Eat Cheese or Die

Reedsburg, Wisconsin - June 17, 2007

French explorers named this area the “Dalles” (flagstones) because of the limestone rock formations. The name has become anglicized to the Dells. It’s lovely here in the summer and probably brutal in winter.

Wisconsin is filled with landscaped farms, low hills formed by glacial deposits, rivers, lakes and hardwood forests. Cheese is a big deal here because of the emphasis on dairy products. The first sign we saw after crossing the border was “Cheese and Fireworks Ahead!” It’s lovely here in the summer and probably very brutal in winter. A local theatre company did an outdoors “Much Ado about Nothing” two days ago and “The Night of the Iguana” last night.

We drove though farmland up to “The Dells” today to see “Lost Canyon”, a slot canyon formed in limestone by glacier melt during the last ice age. On the way we were pleased to find a small town parade in progress in Reedsville, celebrating their annual Butter Festival. You may remember the part of “Easy Rider” where Captain America (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) join a small town parade and get thrown in jail for parading without a license.

We drive on to the Dells and find a huge amusement park with wooden roller coasters and brand new Greek ruins, called Mt. Olympus. The Dells also has the world’s largest water park, which has a convenient ride to the top of the slides.

The trip though the slot canyons is interesting. Most of my pictures don’t come out because of the dim light. Our guide tells us stories about the geology and fauna and shows us the 37 stitches he got from a chainsaw last month.



It’s time to for us to move on to Minnesota and then Fargo, North Dakota. In about three driving days we will enter Manitoba Province and lose our computer broadband and cell service for a couple of weeks until we hit Skagway in Alaska.

Here are some pictures of Lost Canyon and the Butter Festival.