Wisconsin Dells

It has been so busy the last few days that it has seemed like a lot longer time than it really has been. We got together with our friends from Bentsen Grove like we planned. The time was too short with all of them of course. But the time was also very pleasant. We set up chairs and talked for a two or three hours. I am amazed that I had enough sense to set up the camera and get a picture that included us all. By the time I am a hundred I may know how to do things right. Of course by then I will be physically unable. No use burning that bridge yet.


A BENTSEN GROVE REUNION IN WISCONSIN

I like trains. It doesn't matter what size the train is, I like it. I think HO and smaller trains are great, garden scale are really neat. All the way up to engines that weigh a hundred tons and the cars that are pulled by it are special. If it is still powered by steam that is a great bonus. The Riverside and Great Northern RR in Wisconsin Dells, WI has a fifteen inch gauge. It has either a steam engine or it can be pulled by a small diesel engine. Its cars are big enough for four children or smallish friendly adults. The tracks follow an old standard gauge right-away for about two miles. It might be three miles actually. They turn the engines around on a hand operated A-frame turn-table exactly the way that some of the old steam engines were turned. There is an original (rebuilt) turn-table in Folsom, CA where a single man could turn a 70,000 pound engine and tender completely around in minute. It was a great place to visit and a fun train to ride.


THE HAND OPERATED A-FRAME TURN-TABLE OF THE R&GN RR

In the afternoon we took a boat tour up the Wisconsin River into the Upper Dells area. The rock formations that we went through were terrific. It was so enjoyable to see the trees right down to the water in some areas and in others the rock cliffs that were probably forty foot above the water. The boat stopped at one place where we walked up a slot canyon a hundred yards. At a couple points there was barely room to pass a person coming the opposite direction. At another point they had a German Shepard Dog jump from the top of one formation to another. The formations were probably fifty foot from base to top and the dog had to jump perhaps twelve foot. It was the location where the very first stop action photograph was ever taken. The photographer had developed a new type of shutter for his camera and he photographed his son making the jump. Someday I would like to go back to the area and take the Lower Dells tour and perhaps the army Duck tour.


SOME OF THE SHORELINE THAT WE SAW FROM THE BOAT.

We didn't stop there the next day we went to the Circus World Museum Baraboo, WI. They have over two hundred circus wagons, mostly restored. These wagons have been collected from all over the country. They have come from barns and shed that were falling down and back lots on peoples farms. Apparently if the circumstances required it, as in a bankruptcy of circus or other problem, the wagons and other paraphernalia of the circus would just be abandoned by the side of the road. Some person might have taken them home used them and stored them perhaps till the barn was falling down and then offered them to the museum. Most of the wagons were used to carry supplies from town to town in addition to providing glamor to the parades. There are numerous buildings at the museum that were built for the circuses that called the town home. They have a one ring circus, animal shows, and other displays too numerous to see in one afternoon. I don't think that I could see it all in less than three days. It might even take longer.


AN ORNATE CIRCUS WAGON

We have traveled on to Utica, IL and spent a couple days here. Last night we had the first rain that was more than a sprinkle that we have seen since some time in October or November. Tomorrow, June 9th, we will go on to Three Rivers, MI. We will spend a couple nights there and see our line dance teacher.

Till Later This is Uncle Duck