Wisconsin 2022


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Wednesday, April 27, 2022: Another trip to Minnesota; another picture of Castle Rock.
The cranberry bogs near Tomah were looking colorful.
We arrived in Onalaska, Wisconsin, around 3:30 PM. We went to Onalaska Cemetery to see some ancestors' graves, not realizing that we were about to pass a bunch of them on the left shortly after entering through this gate.
Debbie's aunt Carol met us at the cemetery. We parked by the very handy directory, something we'd love to see at every cemetery.
Look at all of those Schillings! This list contains Debbie's grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, and some great-great-great uncles and aunts. Let's go find 'em!
First up: Charles (1866-1946) and Virginia (1868-1923) Schilling.
Here's the back of their headstone. Charles was the younger brother of Debbie's great-great-grandfather, John J. Schilling.
Here are Fred (1861-1923) and Lena (1864-1935) Schilling. Fred was another younger brother of Debbie's great-great-grandfather, John. Lena was a sister of Debbie's great-great-grandmother, Hulda, because Fred and John married sisters.
Here are Debbie's great-great-grandparents, John (1859-1912) and Hulda (1863-1934) Schilling, along with two of their sons. We were surprised to find these graves with the large Schilling monument near the road where we entered. Until today, we didn't know these were here, but Debbie had probably ridden past these several times before.
On the left side of the center Schilling monument are Debbie's great-great-grandparents, John (1859-1912) and Hulda (1863-1934).
John and Hulda's youngest son and his wife, James (1892-1966) and Martha (1805-1880) Schilling are on the other side of the main monument.
John and Hulda's oldest son, Edward Schilling (1885-1955) is to the right of James.
John and Hulda's middle son and his wife are Harry (1887-1958) and Agnes (1889-1964) Schilling, Debbie's great-grandparents. They are buried in a different area of the cemetery.
John and Hulda's only daughter was the baby of the family, Wilma (1904-1974), born 12 years after her youngest brother. She was only eight years old when her father died and she lived with her widowed mother until her mother's death when Wilma was 30. She married Hank Wunnecke (1906-1986) when she was 42.
Here are Debbie's grandparents, L. John and Alette Schilling. This isn't the first time a picture of their grave has appeared on this website and it isn't likely to be the last either.
Here's the back. The inscription refers to the family newsletter that Alette started in 1974. After her death, it was taken over by Debbie's dad, and now Debbie is the editor.
Here's a cool story. Debbie's cousin James is married to Stephanie, who stood here when her friend's father was buried in 1995, long before she ever met James. She was back in 2017 when her friend's mother died, and noticed that her husband's grandparents were just one row back. What a small world!
When we had seen all the Schillings we could find, we headed to Carol's home in Trempealeau. There's the giant catfish, which must always be photographed.
We headed to the Little Bluff Inn up the hill, ...
... and checked into a fantastic room with a private deck.
It was huge!
So much room.
You can't beat the view of the Mississippi River from the deck.
We headed to Carol's house and did a little bit of work around her house for an hour or so, then headed out for dinner.
We went to Hacienda Vieja Mexican Grill in nearby Holmen.
Carol and Tom had fajitas, the neighboring table had a very tall margarita dispenser, ...
... and Debbie had a seafood plate.
Fresh churros for dessert? Yes, please!
We went to Festival Foods next, where we admired this Wisconsin-sized display of string cheese ...
... and colorful display of Jell-O. We picked up some Spotted Cow beer and a raspberry kringle.
Debbie was pleased to see that the store still had a Caroline's Cart, which was designed by the mother of a daughter with Rett Syndrome to shop with a disabled child or adult. She had previously seen it when she was here in 2020.
Catfish!
Back at Carol's, Tom worked on some electrical projects while Debbie and Carol hung artwork in her recently-renovated front room.
After a very long day of traveling, we went up to the motel which was right across the street from Carol's house. We called her and waved from our window ...
... and got a very-zoomed-in picture of her as she was getting out her binoculars to look at us.

Thursday, April 28, 2022: We had leftover Mexican food and raspberry kringle for breakfast. So delicious.
We left our motel and drove one block down to Carol's, ...
... picked her up, and left Trempealeau.
We headed north on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River. We could see a parent on this eagle's nest near the road.
Barns and quilt squares - they're everywhere!
We were welcomed into Minnesota at Winona.
It's always cool to see barges on the river.
We passed more eagle nests like this one ...
... and this one.
We had never noticed this pretty plaque at one of our favorite river overlooks.
We added Minnesota's Adopt-A-Highway sign to our collection.
Two bald eagles soared overhead as we entered Lake City. That's the stop-on-the-way-to-Grandma's-house Dairy Queen on the left.
At the rest area north of Lake City, we spotted a bald eagle in a tree.
At Red Wing, we stopped off at Colville Park.
We were looking for eagles and had no problem spotting a few. Here's one, ...
... and there was one across the water.
We enjoyed watching this handsome bird ...
... and his friend.
At Red Wing, we crossed back over into Wisconsin, passing the always amusing Mr. Sippi.
On the Wisconsin side, we collected Wisconsin's Adopt-a-Highway sign for our collection.
We crossed the river again and returned to Minnesota.
We had to slow down to get this lovely St. Croix Scenic Byway sign.
There's St. Paul!
On our way to our destination, we passed Debbie's old neighborhood, including the oddly-shaped building that used to be Knowlan's Market.
As always, we drove past Debbie's childhood home.
We made it to the greatest pizzeria on earth, Carbone's on Randolph.
We immediately ordered two large Carbone's Specials. It's strange to think that people come here and order something else, but there's a two-page menu of lesser pizzas that proves that it must happen.
Tom is good about remembering to wear his Carbone's t-shirt when he comes.
We had already dived into the first Special when the second one arrived and we stopped eating long enough to photograph it.
Our next stop was Scott's Liquors to load up on Schilling Cider, including the newest flavor, Excelsior Imperial Mango.
On our way out of town, we drove past Debbie's junior and senior high schools.
The senior high was showing Mamma Mia! on the same stage where Debbie made her acting debut as Emily in Our Town 42 years earlier.
Here's the junior high, now renamed to Highland Park Middle School.
There's the senior high school which no longer needs "senior" in the name since the school it is attached to is no longer "junior."
This historical marker tells the history of the small school building built in 1871 moved to its spot in front of the senior high in 1964.
There's the entrance to the auditorium, but the fancy design on the windows is newer than Debbie's era.
We stopped briefly to photograph the Pearson's Candy factory which sadly does not offer tours of the magical place where Pearson's Mint Patties come from.
Seeing the Pearson's factory sent us on a quest to get some Pearson's candy. Instead, we were swayed by this colorful Mountain Dew display and had to buy the Mountain Dew Zero Spark flavor.
The only Pearson's candy we found were these peanut butter-flavored Salted Nut Rolls, a variation we had never seen before, so of course, we had to try them.
We tried one more gas station before we left town and scored original flavor Salted Nut Rolls this time.
We were on the Hiawatha Pioneer Trail as we headed south, ...
... and then joined up with the Great River Road.
We crossed from Minnesota to Wisconsin and back to Minnesota again, passing the St. James Hotel in Red Wing.
There's lovely Lake Pepin in Lake City.
The bluffs along the Great River Road continued to offer bald eagle nests to find.
This one had a parent on the nest.
In Winona, we crossed back over to the Wisconsin side of the river, ...
... and made a quick stop at Elmaro Winery, where we picked up two bottles of raspberry wine and a bottle of blackberry wine.
Back at Carol's, there were more tasks to be done, including putting together the London LEGO magnet model we brought for Carol.
Handyman Tom continued to work on wiring and cabling issues while Debbie and Carol placed more artwork around the house.
We had dinner at Sullivan's Supper Club where we had a lovely view of the Mississippi River.
After a trip to a classic Wisconsin salad bar, Debbie's dinner was beef tips with sauteed mushrooms and wild rice.
Here's a cool old building facing the river.
Carol had just a few last-minute cabling projects for Tom, ...
... while she taught Debbie how to play cribbage. A bottle of Elmaro Rosa slipped down easily.
The final product of our efforts was a fully decorated, organized front room, ...
... with little improvements everywhere, including in nearly every room in the house.
As darkness fell, we headed back up to our lovely motel room with the great view.

Friday, April 29, 2022: We were on the road at 7:30 AM Wisconsin time, ...
... and back home by 4:30 PM Indiana time.

** THE END **


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