Meant to leave on Thursday. Reset to Saturday. Left Sunday. Ah, well … a few less days shouldn’t make much difference!
It was very late on Saturday when we were ready to take off, but I was really too tired to drive. Rowan wanted to go ahead and hit the road, like last year, and drive until I had to pull off. But we climbed into bed at midnight, I got up at 4:30, had Rowan up around 5.
Stopped once to try to call Brian in St. Paul, give him an ETA, but the pay phone didn’t like me.
Yes, I am one of the few people on the face of this earth without a cell phone.
Rowan and I decided to stop off at Menomonie, WI, lured by signs of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway, and an information center to point the way.
Menomonie is a very pretty, small town. The signs were few and far between for the information center, but after a turnaround or two, we found it, located in a lovely stone theater: the Mabel Tainter Center for the Arts.
The LIW Historic Highway was 35 minutes south to a homestead, a detour we decided would be part of a more leisurely trip, later.
In its stead, we toured the theater. Mabel Tainter was a young woman, passionate about the arts and an artist herself, who died in 1886 at age 19. Her parents built the theater in her honor.
The architect was Harold Ellis, who incorporated Moorish arches and curves in the entrance.
The building is lovely, including a Victorian Theater and a Reading Room which once served as the Public Library. The details and appointments are beautiful and opulent: velvet seats and curtains, marble floors and drinking nooks, highly polished wood walls and doors, stained glass windows, intricately scrolled iron shelf bracket, highly designed brass door handles, hand-stenciled walls, four fireplaces, and elegant radiators. It contains a working Steere and Turner tracker pipe organ. Gorgeous place; I would love to see a performance, here.
The Theater is on the National Register of Historic Places, a charter member of the League of Historic Theatres, and a designated Wisconsin Historical Marker Site.
Check it out at http://www.mabeltainter.com/
There were several small restaurants in town that looked likely, but we had to move on. We will return to Menomonie, and spend more time in town.
The only negative note was that when we parked, Rowan noticed a river of coolant flowing from Hedwig, our 1992 Volvo. I allowed the engine to cool while we looked around.
So, checking under the hood, fearing the worst, I found that my coolant overflow cap was missing. See “Notes to Self”. Stopped at an O’Reilly’s, and got nothing but attitude (furrin cars!), shown to racks of GM parts and basically told to rig it.
Decided on a temporary fix of tightly fitted foil and a hairband.
Arrived in St. Paul, and called Brian’s cell, then house. Lovely Laura gave me directions to their home.
Brian was gaming, so Laura chatted with us until he got home. They offered us dinner and a bed, which we accepted. Both were wonderful, but nothing compared to the company.
Thank you for the wonderful hospitality, Laura and Brian. Say “hey” to Lucas and Claudia!
Oh, and Brian found a Volvo dealership for me, where they charge $39 and change for my missing cap. Oh, well, expensive mistake, necessary to replace. But … as we headed there, took a chance and stopped in at a NAPA, where the young man was friendly and helpful. They had my cap for around $9, minus a 7% AAA discount! Huzzah!
Next up: St. Paul, or “Collecting Capitols”