Council Grounds State (WI) Park

 I am seldom without wifi or cell service, but this was the case for Council Grounds State Park. The name comes from the park's reputation as a location in which Native American leaders used the river to reach a common location for a meeting and social gathering. Both state parks we enjoyed were located on man-made lakes / rivers that were created years ago to drive small hydroelectric generating stations.

We spend a lot of time at our lake place in the woods of Wisconsin, but these parks offer some new experiences. The trails here were a great experience and I was able to get some unique photos.

Even though we are familiar with the general area and spend time in the woods parks offer some unique experiences. The northern woods of Minnesota and Wisconsin were early an opportunity of lumber barons. Logging is till a big deal, but the trees that were the basis for the early logging are mostly gone or at least not as common and certainly not as large. The parks have some large white pines. 

Our trip is over and it was short by our usual standards. It was nice to be able to spend some time in the rPod and we hope next season will allow some longer adventures. Here are a few random images to end.

The cone in coneflower

 I have taken many wildflower photos on our trips and likely several of the purple coneflower (Echinacea). The purple part of the name is easy enough to understand, but I had never given much thought to why it is called a coneflower. I took this picture today and the cone shape is obvious. Earlier in the growing season the shape is not this obvious and I have been time traveling in the Fall only recently.

Now

Earlier

Selfie Shelf

 

It has rained since we arrived so we are waiting to try the trails. Driving around we did find something new.

I take very few selfies, but I thought this effort by the Park crew was kind of interesting. It is located on the back of a sign explaining what you see from a scenic view. There are even instructions. Put your camera here. Set the timer. Stand back. Smile. Pretty neat.

Lake Wissota State Park, WI

 Finally, we are going to try a little traveling. We skipped two trips to Europe because of the pandemic and have been reluctant to take our rPod on the road. Lots of folks are camping and campers have been selling very well. We wanted to find campsites within driving distance that did not require we stop at rest areas. We also had to be assured that we could be self-contained. It would be great if we could take full advantage of our rPod and use full hook-ups (electricity, water, and sewer). The popularity of camping means you have to reserve spots ahead of time and the liberal cancellation policy (two days before your registration) means it is very difficult to find a location even though school has started and most folks are back at work. We have reserved spots in a couple of State Parks and we will see from there.

We encountered minor difficulties in getting fully setup and have not had an opportunity to explore. The bridge was out a couple of miles from our destination and we had to drive around another half hour or so trying to find a way to get to our destination. Setup usually goes very well, but we had to insert a "core" in the water heater. It looks simple - just screw it in. It took about an hour because of corrosion or worn threads, but Cindy finally had the touch. Tomorrow we explore. This is a pretty area on the edge of a Wisconsin lake. We drove from our lake place in the forest to a park on a lake in the forest. I took a photo before I left that looks nearly identical to this photo. It is the principle of the thing. A little early for colorful leaves, but it just feels great to be on the road. 

Minneapolis Mill District and the Stone Arch Bridge

We are still pretty much limited in our travel opportunities, but there are some very interesting places to visit in Minneapolis. The following images are from what is called the mill district (using power from the Mississippi) most of which were taken from a repurposed railroad bridge (the stone arch bridge). 

Bought a pig

Having the freedom and resources to travel have been the great advantage of retirement and I suppose to a lesser extent most of our lives. I think you learn so much from escaping your own circumstances and exploring other places and people. I started documenting our experiences in a travel blog beginning in 2016, but I was including posts since I began writing online on these experiences in other blogs. Lately, there just haven’t been the opportunities to write on travel because of the pandemic and related health vulnerabilities. It was our 50th anniversary a week or so ago and we had planned to celebrate with one of those European river tours and also visit a friend at her home. All of this has been shut down for the time being. At our age, it feels like we are losing opportunities.

We bought a pig. Cindy read the Facebook story of a Minnesota hog farmer who was not able to send his pigs to market because of the closing of processing plants. He was going to have to euthanize his animals and just bury the carcasses. He decided to use his Facebook account to sell his animals for $150 and help those purchasing find somewhere to process the animal. After thinking about the situation for a while and seeing if our kids and their families would take some of the meat, we added our name to those wanting to make a purchase. The delay put us well down the list and the farmer had to scour the area for small operations able to butcher his animals and prepare the meat. We finally were able to pick up the 150 pounds of pork yesterday.

I realized that the 130 mile drive to Cadott, WI, was the longest trip we had taken in months and I decided this might be the best opportunity for a Grabe Travels post for some time to come. It had all of the elements of an adventure - unfamiliar territory, uncertainty of circumstances, unique learning opportunities, and pictures of food. 

We spend quite a bit of time in Wisconsin and are familiar with local meat and cheese shops. Cadott was in a different area and the countryside of Wisconsin is beautiful. Nearly wiped out a white tail deer who decided to dart across the road. My finely tuned reflexes and keen ability to spot wildlife saved both the deer and our car. Some of the trip took us through Amish country and we would normally have stopped to have something to eat in another time. Interesting people.

The meat shop was impressive even given our experience with such establishments. One-hundred fifty pounds of pork is a lot. We would not have had the storage capacity and offloading some of the haul to the freezers of our kids. When you purchase an entire animal, you acquire delicacies you tend not purchase in the grocery store. We passed on the heart and the tongue so I am not certain what happened to these sources of protein. Perhaps they were ground into the sausage or brats or were sold to customers interested in these delicacies. Here is a recipe for ham hocks just in case you wonder how you might consume pig knuckles. The ham hock and collard greens slow cooker dish sounds great and I think I may have eaten something like this before. It sounds like the type of thing I now enjoy.

We used three coolers of this size and a couple of smaller coolers to get everything home.

I did promise a food picture. We had bacon and eggs for breakfast. 

Aloha

We just arrived back in Minnesota. Glad to be back under the circumstances. No snow. Hope all is well with everyone who followed these posts and we are soon through the threat from this disease. 

Swinging bridge

There are not that many communities on Kauai and I assume all rely heavily on tourists dollars. To attract visitors, you need an attraction. Food works, but there is good food everywhere. You need something like the largest ball of twine or Paul Bunyan and the babe's statues. Hanapepe has a swinging bridge.

This was not like I might imagine a swinging bridge. There was not actual danger of falling between boards that made up the deck of the bridge and it was not held together with ropes. However, it did swing as you walked across it and that sensation was enough to give you a thrill; a small thrill. I amused myself by following Cindy and trying to keep in step and use my opposite foot to see see if I could reduce the sway. Sometimes, you just need to create your own challenges.

Trying to blend in

I had this view while sitting on the lanai a few days ago. Cindy brought her iphone and captured the image.

This seems the type of photo that might be the subject of a contest of some sort - "label this photo". I told Cindy I would call it "one of these is not like the other", but she thought this was too predictable and I could do better. She thought there must be a message in there somewhere. I did come up with an alternative, but I am not certain my alternative has a deeper meaning.

Given recent world events perhaps "we are all in this together" would be good.

Coronavirus

I shouldn’t continue to ignore our situation. We are well aware of the spread of the coronavirus and are trying to decide what to do. Our age puts us at risk and Cindy has the added issue of mild diabetes. As of today, we are scheduled to stay in Hawaii for a couple more weeks. The plane trip back to the states is an issue. We would rather not fly through Seattle, but the present cost of a change would be $500. The lower quality of medical care here is a consideration. There are confirmed cases both on the island and in Minnesota. The likelihood of infection in either location is unknown, but we do have to consider the possibility plane travel could be shut down and we would be searching for a place to stay should we get stranded. So many issues to consider. 

Rescue

We stay around the corner from an area called Queen's Bath  The location is at the end of a popular hike, but is often off limits because novices frequently endanger themselves when the surf is high. 

The arrow in the satellite map below points to an area to the left of the bath. It also gets tourists in trouble.  

The last time we were here we witnessed the rescue of someone who could got down the cliff, but could not get back up. A helicopter lowered someone with a basket and brought the man up. I took pictures. 

Today may have been a repeat. No basket, but I could see someone being lowered on a line. 

Hamura Saimin

When you don't know what you are doing, look for the best whatever lists. We are fans of Saimin and yesterday went searching for Hamura Saimin. Hard to describe this noodle soup type dish. Poke and Saimin would be things I would eat no matter where I found them.

Mine was regular size. There was also a sumo option, but I am working on controlling my appetite. 

Credit card fraud

We received a fraud alert last night when we were out. Cindy called and found out someone had tried to charge $2700 on our card. The strange thing is the charges were to cover three insurance plans. 

My immediate reaction was one of puzzlement. Of all the things you could use a stolen credit card to purchase, why would anyone use it to pay for insurance? When the charges were denied wouldn’t it be immediately evident who was responsible?  Why three different policies?

I now have no credit card. I have a cash card and my Starbucks card. Cindy does have another card, but not everyone takes American Express. I can’t get another card until I get home so I expect multiple monthly subscriptions to be looking for their money. 

Plate lunch

This is another food post with a cultural angle. The plate lunch is a thing here. Those establishments offering this option advertise it as such. The cultural association with the plate lunch taps into Kauai's multicultural background. As I understand the origin, field workers used to bring food to their work site and at lunch time share with each other. We midwesterners might describe this as pot luck. The mix of backgrounds present in the fields led to some very interesting food combinations. Foodies might describe this as fusion. At least this how I as a nonfoodie and a midwesterner would attempt to explain the phenomenon. I see that a bento box is an alternate description, but bento box has a different meaning to me.

I am not certain if the quality of the food is a cultural thing, but a couple might try ordering one plate and maybe an app until they have visited a given establishment a few times. Our experience was with a plate lunch forward establishment called Bobbie's. You can find lists of best plate lunch eateries online and Bobbies was #2.

My plate is at the bottom of the photo - rice, fried seimen, beef, chicken, mushrooms. Everything seems to have been marinated or sauced.

Kauai Coffee

We returned to Kauai Coffee to take their tour. You pay for this one, but they take you into the fields to see the massive operation.

This massive farm has 4 million coffee trees and harvests from 3 million each year. The farm is on the dry side of the island, but canals bring water from the mountains where it rains more than 400 inches per year. This water is filtered by running the water through sand filters and then sent out to the plants using drip irrigation. Thin plastic tubing run down each row. The final photo is of the recycling effort which generates compost. The trees would grow tall without constant pruning necessary to refresh the plant for more active growth and to keep the trees to a height suited for mechanical picking. Green matter and the residue from the harvest are composted.

Probably the thing I learned this year that disputed an existing view was that all coffee cherries were red. The most common variety on this farm is a yellow variety.

We finished the outing by planting some coffee beans - Blue Mountain. It takes at least 5 years to get these new plants to the point they will produce. 

Allerton Gardens

Kauai is not that large so we find ourselves visiting some of the same attractions we visited during a previous visit again. This is the case with Allerton Gardens. What struck me about our visit this year was the very different impression I got from previous visits. I decided the different perspectives resulted from the interest and focus of our tour guides. I remember a previous visit having a more botanical focus even to the point of walking through a greenhouse focused on the newest mission of the gardens as preserving tropical plants. This year was more focused on the story of the Allertons.

The Allertons had immense wealth with one being the son of a Chicago stockyards baron. The son never worked and spent a great deal of time traveling and in Hawaii. The son was gay and had as his partner a younger man that he adopted to allow for the passing on of his estate. The garden was created as an outdoor living space (their traditional home was far more modest) consisting of "rooms" the couple would use for entertaining and living their lives. Meals were enjoyed outdoors. You have to imagine the rooms shown in the following photos containing furniture and used for banquets, dancing, etc.

The rooms were planned very carefully and the trust that sustains the gardens is based on precise instructions for what is to be grown where. Hurricanes have done severe damage to the rooms and these instructions were followed carefully in the regeneration of the desired plantings.

Cone guys

Kauai is pretty much round. A road runs around much of the island except one stretch where the terrain does not allow. Side roads branch off from this ring road, but again cannot link across the island because of the mountainous terrain in the middle.

I think I mentioned in a previous post that they use an unusual approach to adjust what can be a heavy flow of traffic to and from Lihue (home of Costco). I finally was in the right place at the right time yesterday to get a photo. The road is three lanes moving towards Lihue. I mean a total of three lanes and not three lanes in one direction. After the morning rush and by rush I mean the number of vehicles and not the speed at which this traffic flows (max 40 for much of the trip), these cone guys go out an pick up these cones that signal they side of the road marked for two-lane traffic is now one lane and the second lane has been assigned to the other direction. There are multiple trucks in this convoy. The trucks in the back signal to traffic to be cautious and then move up when the truck in the front is loaded. Evidently some time in the early morning, this cones must be put down again. Five days a week. Steady work and I guess a cost effective solution.

Hibiscus

We have spent little time visiting tropical locations so I can't compare Kauai to other locations that are warm, fertile, and wet. The thing I find so impressive about this place is the weight and diversity of the biomass. Green vegetations everywhere. This is not the monoculture fields of agricultural areas and not the heavy timber growth of the area we spend so much time at in Northern Wisconsin. This is green growing on green with so much natural vegetation, variety and flowering species.

I frequently walk to or from a coffee shop I like to inhabit to read and write. It is a little over two miles away from the condo we stay in. With the exception of the golf courses that line part of this road, much of the rest of the hike is through areas lined with hedges of hibiscus. I don't know where the hibiscus can be grown and I understand these lengths of hibiscus plants were planted and are carefully maintained. The percentage of plant covered with flowers has been increasing in the last couple of weeks and the variety of the huge blooms has to attract your attention.