Milwaukee

 

Yes, Schlitz was the beer that made Milwaukee famous, but Miller is king today. So is Harley-Davidson, and boy they made a camping reservation difficult. We would show up on their 110th anniversary! The city was covered up by loud motorcycles. They were en masse downtown, but we rode our bikes in the midst of them. They seem to accept bicyclists. I guess it is about two wheels.

Below Irene attempts to pass some Harley dudes in the right lane downtown.

Bike lane in downtown Milwaukee on the way from the north end of town to central city..

Enough trains and submarines already. First on our agenda in town was visiting Mitchell Park Conservatory (“The Domes”), a botanical conservatory with different geodesic domes for each biome: Floral Show Dome, Tropical, and Arid Domes.

 

                               

                              

From the conservatory we walked to a bicycle trail with a new bridge and looked down upon a large Canadian Pacific rail yard. How many readers knew that the Canadian Pacific Rail Road owned so much track in the U.S.?

One day we went to a downtown park in Milwaukee and rode North along Lake Michigan. We then circled back towards downtown and rode through one of Milwaukee’s grand old neighborhoods. Here we found out Milwaukee has a water tower similar to Chicago’s.

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We took a boat trip on the Milwaukee River that give us a good look at downtown. Then we went out into Lake Michigan for a view back to the city.

                                              Milwaukee Ale House:

Here we biked downtown to an art show and the famous Milwaukee Public Market. Then we headed for the downtown waterfront and biked past the soaring Milwaukee Museum of Art where we found the parking lot packed with Harley’s looking for a place to park at the waterfront.

From Trains to Submarines

Upon leaving Door County we headed south along Lake Michigan to Point Beach State Forest campground. The campground is directly behind the beach sand dune. We got in a ride on one of the bike trails.

      

We visited the light house in the lake fog.

      

The next day we drove a short distance south to Manitowoc, home of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum. There we saw the USS Cobia, a restored WWII diesel submarine and took a tour through it. Again, Irene, your forbearance is greatly appreciated. This visit had special meaning to us because of our RV friend who served on a nuclear attack sub in the U.S. Navy.

      

      

       

      

Door County

Door County Wisconsin is known as the “Cape Cod of the Midwest.” Tourists come there from the Twin Cities, Milwaukee, and Chicago to enjoy the cool summers. It is mostly agricultural with cherries being the main crop and a big pitch to tourists.
                        
We camped at Potawatomi State Park across the channel from Sturgeon Bay.
      
We spent a day in nearby Sturgeon Bay where we cruised out the channel into Lake Michigan on an old City of Chicago fire boat.
      
Later in the day we road our bikes around Sturgeon Bay noting the fish sculptures by local artists.
             
             
Later we camped at Bailey’s Harbor on the east side of the peninsula. One day we rode over to Peninsula State Park on the west side where we had one of the most enjoyable bike rides of the trip. We rode the Sunset Bike Trail and looped back via the beach. The trail was hard packed fine gravel that passed through marsh, cedar and maple forests, and cliff communities for a ride of about 15 miles. There were many fun curves and dips.
      
             
      
             

Green Bay

 

Leaving Minneapolis, we headed east through Wisconsin to Green Bay. We stayed at an Indian Casino that had electric and water hookups. The receipt for our site said to come into the casino in case of dangerous weather. We came under a tornado warning, so we went to the casino. The weather became more and more threatening and while outside we could hear a tornado warning siren in the distance. A big blow came and we went inside and got in the bathrooms (safer in a small space than in the big open area of the casino). As soon as we did an alarm sounded in the building and a recorded message from the Casino announced that there was a dangerous situation in the building and to evacuate the building. OH NO, we’re not evacuating the building during a tornado. The crisis passed and we went back to the coach.

We stopped in Green Bay to visit the National Railroad Museum. Again, thank you for your tolerance, Irene. The museum houses one of the rare Union Pacific “Big Boy’s.” Twenty five of these giant locomotive were built between 1941 and 1944 of which only eight remain in various railroad museums. These locomotives are so long that the chassis had to be articulated to round curves. They were used by the UP in the Wyoming Division to haul long freights over the Wasatch mountain range.

       

      

George was intrigued to see a GG-1 electric locomotive that he used to ride behind as a boy on trips to the northeast between Washington DC and New York on the Pennsylvania Railroad’s electrified line.

                                  

He was also nostalgic seeing a sleeping car from the original Empire Builder passenger train of the Great Northern Railway that ran between Chicago and Seattle.

       

Minneapolis/St.Paul

 

Minneapolis grew up around St. Anthony Falls, the highest falls on the Mississippi River.

    

We learned that originally Minneapolis was all about flour mills. Wheat from the nearby Dakotas was shipped in by railroad and milled into flour at Minneapolis. The two largest milling companies were General Mills and Pillsbury Mills, but they merged under General Mills. We visited Mill City Museum and learned all about flour milling. We got a good view of the city and the Stone Arch Bridge from the upper floor of the museum.

     

                          

We were captivated by the Stone Arch Bridge and made it our current theme picture for our blog. It is a National Historic Engineering Landmark, and was built by the Great Northern Railway in 1883. It was abandoned by the railroad in 1965, but was fortunately incorporated into Minneapolis’s Heritage Trail system. It is now enjoyed by walkers and bikers like us.

       

     

Minneapolis has been ranked as one of the best biking cities in the country by Bike Score, the #2 biking city by Bicycling Magazine, and the #4 bicycling city in the nation by the US Census Bureau. Not only are there trails all over town along the rivers, but far out into the suburbs as well. One day we rode a loop on both sides of the river.

                

              

                

              

George needed to see the grand former Milwaukee Road station downtown, so we biked over there.

       

 

On another day we rode Minneapolis’s excellent light rail system from the Mall of America that we’ve heard so much about to downtown. It is huge and has an indoor amusement park.

        

      

We visited nearby St.Paul. Our first stop was the Amtrak station to see the privately owned Hiawatha passenger train domed end car formerly in service on the Milwaukee Road between Chicago and Minneapolis. Thank you for your tolerance, Irene

               

             

From there we were captivated with the beauty and architecture of St. Anthony Cathedral.

      

And of course we needed to see the nearby mansion of James Hill, founder of the Great Northern Railway.

        

After that, a refreshing ride along the Mississippi in St. Paul was in order.

        

        

On another day we returned to St. Paul to the art deco city hall to see the famous 60 ton, 38 ft. tall white Onyx “God of Peace.” It was built just before the great depression, and when prices fell it came in under budget while the quality of materials and ornamentation were better than budgeted.

                               

       

      

                                                        Ornate elevator doors