Wisconsin

One early variation (since discarded) of our plans for an RV trip next year included taking the train to Chicago, renting the RV there, and driving through Wisconsin and Minnesota on our way to North Dakota. So I ordered tourism guides from those state tourism boards. Wisconsin's 2007 guide arrived yesterday (um, why isn't a 2008 guide?) and I read through it this morning. Here are the themes I noticed.

• Northern Wisconsin: logging industry museums, fishing and maritime history, and trains.
• Southern Wisconsin: Mining industry museums, and caves.

None of thoes themes is really our cup of tea. Things we will NOT be touring:

One museum description reads "The largest collection of logging artifacts (20,000) in the world"...um, good for you!

J.C. Bear Paw Co. "Retail sporting goods store with a large collection of bird, fish and mammal mounts from around the world" ...ewww! poor things.

Gov. Tommy G. Thompson State Fish Hatchery "The largest musky-rearing hatchery in the world" - gee, how exciting. Similarly the Lac du Flambeau Fish Hatchery "raises more than 30 million walleye, northern & muski each year". I guess we can just rule out any fish hatchery of any kind.

National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame "4-story building shaped like a musky"...how bizarre!

Sheldon's Inc "Tours of the plant where Mepps fishing lures are made, display area shows all 4,000 models." Now that's a fishing lure collection. How many do you REALLY need?

I think you get the point.

I did however find a few things that could be of interest to us:

• Chippewa Falls Museum of Industry and Technology (Exhibits detail the history of the super computer, interactive technology, and local history)
• Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum (ok, Mike won't appreciate that)
• Arcadia's Memorial Park
• Deke Slayton Memorial Space & Bike Museum (what a combo!)
• Fort McCoy Driving Tour (has large display of military vehicles)
• EEA AirVenture Museum (civilian and military aircraft, plane rides, and Mike will love the Mustang cars)
• Barlow Planetarium (love those shows!)
• Nine Frank Lloyd Wright homes that are open to the public
• Tommy Bartlett's Exploratory (especially the Mir spacestation)
• Wisconsin Veterans Museum
• Yerkes Observatory (world's largest lens-type telescope)

Have you been touring in Wisconsin? What did you enjoy, and what was boring to you?