Midwest Wanderer

07/06/2024

Here's a great Dad's Day gift idea: a Kenosha Charter Boat Association fishing excursion. We found out from our experience awhile back that there is no fishing experience required. The captain and crew do the hard work. You just reel in your catch. Watch the video of our experience.
https://midwestwanderer.com/kenosha-charter-boat-fishing-excursion/
Visit Kenosha
Travel Wisconsin

Experience the thrill of catching fish on Lake Michigan aboard a Kenosha Charter Boat Association excursion. No experience needed.

06/06/2024

We ran an errand in Indiana this morning, so on our way home we detoured for lunch at the Farm House Restaurant at Fair Oaks Farms. Always a good choice.
Visit Indiana
Along the South Shore

06/06/2024

Cantigny, in Wheaton, Illinois, is commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day with what looks like a wonderful outdoor exhibit. Although we can't make it there today for opening day, we're hoping to see it soon.

Discover DuPage
Enjoy Illinois

05/06/2024

What better day to post a photo of the world’s largest catsup bottle than on ? (I know it has a different spelling, but it’s the same condiment.)

The water tower, located in Collinsville, Illinois, was built in 1949 for the plant that bottled Brooks catsup. It’s just a short detour from both and the historic National Road (U.S. 40).

National Road Association of Illinois
Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway
Great Rivers &Great Rivers & Routes
Enjoy Illinois

04/06/2024

Today is , which got me thinking again about the Cheese Days Festival coming up September 20-22 in Green County, Wisconsin. I’m amazed at all they’re packing into those three days—everything from a cow milking contest to attempting to break the world’s record for the biggest polka dance; from countryside tours and dairy farm visits to Alphorn entertainment and an old world cheesemaking demonstration…parades, carnival, and lots more. I’m getting excited to be there.
Travel Wisconsin

03/06/2024

With Old Cowtown Museum – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

01/06/2024

With Chicago Southland – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

01/06/2024

Today is National Prairie Day. According to NationalToday.com, National Prairie Day “celebrates the beauty and ecological value of this often-overlooked ecosystem.”

At one time prairie covered a huge portion of North America, including tall grass, mixed grass, and short grass. By the mid-1900s, most of the prairie land became farmland.

Today, knowing the importance of prairie to the ecosystem, some prairies are being restored, including the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie along Route 66 in Illinois. Formerly home to the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant, Midwein not only includes restored prairie, but has reintroduced bison to the land.

With almost 9,000 acres and 33 miles of hiking, biking, and horseback trails open to the public, Midewin Tallgrass Prairie makes a perfect stop on your Route 66 trip to get out and stretch your legs. It also makes a great day trip if you live in or are visiting the area.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/midewin
U.S. Forest Service - Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie
Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway

Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie - Home

30/05/2024

Have you walked across the Mississippi River? Legend has it that if you walk across the river at the headwaters, you will live a long and prosperous life. I ticked that one off my bucket list on our 2018 Great River Road trip. Skip and I both waded across the during the warm July day, when lots of other people were doing the same. (It's only a couple f feet deep at that point.) We returned in the quiet, serene evening, just to watch the waters from Lake Itasca flow into the Mississippi River.
Fun fact: At that point, the river actually flows north.
Great River Road MN
Discover Minnesota

29/05/2024

Have you done the Historic Bridges Tour in Valley City, North Dakota? We did it as part of the cross-state road trip we took a few years ago. What fun we had finding seven of the eight bridges on the tour. (We had a full schedule that day so had to skip the last one.)

All of the bridges are unique, with the highlight being the Hi-Line Bridge. At 3,860 feet long and 162 feet above the Sheyenne River, the Hi-Line bridge is one of the longest and highest single-track railroad bridges in the United States.
Travel North Dakota

28/05/2024

We found another railroad museum. We drove over to North Judson, Indiana, over the weekend and rode the steam train at the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum.

Unlike most excursion trains where we ride in vintage railroad cars, we sat on benches in an open-air car pulled by the steam engine. The weather was beautiful that day, so sitting in the open air was welcoming.

The train goes about 4.5 miles, then backs back up to the station, for about a 45-minute ride total. Trains run on Saturdays throughout the summer. Some days they use the steam engine; other days, it's a diesel engine.

North Judson used to be a huge rail junction, where four railroads crossed each other. You can read about it and see lots of photos exhibits in the rail cars on the property. The restored depot includes a neat ticket office display, along with a gift shop.

We were ready for lunch after our train ride, and after doing an online search, made our way over to the Toto Cafe, part of Richards of Toto. We made the right choice! The café is larger than we expected, decorated in a cute country theme, and the food was great. I had the fried chicken (it was actually broasted, my favorite), and Skip chose the grilled tenderloin.

The restaurant is attached to a 40,000 square foot store, full of…well, everything you can think of, from furniture to garden supplies, clothing to toys. It’s an overstock-type store, and is fun to browse through.
Visit Indiana

27/05/2024

We have a new museum on the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway! Yesterday was the grand opening/ribbon-cutting ceremony for the American Giants Museum. The Gemini Giant even made a two-day appearance. What a fun addition to Route 66 and Atlanta Illinois Tourism!

24/05/2024

Our latest issue of our "Midwest Wanderer Explores" e-zine is published! The topic of this one is the new Kansas Gunsmoke Trail. It includes 12 articles and over 30 Old West-related things to do in Wichita, Dodge City, Hays, and Abilene.

Read the articles, then start planning your own Kansas Gunsmoke Trail experience.

Link in first comment.
Kansas Tourism
Visit Abilene Kansas
Dodge City Convention & Visitors Bureau
Hays Convention & Visitors Bureau
Visit Wichita
Old Cowtown Museum
Mid-America All-Indian Museum
Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum
Dickinson County Historical Society
Central Station Bar & Grill
Dodge City Brewing
Museum of World Treasures
Hickok's Steakhouse
Old Abilene Town
Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad
Brookville Hotel at Abilene

Boot Hill Museum
Boot Hill Distillery
Fort Hays State Historic Site

24/05/2024

Thank you to Chicago Southland for sponsoring the National Tourism Day Celebration and Hospitality Showcase. We met lots of great people representing many facets of tourism and venues in Chicago's south and southwest suburban regions. (Great food and drink, too!)

19/05/2024

Happy blogiversary to us!

Exactly eleven years ago today, we published our first Midwest Wanderer blog post. It covered the Fabyan Forest Preserve in Geneva, Illinois. A Frank Lloyd Wright renovated villa, a Japanese garden, and a windmill are all on the property, and all have been restored to their original condition.
A link to that article is in the first comment.

18/05/2024

There's always something fun going on in Chicago Southland.

18/05/2024

Last night, Wayne Messmer, who for years sang the national anthem for Chicago sports teams, put on a stellar performance at our church, St. John Paul II Catholic Parish Kankakee, in "Damien—A One-Man Play.”

Fr. Damien (now Saint Damien) was the priest who cared for and ministered to the lepers on Molokai. After almost two decades living among the lepers, Fr. Damien contracted leprosy himself and succumbed to the disease a few years later.

We learned in the play that when they exhumed Fr. Damien’s body about fifty years later, his body was completely intact, except for a couple of toes that he lost from the disease. Other than that, his body no longer showed signs of leprosy.

Thank you, Mr. Messmer, for sharing your passion with us.

14/05/2024

On a whim, Sunday afternoon we drove up to Monroe, Wisconsin, for an overnight. If you travel much on Sunday and Monday, you know you’re taking a chance on things being open.

Our first stop was the Minhas Micro Brewery. They’re closed for tours right now for renovation (they're hoping to start up again by Memorial Day weekend), but the tasting room is open. Skip had a flight of craft beers, and I had a hard root beer. Turns out they were selling six-packs of hard sodas 2-for-1 in the gift shop. They’re going back to glass bottles, so clearing out the cans. What a deal! We couldn’t leave without taking advantage of that.

Two of the restaurants we thought about going to for dinner were closed, but Suisse Haus Food and Spirits was open—and nearby. Lots of locals coming in and ordering pizza, so I guess that’s the place for pizza in Monroe. We chose sandwiches instead, roast beef on a hoagie for me and liverwurst on marbled rye, with a “slice” of Swiss cheese, for Skip. Well, that “slice” was a half-inch thick slab! Of course, we were in cheese country, we should have known.

Monday morning we headed downtown to take photos of the courthouse and wander around inside. When I saw the tourism office is in the courthouse, we stopped in to say hello to Noreen from Green County, Wisconsin. Ten years ago, when Green County was preparing for the 100 year Cheese Days anniversary, I attended a media preview day. I didn’t realize it had been that long ago…time sure does fly.

Green County celebrates Cheese Days every other year, in the even-numbered years, so another Cheese Days Festival is coming up this September 20-22. It sounds like so much fun, with alphorns, yodeling, accordions, and lots of cheese. This year, they’re attempting to break a world record with the World’s Biggest Polka Dance. How fun is that?!

Noreen suggested we go down to the courthouse basement, then, to the official Cheese Days store. The shop is filled with t-shirts, mugs, and all kinds of fun Cheese Days stuff.

Our next stop was a tour of Alp and Dell Cheese Store, where co-owner Tony Zraggen gave us an awesome tour of the Emmi Roth cheese plant. (Emmi Roth makes the cheese, Alp and Dell sells it.) Tony and his wife Esther also happen to be this year’s Cheese Days King and Queen. The tour ended with a “thank you yodel” from Tony. Loved that! Then it was time to stock up on cheese before heading to our last Monroe stop...

…for more food shopping at The Swiss Colony Outlet Store. I was so engrossed in stocking up on truffles, petit fours, and other goodies that I forgot to even take pictures here.

We started meandering home then, but made one more stop…Rochelle, Illinois. It was well past one, and we were getting hungry. We found Butterfly Restaurant and ordered off the senior menu. In most restaurants the senior menu is a smaller portion. Not here. Entrée with potato and vegetable, salad, soup, and rice pudding for dessert. All tasty.

We can’t go through Rochelle without stopping at the Rochelle Railroad Park. It was a quiet train day, at least while we were there. Only two trains came in to what is normally a very busy area where two railroad lines cross each other.

The wind started picking up then. The predicted storms were about to start, so we hopped in the car to head home. For a Sunday and Monday, when lots of places are closed, we sure packed a lot into our short trip.

08/05/2024

On this day in 1886 Coca-Cola went on sale for the first time, sold as a tonic. To honor that day, May 8 has been named National Have a Coke Day... which is perfect timing for this little video of an animated jukebox Coca-Cola bank.

Tom Perkins, owner of Perkins Wood and Glass "The Shop" in Gardner, Illinois, has quite a collection of Coca-Cola memorabilia in his shop. He demonstrated this fun bank when we visited this weekend during the Illinois Route 66 Red Carpet Corridor festival.

07/05/2024

When we visited Bloomington, Illinois, this past Saturday during the Route 66 Red Carpet Corridor festival, the Downtown Bloomington Farmers' Market was going on. We were amazed at how big the market is, spreading over three sides of the square and down one of the streets. Someone told us, this is nothing, wait until produce starts coming in. It'll be even bigger. Looks like we'll be making another trip there later in the season. For now, there are lots of baked goods and homemade products... and on our visit I got to hold this adorable week-old goat.
Bloomington-Normal Area Convention & Visitors Bureau

06/05/2024

We made it to all 14 towns that participated in the Illinois Route 66 Red Carpet Corridor festival this past weekend! It took us the full two days to make it to all of the towns, and some of them we had time to only make a quick stop. Even though we've traveled Route 66 multiple times, there is always more to see and do.
Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway Enjoy Illinois
McLean County Museum of History
Joliet Area Historical Museum
Every Buddies Pub & Grub
Bloomington-Normal Area Convention & Visitors Bureau
Pontiac Tourism
Perkins Wood and Glass "The Shop"

03/05/2024

We're looking forward to this weekend's Illinois Route 66 Red Carpet Corridor festival. Festivities in 14 towns along the 90-mile stretch from Joliet to Bloomington.

18/04/2024

I only learned about the "diamond ring" effect after last week's solar eclipse. But we did get it on our video of the event. Here's a link to the post with the video. (It's sped up -- to only 43 seconds.)

Our sped-up video of the 2024 total solar eclipse begins in totality and ends with the solar eclipse diamond ring as the sun peeks out.

07/04/2024

Busy day yesterday in Explore West Plains. So many options with all the events.

We started off at the Kiwanis pancake breakfast (yum) then walked around the fair at the civic center grounds. Lots of food and craft vendors, everything from kettle corn and pulled pork sandwiches to handmade jewelry and soaps.

The DeLorean car from Back to the Future was on display, along with The Journey Stagecoach, built in 1880, and once belonging to Silver Dollar City. In 2001 Cowboy Rick Hamby bought it, restored it, and turned it into a pen pal stagecoach, delivering mail between children in Missouri and Arizona. How fun is that?!
Inside the civic center, we checked out the West Plains Model Railroad Club train layout.

At the GO FARM Farmers Market of West Plains we bought some local honey, freeze-dried candy (super tart--I love it) and an ooey-gooey chocolate cookie.

We made a stop at the 7th Annual Show Me RC 100. That's radio-controlled car races. So fun to watch.

We wound up the day at the Neon Parade, featuring the Budweiser Clydesdales and then a cute variety show at the historic Avenue Theater.
Eclipse West Plains

05/04/2024

Eclipse viewers are flocking into Explore West Plains. We stopped at the Ozark Heritage Welcome Center again today to take photos of a couple of murals. On past visits there hasn't been more than one other vehicle in the parking lot. Today it was full.
Tomorrow will be a full day of events, from a pancake breakfast in the morning to the neon parade in the evening, all part of Eclipse West Plains.
Where will you view the eclipse from?

04/04/2024

We hiked a bit this morning at the North Fork River Recreation Area in the Mark Twain National Forest near Dora, Missouri. The highlight here is Blue Spring. The water didn't look this blue to the naked eye, but on every photo I took with my cell phone (no filters or special settings), the water came our as blue as today's clear sky.
Visit Missouri

03/04/2024

The Budweiser Clydesdales are in West Plains, Missouri, for the Eclipse West Plains. We went to visit them this morning at their temporary stables in a tent on the grounds of the civic center. They'll be a highlight in Saturday evening's parade. The parade is one of many events planned in the four-day "Party in the Path" here in Explore West Plains.
Visit Missouri

02/04/2024

This tree sculpture is new since our last visit to the Ozarks earlier this year. Jason Morton of Eagle Ridge Chainsaw Carvings transformed a dead oak tree into a likeness of the late country star Porter Wagoner's guitar. The sculpture is in front of the Ozark Heritage Welcome Center in West Plains, Missouri. Porter Wagoner grew up on a farm near West Plains.
Explore West Plains Visit Missouri

01/04/2024

Another place to view the April 8 eclipse in totality: West Plains, Missouri. They're planning a four-day celebration, beginning Friday, April 5, with lots of fun events. Check it out their schedule.
Eclipse West Plains
Explore West Plains

April 8, 2024 is the last total solar eclipse (TSE) in the Missouri Ozarks until the year 2178. West Plains will experience 3:04 (min:sec) of totality.

27/03/2024

When Skip and I visited French Lick, Indiana, a few years ago, we learned about the mineral springs that guests used to soak in. It’s what drew people to the area. They not only soaked in the water, they drank it, too. The water had a laxative effect, but a person also felt relaxed after drinking it. The Pluto Water Company bottled the water and sold it across the country, all the way until 1971. That’s when the government tested the water and found it naturally contained lithium. Since lithium is considered a controlled substance, it could no longer be sold.

Fast forward to last year. We were in Wichita, Kansas, at the Museum of World Treasures. We were browsing the exhibit on Quackery when we found this.
Visit French Lick West Baden
Visit Wichita
Museum of World Treasures
French Lick West Baden Museum
Kansas Tourism
Visit Indiana