On The Road Again: Roads Travel Grant

This past week I set out on my first solo road trip. But first, some background:

This Spring '08 I took a class called Better Homes and Gardens from SAIC (art history), held at The Roger Brown Study Collection of Chicago. As a result of attending the course, filling project criteria, and making a killer project proposal I was awarded $800 toward traveling to any location in the world to see Outsider Art. Originally from the Mid-West, Iowa to be exact, I had learned in the class that numerous environments were actually located near my home.

So, Saturday the 12th I hoped my first ever Greyhound bus and road 7.5 hours to Des Moines, IA where I was met by my parents and sister. We visited family, got some groceries (there was exclamation over bread and Kombucha! being in Iowa), it was time for the 2 hours home.

It was nice to spend the night in my childhood bed in our farm house, and do the wash the next day. (nothing smells as good as sun dried clothes from the line, except maybe walking in grass barefoot).

I met with more relatives that day, from Texas. Also learned that numerous family members, blood and marriage related, were creative people. Thus, giving me more validation. (WOOHOO!)

Anyway, the next day I jumped in the car, with my suitcase, some food, and maps, and drove across the Mississippi to Dickeyville, WI to see the Dickeyville Grotto. Here I made some new friends, gave life advice to a struggling high school freshman, and bought homemade Strawberry-Rhubarb jelly for my "on the road pb sandwhiches".

Then I drove swiftly, and joyfully through the next half hour to Mineral Point, WI. This is Wisconsin's oldest community, and is named MP because it sits in the Driftless region of WI. This means that no glaciers went through, which left all the minerals, mainly lead, on the surface of the earth. This attracted numerous miners, and eventually many immigrants from Cornwall, England ventured over and built a community even larger than Chicago was at that time.

After landing at my motel, The Dairyland, I took a jaunt down High Street and enjoyed window shopping and lining up my conquests for the next day.

--July, 15th.

On my way to New Glarus, WI today I drove down Hwy 39 and unexpectedly found Grandview, an environment built by an immigrant farming family. I spent nearly two hours here, touring the house (going into rooms and floors I shouldn't have but no one was there to stop me), taking an obscene amount of photos, and just gazing in wonder.

Then I drove to New Glarus, found a very random garage at 1319 N Second St, took some photos of that and then dashed back to MP to hop on a tour of Pendarvis, the oldest settlement of the mining town, on Shake Rag St.

Here I found out some amazing things, for a history buff like myself. But to shorten this post I'll just say this: Mineral Point was literally saved in the early 30's and 40's by two men who just wanted to buy and restore and old stone house. They ended up having a world renowned Cornish eatery, and were visited by Mr. Duncan Hines himself. But, the greatest accomplishment was the single handed saving of a gem of a historical town. And this has me say, HOW 'BOUT THEM APPLES?

Sidenote: This country IS the most beautiful I've driven through in the Mid-West.