Whimsy, Midwestern Style

In North Dakota, artist Gary Greff built monumental metal sculptures and placed them along a desolate county road that connects the village of Regent with the rest of the world via Interstate 94. He dubbed this 30 mile stretch of road The Enchanted Highway. Even if you don’t see the magic in his creations, The Enchanted Highway is a quirky and fun detour off the interstate. Besides, what else are you going to do in North Dakota?

I thought about The Enchanted Highway when I was driving US 61 in Wisconsin last week. I passed through here several times last week, traveling between my base in La Crosse and the library at UW-Platteville. There is a 60-mile stretch of highway between Coon Valley and Fennimore that has an unusually high concentration of oversized animal figures. Maybe they should call this road The Whimsical Highway. I get most of the creatures. Boscobel, popular with turkey hunters, has a big turkey on wheels. The Carr Valley Cheese Company in Fennimore has a large mouse posing with a block of cheese (and some damn fine cheese they have). Honestly, though, I have no idea what the seahorse has to do with either Viroqua or Mexican food. Maybe you can tell me.

And speaking of asphalt, at the beginning of last week’s trip, I stopped in Rock Island to check out the Rock Island Grand Prix. This annual event takes a bunch of grown ups and squeezes them into souped-up go-karts to race around select downtown streets. I was told that some drivers have gone on to compete in NASCAR events, but I wonder if it’s like saying some Pee Wee baseball players eventually get to the major leagues. Regardless, the race is a lot of fun to watch, and no one got hurt when the go-karts crashed. I’ll post more pictures later.

Today’s Bad Decision: Not using enough bug spray on my feet, I guess. Last week, I spent a night at my favorite campsite – on the edge of a bluff in Wyalusing State Park high above the Mississippi River/Wisconsin River confluence. I woke up the next morning with at least two dozen small gray spots on my feet that looked like bug bites of some kind – chiggers, mosquitoes, maybe a spider. (Don’t worry – I’m not going to post a picture of my feet.) I’m not really sure when it happened, but I did spend most of the evening sitting outside with only sandals protecting my feet. Would more bug spray have helped? Was something hiding in my sleeping bag? I don’t really know, but the bites were annoying as hell.

**Southwest Wisconsin is covered in Road Tripping Along the Great River Road, Vol. 1. Click the link above for more. Disclosure: This website may be compensated for linking to other sites or for sales of products we link to.

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