Friday, August 23, 2019
It was another cool morning when we went for our walk and then said our goodbyes to Harry. He is headed back across country to Idaho and maybe to Washington. It was great to get to know one of our newest NOMADS and it was also great to hear he has already signed up for several projects.
We had tourist-like plans for today. We first met Nancy and Gary at the Carr Valley Cheese shop and factory in Mauston. There was a very nice lady working in the store today who was willing to let us sample many cheeses, different honeys, cheese spreads, butters and more. She also graciously answered all our many questions. We were surprised at all the different butters – cow, goat, sheep, and various blends. We actually like the blend of the three the best. The cow butter, what we usually purchase, was easily better than the butter we buy at the grocery store. We sort of made a list of the items we want to go back and purchase before we leave Wisconsin. There are so many good choices but we have narrowed it down.
From Mauston, we drove about 20 minutes to Wisconsin Dells, and met Stel and Jodi at the parking lot for the boat tour. We took the two hour tour of the upper Dells on the Wisconsin river. The scenery was lush green trees with sandstone cliffs, and interesting rock formations. The pilot and tour guide were very knowledgeable about the area and shared a lot of history of the area along with a bunch of corny jokes. We made two stops for short hikes to view more of the formations, the first was Witches Gulch and the second Stand Rock. At Stand Rock there was a dog that jumped between rock formations. Pretty impressive. This “act” is traditional in the Dells, but in the past people did the jumping. In fact this place is called the birthplace of stop-action photography. In the 1880’s H.H. Bennett invented a camera shutter fast enough to take a picture in a fraction of a second instead of the five minutes required by most cameras of the day. In 1886, to show off his camera he had his son jump back and forth to Stand Rock until he captured the perfect photograph. We were told that picture and Bennett are credited with starting the tourist industry in the Dells.
After the ride back down the river to the dock, we disembarked and headed out for lunch. We walked down the street and found High Rock restaurant where we shared a meat loaf sandwich that was served on a seeded wheat bread with honey glaze that was probably the best we have ever had.
We will be looking for that bread in the stores. Walking back to the cars, we just happened to walk by a Dairy Queen, so of course we had to stop. 
From there we went to Holiday Wholesale to see if we could purchase some of the cinnamon rolls that Roxy baked for us last week. We were able to snag a bag of the frozen rolls and we just hope there are as good when we cook them. Wonder what we will have for breakfast tomorrow?
RVing With a Purpose 