Day 9 Silos & Dairies

 Welcome to the Big Cheese!

On our flight path from Lawrence we flew over Cedar Rapids, DesMoines and the Mighty, Muddy Mississippi River. The air as we approached the river was the first bit of turbulence we have felt so far. The river seems to want her might acknowledged so we got shaken up and tipped our wings.

Wisconsin Fields

Another first was an airplane sighting across our path, not close at all. We think of the ground space being vast but the atmosphere is so vast that we mostly feel all alone up here. It is quiet and lonely even at 5500'. We are keeping ourselves busy though. While autopilot does its job Steve is reading email on his ipad (to send from the ground later) and I am stuffing doll limbs.

We flew through IL for 10 minutes clipping the NW corner of the state. Then we were over WI fields which are different from the other fields we have seen. Instead of large square tracts here they've got strips of meandering squiggles. Quite pretty and excellent ideas for quilting patterns. Steve says the ribbons of green and brown are abstract art.

Madison Between Lakes

Madison is both the state capitol and the home of UW. The approach shows a city squeezed between two lakes. We flew over the capitol building for a very official landing. Luckily Obama was here and left before our arrival. It would have made for a messy arrival or a big delay for us. We quickly learned that this week is the annual International Dairy Expo, a very big deal here as you can imagine.

Silos & Dairies

Romeo & Juliette the Windmills

As soon as we were on the ground we borrowed a crew car and drove for an hour to tour Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's home, school & studio in Spring Green. On the road we passed enormous silos, contented cows, dairies, waving wheat, and fields of browning corn. The tour of his studio was interesting and it was nice to see his theater and hear the stories and anecdotes that keep his story alive. We were too late for the house tour but could see it from afar. He also built an amazing windmill in two parts. One is diamond shape and one a hexagon. It's called Romeo and Juliet.

Next is dinner in this most cosmopolitan city.