Plymouth and Caledonia, WI

The Kohler Co. is located, not coincidentally, in the small town of Kohler Wisconsin.  As seems to have happened quite frequently in years past, a town was created to serve the needs of a large corporation.  The Kohler Company is very involved with town life, and the company is still family owned 100  years later.

      We spent 5 hours at the Kohler Co., touring their facilities, which include the largest foundry in Wisconsin. They do not allow pictures to be taken, so we  of course have no pictures to show.  We toured about 4 different buildings and saw many products being built, including ceramic sinks, tubs, metal fixtures and cast iron products.  We learned the difference between a Pattern and a casting- a pattern is the mold that makes the mold, essentially.  The castings for toilets and ceramic sinks are made from sand, and are broken apart once the product is made.  Then they are recycled into another casting, which means that each casting is only used once before it is recycled.  Very labor intensive!  We also saw enamel painting being done.  Their 3 most popular enamel colors are sprayed on by robot, but the specialty colors are actually sprayed on by hand, and require 3 coats, with a firing in between each.  No wonder these fixtures cost so much!!

  They have a huge machine they call Herman and Herman builds their most popular bathtub.  This tub is never touched by human hands, which is great for the workers since it weighs in at 450 lbs.  From start to finish its a conveyor type system that casts it, fires it, and enamels it.

       After exploring the surrounding towns of Sheboygan and Sheboygan Falls on Lake Michigan, and Fond Du Lac and Oshkosh, which are on Lake Winnebago, we were ready to move on to our next location, Caledonia, Wisconsin.
Caledonia was a brief stopover to meet up with the parents of Jessica's boyfriend.  We didn't know when we decided to stop here that by the time we had dinner with them, they would be Jessica's future in-laws! It did make it very nice that the four of us were together when David asked Jessica to marry him, so when I got the call from her, we all got the news at the same time!

   While in the area we checked out the Jelly Belly "factory".  Its actually just a warehouse, but they have a short tour of the facilities, which drops you off at their retail store, of course.  We did buy a lot of Jelly Belly jelly beans, and some candy corn.  I will say that they do let you sample anything you want, and the candy corn is some of the best (but most expensive) I have ever had.

Jessica

On Friday Paul received a courtesy call from Jessica's boyfriend David, requesting permission to ask Jessica (our 20 year old daughter) to marry him.  Permission was given, along with our concerns about the fact that they are pretty young still.
   Paul and I happened to be in Wisconsin, 30 miles from David's parents' house and were planning on trying to get together with them for dinner anyway, so that call cemented our plans.  Saturday we went out to dinner, and the four of us were together when Jess called me to share her happy news.
Both Jess and David are still in college (David graduates soon) so the wedding will not be imminent.

Baraboo/Wisconsin Dells (9-22-10)





Trumpet Paper is a term I learned that struck a chord with me.  Trumpet Paper refers to the posters that were put up in towns, in advance of the circus coming to town, so it was paper, that "heralded" the coming of the circus.    Baraboo Wisconsin was the original home of  the Ringling Brothers Circus, way back in the 1800s.  There were 5 brothers who started the circus and it made them some of the wealthiest men in the country at the time.  They each took charge of one aspect of the business and never questioned each others' decisions, which gave them all plenty of time to handle their portion of the business.  Over the years they bought other circuses, including Barnum and Bailey Circus. The Ringling Circus was unique in its day because the brothers insisted on honesty in their employees  and value for the customer, which were new concepts in the circus world. 

Baraboo has a museum called Circus World. Everything there is very bright, colorful and has a circuslike atmosphere. Several of the original buildings from the 1800s are still standing.  During the summer there are shows all day long on the museum grounds, but they stop completely once September hits. On the upside, the entrance fee goes down to less than half  in September. We spent a half day learning about the Ringling brothers and the history of the circus-very enjoyable for me!  Once a year, when I was a child, my dad would take each of us kids, individually, on an outing. I remember him taking me to the circus when it came to Boston.  When my kids were young, I took them to the circus- and so did my brother and sister.  Its a great thing to do with kids.




Chasm that the dog jumps over

    Wisconsin Dells is actually a town, although most people associate the name with a "thing".  The town is like any other tourist trap town.  Too many T-shirts and trinkets.  The Dells themselves are the valleys between the mountains, which in this case, contain the Wisconsin River. We took the boat tour of the upper dells, and they were interesting I guess, but what was memorable to me was the fact that one of the first photographers in the area, back in the 1800s, invented the instant shutter.  Before that, a shutter stayed open for minutes in order to get the picture- which was, according  to our guide, the reason why no one smiled in old pictures.  Poses had to be held for 4 minutes and who can smile for 4 minutes straight?   In order to prove how fast the shutter was, he took pictures of a man jumping over a chasm.  Nowadays they have a dog jump over the same spot, to demonstrate.
 Yesterday we hiked around Devils Lake, which was a better hike than I thought it would be.  The weather was a bit lousy, almost raining the whole time, but the rock formations were interesting.  Today we moved on to Plymouth WI, on the eastern side of Wisconsin.  Friday we are scheduled to tour Kohler Co.

What a Welcome to Wisconsin!



the hoards begin to arrive



    On our way to Wisconsin Dells, we broke up the long drive by stopping at a campground in a small town along the way.  What a great idea that was!  When we arrived, we could see that the campground was bustling with activity.  As it turns out, they were having their annual Halloween celebration, which included costume judging and campsite decoration judging.  Many of the 240 campsites were all decked out although, we were caught unaware, and had nothing to decorate with. That was disappointing, since Paul was usually right on top of that stuff when we had a house.  We always had one of the best decorated houses in the neighborhood.

   Once we set up, we set out some chairs to watch the "show".  At 3:00,  it was time for trick or treating, and the people across the way from us were ready for kids of all ages.  There was candy for the kids, and Shots for the parents- shots of "eye of newt" (tequila), and Poison #94 (vodka) among others.  The adults picked a paper from a bowl and took a shot of whatever was on the paper.  Many of the parents were dressed up along with the kids.





the search for jello shots...

  Our busy neighbors were staying at the campground with several friends, some of whom have seasonal sites here, so they know a lot of people.  After chatting across the road with them for a bit, they invited us over to join the festivities and we spent the afternoon with them.  Once the trick or treating was done, we women took off in a golf cart to see if there were any left over jello shots anywhere (there were) and eventually came back so we could  head to someone elses site for a casual dinner and a campfire.  Later there was dancing and Karaoke in the pavilion, and we wandered back and forth between the campfire and the music.  All in all we had a great time and met some really nice people!
    Today we are in Baraboo, at Devils Lake State Park.  Once again we have no cell service, and I can get the internet only once in a while.