Trish & Anne RV Adventures

We left Minneapolis/Saint Paul on Thursday, October 10 to continue to follow the Great River Road (GRR) along the Mississippi. In short order we were going over the river and into Wisconsin. Trish saw a sign for a GRR visitor center – turned out to be a great stop to make. We got some great ideas of places to stop during the day – and they all revolved around food.

The first suggestion was to stop at the Stockholm Pie Shop – supposedly the Best Pie Shop in America – we each bought a slice of our own, and then we got a 6″ one to split – we had pie for days. And I have to say that their BumbleBerry – a combination of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries was mighty good.

We stopped at several overlooks, and for much of the day it was the road, the train track and the river — and not much else. Next stop was the Nelson Creamery – where we got some ice cream to go with the pie. It was good too.

We drove through several small towns and also along the bluffs. Then we drove back over the Mississippi River to the town of Winona, MN where we were going to stay at the Garvin Heights Winery. We got there in time for a wine tasting, and buying a bottle.

On our walk through the vineyard we spotted several birds – yellow-rumped warblers, chipping sparrows, cedar wax-wings and a northern flicker.

Went out looking for the northern lights again – certainly were not bright enough to see them with the naked eye – but if you look enlarge that photo, I did catch the Big Dipper. And that’s Trish pulling our RV out of our overnight spot – I had walked up the hill to unhook the chain so we could get out of the parking area.

The owner of the winery had said to stop at the Garvin Heights overlook – which we did. It was a great overlook – Lake Winona is the big body of water you are looking at – the Mississippi can be seen in the lower left photo almost on the horizon. There was some beautiful color overlooking the city of Winona – which was a lumber town and is now a college town.

Popoki watching as we drive over Lake Winona. Then we drove through the town of La Crosse. That’s the world’s largest six-pack – actually beer storage tanks for the City Brewing Company. We just drove by and the phone focused on the dirty windshield, but you get the idea.

Another shot of the street in La Crosse. That’s Sunny the Sunfish the 15′ x 25′ ambassador for Onalaska, the “Sunfish Capital of the World.”

We stopped at another wildlife area and saw some egrets and a heron.

Someone had told us that this area was the apple center of Wisconsin, so we took their advice and drove up the bluff. Found this apple statue and the history of the orchards in the area.

It took a while until we saw some apple trees, but then we got to Sunrise Orchards – the first time we had seen the apple sorting process right in the store. It was a huge store and we finally found a bag had just three honey crisp apples in it – there was no chance to buy just single apples. There were lots of folks walking out with crates of apples – I guess they were making apple sauce, because it would have to be a mighty big family to eat that many apples

Coming down from the bluff and back to the river and the GRR.

The Villa Louis was another recommended stop. It is in Prairie du Chien, WI and was built by Louis and Nina Sturgis Dousman in the 1870’s. It replaced an earlier family residence built by Louis’s parents. This version was built in the Italian Villa style, with interiors in the British Arts and Crafts style. But Louis passed away at 37, in 1886. His widow and 5 children survived by selling off the horses and some property.

This is the office and that’s an early copy machine. After a document was written out in ink, it would be pressed against a thin damp piece of paper – enough of the document would transfer, and then you could read the copy by holding it up to the light.

The house has been restored to it’s appearance in the period from 1893 to 1898 from photos that the family had from that period. That’s the photo of the family playing billiards and our tour standing around the table – check out the same light fixture.

This chair can be seen in the picture of the porch and isn’t that a beautiful sitting room.

Busts of Louis and Nina

Some of the family china, and we put antique drawer pulls like this on the built in cabinet we but in our bedroom.

Original cobblestone pathway way – and looking back up to the back of the Villa.

We spent the night in the parking lot of the Potosi Brew Pub. We had a great meal and we enjoyed a good dinner with Lon & Mary, a couple from Wisconsin who were also staying in the parking lot.

There is museum on site also – we walked around while we waited for our table – here is a sampling of beers made in Wisconsin.

The three RV’s in the lot. That’s ours tucked in behind the class A – the one that looks like a bus

On Saturday morning, we were headed for US Grant’s house in Galena, but there was a fall festival going on (complete with scarecrows) and traffic was terrible. So I just snapped this picture of the house as we drove by.

Then we were on to Illinois. driving along the river again and we arrived at the town of Savanna.

Trish had found the Havencrest Castle in Savanna – it is only open on weekends in May and October – and lucky for us the timing worked. The house was originally built in 1901 by Margaret and Francis S. Greenleaf in the Queen Anne style. It had two indoor bathrooms and a marble sink with hot and cold running water in the bedroom – quite luxurious for that time. The Greenleafs passed away in the mid 1940’s. The house went through several owners, and then in 1976 it was bought by Alan and Adrianne St. George. They eventually expanded it from the original 22 rooms to 63. That’s a model of the house as it is today, and some shots of the exterior.

The love between Alan and Adrienne began when Alan was 13 and saw Adrienne from a bus in Chicago. It turned out he was the magician’s assistant at the party she was at. Fate. They married in 1975 and when they bought Havencrest they planned every detail together. The “castle” is an over-the-top tribute to their love. Alan created many paintings and sculptures that were inspired by Adrianne, and that decorate the house. This first picture is the entry hall and that is Adrianne and George on the ceiling of the parlor. You can’t imagine the sensory overload we had for the hour we were touring the house.

Details of some of the woodwork.

This was the creepiest room in the house – it was the room for Adrienne’s doll collection. She invited her friends to have tea parties in this room – I would not have enjoyed that.

Adrienne passed away suddenly in 2006 – this is the room that houses her ashes and a room that give you a sneak peek into the bathroom.

The Indian themed room and one of the cabinets that house Adrienne’s tiara collection.

The Persian room and another of Adrienne’s gowns.

Closeup of the peacock art glass window and of the sink in the bathroom that Alan still uses.

Not just artwork, but photos were everywhere. The library and two more rooms. We got to see 26 of the 63 rooms.

Part of the decorations in the Chinese room, and the hall with the castle decorations is 70 feet long.

Later in life Alan turned to creating contemporary art. One of his was dedicated to Neal Patrick Harris and his husband, and another was for Siegfried and Roy.

This is the ballroom. It was not completed until after Adrienne passed away in 2006, but she is everywhere in the room, from ball gowns that she wore to the painting of the St. Gorges with their 6 dogs behind the thrones that are at one end of the room. This is the next to last room on the tour, and we actually got to meet Alan and speak to him about his love of Adrienne. This is a PBS video where you can see Alan talk about the castle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foP_Jio_j7E

More of Adrienne’s gowns were on display in the ballroom. Adrienne was the founder of the county humane society, and many of the balls they held in the house supported that and other charities. After she passed away there was also a cat rescue named for her – Adrienne’s Angels.

One of the other projects that Alan did was make a full size replica of the clock that was on the Titanic – this is in the last room on the tour. At the other end of the room is this display. Semper Nos is the couples motto – it means Always Us. (Hey Madara’s, does that remind you of anything?) This is the room (and urn) that will hold both of their ashes when that time comes. They never had any children and we didn’t hear what will become of the castle then.

So, where did the money come from for all of this extravagance? This car parked in the driveway gives you a clue. Alan founded a company called Facemakers when he was 19 years old – after creating a mask for a costume contest that caught the attentions of a film company. Today the company designs and manufactures the world’s largest selection of mascots for clients that include Disney, The White House, colleges, and companies. They did the design for world famous mascots from Smokey Bear, to the Keebler Elf and Tony the Tiger. Guess they get some great royalties.

After being overwhelmed By Havencrest, it was a bit of a relief to get back on the GRR and just drive along side some huge pumpkin fields. And that’s Popoki wondering why we were stopped dead in traffic on this tiny back road for 20 minutes. There were 4 fire trucks that we saw pull away. When we were finally moving again we passed a car turned over in a ditch – it was the middle of the day so who knows what happened.

Our next stop was the little town of Fulton, IL.. I had read about the De Immigrant Windmill and wanted to see it. It is a “modern” mill, having been built in 2000, but it was actually built first in the Netherlands, then deconstructed – with the pieces being numbered – and then reconstructed on the levee in Fulton. What I didn’t know is there is also a Windmill Museum, that is full of models of windmills from all around the world. They were constructed by Henk and June Hielema as a hobby. When they were getting older they knew they needed to find a place for these models – that range in size from a foot tall to about 5 feet tall. When Henk visited the De Immigrant he was greeted warmly and given a great tour – he decided this was the place for his models. The town raised $500k and built a museum right across the street from the mill to house the donated models. Here are some examples of the models.

The docent was demoing how this horizontal mill worked – it is very inefficient, but the winds in eastern Iran and western Afghanistan in the summer can average 45 mph. If the mill wasn’t inefficient, it would turn too fast and burn the flour.

A picture of Henk and June and the De Immigrant from the front of the museum.

Yes, that’s me behind that cutout pretending to raise a sack of flour. It would have come off the mill stone that is in the wooden grinding box in the 2nd photo. The mill is tended by volunteer millers, but the wind was not brisk enough when we were there, so we only got an explanation of how things worked.

Looking up at the inner workings of the mill, and the mill and the Mississippi River from the levee.

One of the streets in Fulton – a cute little town. And a neat photo of the sunset as we were moving on to our campground in Rock Island, IL.

Next up, what we did in the Quad Cities.

Til then, safe travels!