Frank Lloyd Wright and some very small goats

Oddly, it’s been another tiring day, but I can’t honestly say we did a lot to show for it. Today we headed out of Milwaukee and traveled the interstate to Madison. When we turned on the car Danny’s Song came on. (You’d know this if you heard it: think 1971 or so, “…Pisces Virgo rising is a very good sign, strong and kind…. Think I’m going to have a son. He will be like she me, free as dove…") It’s kind of an apt soundtrack. Not a bad song, kind of pastoral, from another era.


This is Wisconsin in this small area./ It’s beautiful. Long rolling hills. Farms. So many farms. I’m really happy to see them. It’s nice to see farms, though it’s juxtaposition among the electronic billboards or the grain processing plant next to the shopping outlets is weird. But generally, very beautiful and wildflowers on the side of the road. Real ones, not like in CT where they plant them and it looks it. M. laughed at me for taking pictures of the dirt, but it's limestone here - so it's very white and beige, not like the red/brown at home.


It took a couple of hours but we arrived in Madison and looked around. It seemed like an okay little city. Dedicated bike lanes, that was nice to see too. But I can imagine winter here and it’s not pretty. We’ve read U of WI Madison is a party school and that looks about right too. As cities go, it was ‘cute,” which is to say small and if the university weren’t there, well, nothing probably would be there. It’s “bad neighborhoods” by our old D.C. or even Hartford standards could also to me be classified as “cute,” though it has way too many one way roads for such a little place. It took us a while to find our way out, not because it was hard, really, but just because one had to go in circles to get to where you wanted to be. Madison is between and around two pretty good size lakes. That makes for pretty (and adds to this cute factor), but no ease of travel, per se.


We left the Interstate after this and rode an old highway heading west. It was pretty with lots of farms. The highway names here are not only route numbers, but route letters. When they run out of single letters they double them up. So there is highway P and highway ID and highway BBB. We also saw a sign for "Wild West Space Camp"  Perhaps this is where James T. Kirk got his training?


Our goal was to be near Spring Green. We had a 1:30 tour at Taliesin - Frank Lloyd Wright’s house and school. Also in this neighborhood is “House on the Rock,” a place that looked to me to be infinitely more interesting. We got to the neighborhood about 11, a little concerned that the rock house would take more time than we really had before our Wright reservation. In a rare moment of good sense, we decided that even though it was early, we’d find a place to stay in the neighborhood. Then try to find lunch, go to Wright’s tour and aim for House on the Rock tomorrow.


This was a good decision, because if we had had to really find a place and decide later in the day, when we would be hot and dehydrated and tired and hungry, one of us might not have been returning. Instead, we are in this great little motel from 1950’s. Talk about cute. (And when the nice lady at the desk gave us a rate, I’m not sure how we stopped from saying, “what? Are you sure?” ) It is no frills (though it has the fridge and microwave.) And the key is one of those old diamond shape plastic key rings.

Now, let’s talk about lunch. I haven’t seen a car hop in so many year… the food was okay too. Picture a rock and roll theme, complete with Marilyn and James Dean cut outs.  All that was missing was the roller skates.


With this excitement behind us, we headed to Frank Lloyd Wright’s compound. We took the “highlight tour.” Sort of like the sampling platter, but was a good choice. All tours are guided, of course. It showed the us the school, old parts and current. Originally it was a k-12 school before it became a school of architecture. Now students spend ½ the year here and ½ the year in Arizona. We saw the working studio. A theater, then on to Wright’s studio and the house.

 

It was all very Wright, which is not to say right. I was glad to have (mostly) read "Loving Frank" as it made it infinitely more interesting. But bottom line. I don’t like Frank Lloyd Wright. He was not a nice man, he was not nice to his students. I don’t like most of what he does. Some of it I do, the lines, the windows, but nothing is comfortable and all of it is so self centered.


The other thing that struck me more here than in what I’ve read or the last house we went through, is how much of what he has built, doesn’t work. We saw a lot of spots today that were shored up. There were two bedrooms that were newly opened to the public because they just finished the renovation to repair the foundation -- it was sinking. In some places, the glass window has shifted away from the stone wall, leaving large gaping holes. In another climate, okay… but here? I’m glad to have seen this place, and I want to see the waterfall house, but if I never see another FLW house again, I’m okay with this.


Most of this tour - two hours worth - was not air conditioned. By the time we were done, we were pretty fried. Dinner in Spring Grove was looking to be a bit of a challenge. We had taken to the road to see if there was an idea when … We hit the quintessential road side stand. It was like heaven: fresh fruit, local cheese, kiddie area with prairie dogs, mini goats, fiber glass sculpture…. I did refrain from spending the $2 to go thru the haunted house and the $1 for doing the rat race maze… However, 50 cents was spent to feed the goats.


We got some bread, cheese and fruit - not melons, however (see picture), and we did leave the statues of the aliens, dancing corn on the cob, rats, etc. etc. behind.  All in all a good day. Though we can say with great certainty, Chevy Averos are not worth buying. We don’t know what their “price point” is, but we do know, whatever it is, it’s not worth it.