water falls. We found Fallingwater in good time and checked in for our 8:30am , 2 hour in depth tour with Henry as our guide. As a group of 10 we were given the opportunity to take as many pictures as we liked of the inside and outside of the house and guest house built for the Kauffman family by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1939.
Our tour guide Henry had a tone to his voice and sense of humour that made the tour extra enjoyable. I loved the tour of Fallingwater as it had been on my bucket list for many years. After the house tour we took to the gift shop as we almost always do in these places. As we exit the gift shop Annie spotted a group of 4 men who looked a little different, one with a fedora hat and all in suit jackets or suit coats, interesting. She turned to me and said "I bet that's Lord Palumbo who owns Kentuck Knob". We went back into the gift shop and she took the chance to talk to him. She opened with asking if he had a connection with Kentuck Knob. He turned to her and said, "yes, I'm the owner" in his British accent. Well she wasn't sure exactly what to say next but she isn't usually stuck for words so they had a nice ten minute conversation! We thanked him for allowing people to tour it and that we truly enjoyed the pace of the tour and the scale of his house as compared to Fallingwater. I snuck in a photo op request which he agreed to very happily.
Annie would have loved to chat longer with him about the Kauffman family's home and lack of happiness in their home, or a question about Lady Diana (he is after all the godfather of Princess Beatrice) had she thought quick enough! But we said our goodbyes and later spotted him and his young son reading in the cafe. We ate lunch, chatted with a group of ladies next to us and then headed out to our Cruiser. It was sad to leave but with the cold rainy weather today we decided that we would come back in the near future to experience it all again. Now where to go? North I guess, back to home! Wait a minute, Newell WV is where Fiestaware pottery is made. We can get there before closing, so let's get on the road. We were excited to see what they had in their outlet but the staff there wasn't so exciting! We bought some iconic water pitchers and moved on down the highway till we saw The Steel Trolley Diner.
This place was super cool and I decided that we should stop to see what they had to offer. It was a cool neon lit galley style 24 hour cafe with a Juke Box playing. We sat at the counter and talked to the grilling lady who has worked there for 36 years! Our order of milk shakes, onion rings, burgers and fries was much more than we could finish and not the least bit healthy,but we thoroughly enjoyed our time in Lisbon OH. We learned that Lisbon is the oldest town in Ohio and credited with the invention of the drinking straw! What an amazingly busy day, but we were in a singing mood so we drove into the evening and stopped at Mansfield for the night.
Isn't it amazing how sometimes things line up in life! It was a beautifully long day filled with different sights and adventures. We were driving later into the night than we usually did and Night Moves comes on teh radio. WOw.
October 23, Sunday, Tim Hortons next to us in the parking lot?! We made ourselves at home and spent some time on WiFi with a coffee. This is a making miles kind of day. The sun is shining and the fall tree colours are majestic as we head west on I-30. I found a FLW house in Fort Wayne that belongs to a private owner but we thought we might be able to meet him and take pics. Instead, no one answered the door and so we took pics from the street and then a vehicle stopped to talk to us and we met Robert the German barber who proceeded to explain to us some German history. Very interesting visit. Wow, time to shake hands, use the "we have to go, we have a grand baby on the way" and get out of there!! We took a driving break at an antique mall and then headed to Valparaiso for a healthy salad in Cruiser supper. We grabbed a Starbucks coffee and decided to tackle getting around Chicago this evening rather than in the morning. The O'hare Oasis rest stop that sits above the highway was our next stop.
We always drive under them with people looking out at us, so we finally got to be up top looking down on the lights speeding underneath me. So cool! We chose the Pleasant Prairie outlet mall to park for the night. We were chased down by the young security guy driving a Seguay, too funny. He directs us to the furthest parking lot and says that we can hang out there till morning.
October 24, Monday, Have plan but be flexible.......today we exercise our motto. Annie wanted to go to the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts. But I realized that they are closed Mondays and Tuesdays! So plan B is to travel to Madison and Spring Green to check out more Frank Lloyd Wright architecture and then back track a few hours to Cedarburg to see the exhibits at the quilt museum. We have a plan! First stop in Madison is the Unitarian Church right by the University. Unfortunately the tour season is over so the lady at the front desk allows us to enter the church space and look around on our own. Very interesting to have a huge fireplace at the back area of the church (no longer in use). The front desk lady warmed up to us and the fact that we had driven such a long way that she told us about her former neighbour, who lives in the first Usonian house that FLW designed for Herbert and Katherine Jacobs (1936). The Usonian house design was meant to cost $5000 to build and to bring good affordable design to every day family life. FLW was also broke at that time and he needed to reinvent is ideas to keep his business afloat!
Anyways, we drove over to the house and introduced ourselves to Jim who welcomed us in and talked at length about his 34 years of living and maintaining the historic home. I was in my glory as we could touch, ask detailed questions and take all the pictures he liked. Jim showed us every room and was an interesting retired Art History professor. He turned out to be an eccentric gentleman who enjoyed his homes notoriety. We lost track of time while in the house but quickly calculated that we could still travel to Spring Green for our reservation at Taliesin 1:45 pm.
We took the extended tour of the grounds, architecture school, and house. Another wonderful day of random good things that we topped off with another cheeseburger meal, but this one included the best deep fried cheese curds in Wisconsin at the Old Fashioned Pub in downtown Madison. The place was hopping, so we walked the parliament grounds across the street to kill off our 40 min wait time. We had a lively meal at the bar and then posted up in a parking lot so that Annie could shop at Mill House Quilts in Waunakee WI in the morning.
October 25, Tuesday, Annie shopped at Mill House and now we are heading towards Racine. We noticed a sign as we drive the highway, that Lake Mills, home of Ephraim Pottery is coming up next. This is a company that we have admired for years through our Arts and Craft era. We have to exit the highway and make this small town detour to check this out. With our luck of stopping at the studio first we get an in depth tour of the handcrafted process by the owner, Kevin Hicks. How fortunate are we once again! We hit it off and we offered him a tour of our Cruiser just to even it out :bike_rider:. After goodbyes we proceeded down the street to the sales area and purchased 3 items. It was too hard for Annie to decide on just one. We hit up the R.Bong campground close to Burlington, WI for the night. I cooked beef tacos on the Skottle and then retired into the Cruiser as it was close to freezing and it rained hard all night.
October 26, Wednesday, We woke up and headed out to Racine only to discover that we couldn't get a tour of the S.C.Johnson Wax buildings that FLW designed. Can't win them all! We have to leave a few things undone so that we can return some time soon. We backtracked in the last couple days because Annie wanted to see the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fibre Arts located in Cedarburg WI and they were closed Monday and Tuesday. They are open today so we drove north of Milwaukee and saw a travelling exhibit of Japanese quilts, that looked remarkably similar to North American style quilts! We stopped at the local quilt shop that's housed in an old school house and decided to get back on the road in the rain and cold to La Crosse. We cruised the downtown and saw a few busy pubs. We picked the Old Crow for burgers again and then the Pearl ice cream shop. Off to the 24 hour Walmart for an overnight parking spot. Annie got in some needlework that night while I did some reading.
October 27, Thursday, Annie picked up a few items at Walmart before I drove her to the Olive Juice Quilt shop in Onalaska WI. She wants to return to it if we ever return to this area in our travels. She spent a lot of time here looking and buying, loved the warm shop and the girls working. Next we need to hit our appointment at 1pm in Winona just down the highway, to pick up our teak floor that we ordered from TeakWorks4U when we passed through 4 weeks ago on our way out. It took a bit of time but they custom fitted it into our tiny bathroom .
We also got one made for our entry step. We love how it looks and works.
We headed out to Red Wing and decided to stop again at the Red Wing Boots factory and pull the trigger on some boots for me.
Next we raced into Minneapolis and hit an REI store just before closing, to pick up an Osprey brand back pack system child carrier. We picked up the carrier for our new grandson that was born Nov 21st. We spotted it at Overland Expo and talke dto this young lady wearing one and she was thrilled by it so we bought one on her suggestion.
October 28, Friday, We grabbed a coffee in St Paul and hit the road towards home.
October 29, Saturday, Yes we woke up early for WiFi and coffee! The nights have been dipping down to just above freezing, so Annie had to bring out an extra quilt for the bed. A little harder to get out of bed in the morning, but we are heading home and we are getting anxious to get these final miles over with. Next is the boring 6 hour drive on the Trans Canada Highway from Winnipeg to Regina! Not much to look at other than cloud formations! Stopped in to visit our youngest who is attending university in Regina, SK and then we pushed on to Saskatoon. We arrived back home at 11:30pm. The day had the longest driving hours and we felt it. We arrived home 2 days earlier than we had to. But it will be good to spend the extra day unloading the Cruiser for the winter and catching up with our son and his wife. Besides, we only have 3 weeks before we are Grandparents and there is lots to do!!
Another wonderful trip that we were able to travel and work. I only took 2 weeks holidays of the 6 we were away off from work. We were able to enjoy Overland Expo East, Japanese gardens, architecture, fabric hunting, and concerts. We learned a lot about the Cruiser and how to care for an RV in these 6 weeks. We calculated that we drove 6200+ miles. We had a great experience and are looking forward to the next trip! Average fuel mileage was about 10 mpg.
Oh, and this is the reason we had to head home so fast.
Huxley was born Nov 21st, 2016 making Annie and I grandparents for the first time. This I am sure will be the next great adventure in our lives!!
Thanks for taking the time to read through this and join in our adventure.
Annie and I are right now planning our next trip. Hopefully leaving home end of January to go over to the west coast and down to try to get some warmth. -31C here today so it's pretty cold.
I just remembered, if anyone wants to follow us on our trips please feel free to add us on instagram @IntercontinentalCruiser.
Ward
Sent from my iPad
Ward,
The Old Fashioned does indeed have some of the best curds around. The Tiger Sauce makes them even better! Next time you find yourself, order the #30! Did you have a Korbel Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet? If not, that is a must next time. As for Bong Rec Area, that was slated to be a B-58 Hustler base but never came to fruition.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.I._Bong_Air_Force_Base
You can still make out the runway from the air
I'm surprised you didn't spend a day or two down in Lake Geneva. Definitely worth checking out next time in the early fall
Also check out Devils Lake State Park and the surrounding area of Baraboo
Thanks for the wonderful trip report!
Seth
