It was a lovely day and the drive there was a snap. We rolled into downtown and parked on the perimeter of the park that sits in the center of town. Having no idea where to eat, we just wandered around for a spell.
There was a war memorial there. It was small and simple yet its location was peaceful and, dare I say, conducive to comtemplation.
The place reminded me a bit of Orton Park here in Madison with its gazebo.
"You see a gazebo…" hehe There were some kids in the gazebo holding signs advertising the brat sale at the Sentry grocery market across the street. We traipsed around a bit more before settling on Café on the Park for lunch.
As you can see, the joint was decked out in all things Coca-Cola. Even the tanks of the toilets in the restrooms had these Coke doily hoolies on them. Despite having the words "Coca Cola" plastered everywhere, Charles still managed to order a Pepsi much to the waitresses amusement. "Will a Coke do?" Wanting a good base for drinking, I got a bowl of cream of potato soup along with my sandwich & fries. While the waitress warned us that it would be thick, I wasn't quite prepared for just how viscous this stuff was.
I mean this stuff was just slightly thinner than mashed potatoes. The food was good overall and the chocolate malt I had was exceptionally chocolatey – just the way I like it. There were these tins on a shelf at each table and I opened ours up to find that compacted inside were notes that people had scrawled on napkins.
I never would have thought that there'd be a picture of Anubis in there. With lunch being done and some time to blow before heading to the brewery, we cruised around the town which had some really neat old buildings. For instance, here's the public library.
We also found this old church which seemed to be inhabited by a group of bohemian/artist types which was for sale. It was absolutely gorgeous and had vines growing all over it which gave it this vaguely Lovecraftian feel. To my mind, anyway.
There was even a little gargoyle in the garden.
At some point we jumped back into the car and headed to the brewery. We arrived only to find that the door was still locked. Walking around the building to the beer garden, we found a few people there and were told by the brewmaster himself that we were early. He recommended that we check out the lake. And so we did.
Lake Mills has a wonderful history that pre-dates its settlement by us white folk. First of all there is Aztalan State Park. The park was once home to a Middle-Mississippian village between 1000-1300 B.C.E. and there are large pyramidal mounds there. Robert Bellingham and Lynne Goldstein have been studying the area for years and recently published a book about it called Aztalan: Mysteries of an Ancient Indian Town. I'd originally planned to walk around the park but, due to a toe injury, the plan was thwarted.
Rock Lake is also in Lake Mills and it too has a history. Back in 1900, a couple residents, the Wilson brothers, spot weird structures in the water while they were out duck hunting. Little do these men know that the first white settlers in the area some 70 years previously saw them protruding out of the water. Back in the 1830s, the local Native Americans told the white men of the "rock tepees" in the lake built by "ancient foreigners". When a nearby dam was built in the 1850s, the structures became completely submerged. A timeline of the lake can be found at the Rock Lake Research Society's webpage. But what the Wilson brothers saw that day were the stone pyramids the lurk beneath the waters of Rock Lake.
The park we went to was really nice. There was lakeshore access and scores of trails to wander. Plus the trees even had handy labels on them.
As the time neared three o'clock, we got back into the car and returned to the brewery. I was ready for a beer.
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