The House On The Rocks - 8th Wonder Of The World.

Ahoy Internauts,

How are you doing this evening?

Not too bad here (but it could be better...) and oh yes, thanks for asking! :-)

We started this morning in Madison, WI where we visited the "Henry Vilas Zoo" as planned. The Zoo as I said is for free (yes, you got that right: F-R-E-E!), and is really worth spending a couple of hours browsing around sleepy lions, missing tigers, and over excited otters!

We had a great time, mainly because the sights you get of most of the animals are superb. I saw my first Polar Bear and my first Grizzly (don't forget I come from Sardinia, we don't have anything like that!), and I enjoyed looking at the sleepy lions, bison, porcupine, alpacas, giraffes, etc. Yes, it's a long list, but I can keep going on if you want me to. ;-)

The Zoo as I said took a couple of hours this morning, and as soon as we left, after filling up the tank, "An Italian Across America" plugged in the data into the GPS to get to the new destination on the itinerary: Spring Green, WI, roughly a 50 miles drive from the State Capitol.

It took us about 90 minutes to get there, driving under the speed limit, and enjoying the wonderful sunny day we’d been given. So, are you asking yourself what in the world we were up to in Spring Green, WI? It’s fairly simple, we had two choices, the first one being Taliesin, the summer home of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and “The House On The Rocks” creation of Mr. Alex Jordan Jr. a fairly eclectic Wisconsin man.


We opted for the second option, mainly because of an economic factor, with one tickets for “Taliesin” we bought two tickets for “The House On The Rocks”, and trust me, if you have to pick up only one, go to The House On The Rocks, unless you’re really an architect, and you’re studying Frank Lloyd Wright.

Mr Jordan started building the house in 1940, but right now, that is only a small part of what you can potentially see over there. The House On The Rocks offers three separate tours for $12.50 each or a cumulative one for $26.50. It takes roughly three hours to see the whole complex, but I’d strongly suggest to visit all three exhibitions as they’re really worth it. You’ll find yourself exclaiming “WOW” dozens of times, at least I did.

A superb theatre organ (I guess!):

For those of you who like to keep track, the house boasts a 269 animals (and none of them are horses!) carousel, making it without any doubt, the largest in the world! So there you go, today I can see I visited the largest carousel in the world!

The Infinity Room in the main house is also quite impressive, again, it is really hard to describe any of the visual effects or the actual grandeur of the spaces you can visit, one more reason to go check “The House On The Rocks” on your own while visiting Wisconsin, drinking some beer, and eating a lot of cheese (oh well, maybe the other way around for some of us!).

If you want, there’s also a video made by CBS that you can go see:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/08/earlyshow/series/main628274.shtml

The Japanese Garden:

We left “The House On The Rocks” happy and really satisfied with a feeling that our money today was truly well spent.
Since tomorrow we decided our first stop was going to be the SPAM Museum, we drove an extra 190 miles to Austin, MN, which in this case also made us leave Wisconsin, and get into Minnesota, and here’s the picture that proves it:

I’m currently writing from our hotel room here in Austin, MN, this has been really a busy, crazy day.

So you think this is ALL for today, don’t you? Wroooooong!

After we got out of the car to grab a bite to eat at a local Mexican Restaurant, I realized “N1CO” got stolen! Yes, believe it, some SOB stole my plate! We spent roughly a good half hour with Officer Blake at the Austin Law Enforcement Center, where everybody has been great and very helpful. They gave us a paper that basically states we declared the plate had been stolen (my presumption is in Spring Green, WI), and right now, we have to put the paper on the window, and hope not to be stopped a thousand times by law enforcement deputies all over the United States!

Tomorrow we will go to the local DMV here to see if they can contact Florida, and wait for answers, but most of all solutions, since we’re not going to be back in Florida till September 4th, and the paper is only temporary.

One thing is for sure, I will NOT have N1CO back, which is, if I have to be totally honest with you, a real bummer. I’m waiting until tomorrow to have them confirm what I just said, but at the same time, I’ve been already thinking this evening about some new combinations for the plate. I thought about my last name, but it has 8 letters, and Florida only allows 7; then I thought about other combinations that would more or less sound like “NICO”, and the only two that are still available are: “N1KKO” and “N1KK0”, what do you guys think about them? I need some feedback here, as well as some other ideas on both combinations, and different vanity plates.

Gas Prices this evening in Austin, MN:

It’s all for tonight, and now I call it a day and go to bed, thinking about letters and numbers rather than counting sheep! LOL

I want N1CO back!
Nico