La Crosse, WI to Hidden Bluffs Resort

Tuesday, August 12

On our way home from La Crosse and Grandad Bluff we decided to take a different route.  We went through Houston.

The town of Houston is in Houston County.  My research shows the town & county were actually named after Sam Houston from Texas.  I guess the influence of Texas is everywhere.  Ha Ha

In this area of Minnesota the farmers vary their field with corn, soy beans and sometimes grass.  The following 5 pictures show the patterns of various fields as we drove around.

 All the taller crops are corn.  We learned at the county fair that there are only one ear of corn per stalk usually.  Sometimes there may be two.  When I think about all the corn on the cob you see in the stores and knowing it is all over the country that way, it's mind boggling to me to think about all the corn stalks that must produce AND the corn doesn't get ruined by storms, deer or others hazards.  Also think about the fact that corn is canned, fed to livestock, put in pet food, and  used to make ethanol just to name a few other uses.  No wonder so much corn is grown.

We went into the town of Caledonia to go to the hardware store.  We came across a couple of antique trucks.

This old Ford pickup was sitting in front of the car wash.  It was just on display.  

This old Jeep pickup was for sale.  It was parked next to the Ford above.

While we were in Caledonia, we learned there was going to be the Houston County Fair held in Caledonia during the coming weekend.  We enjoy county fairs so decided to see if we could rearrange our plans and stay through the weekend.

When we went to the Farmers Market in Mabel, MN, this truck pulled in.  The owner took an actual Kenworth cab and turned it into a pickup.  He uses this as his only farm truck.  A feller has to have something to keep him occupied during those long cold winters!

We also went to Beaver Creek State Park near our campground.  We walked across this suspension bridge.

You can't read the sign but it said, "One person at one time. No jumping on bridge."  It did swing and move a lot as you were walking across.

This is the view from the bridge when looking to the right.  Then the next picture is the view from the bridge when looking to the left.  The water was absolutely clear.

It was a smaller park.  It did have some camping sites but we would not bring our home here.
 
We were on our way home from Walmart in Decorah, Iowa. Out in the country near Decorah, Iowa, which was only 35 miles away, there was this lone windmill erected by Luther College. The electricity from the turbine will serve Alliant Energy's customers on the west side of Decorah, including Luther College.  The 5.2 million kilowatt hours of net electricity generated per year are enough to power more than 500 homes in Decorah and represents approximately one third of Luther's annual consumption. 

Before we reached home, we pass the town of Burr Oak, IA.  We saw a sign for a Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum.  It was late in the day so we did not stop.