For Christmas I was given an assortment of Dungeons & Dragons themed beard moisturizers, including several sample sized oils and a cream.
It even comes with the pogonophilic equivalent of the Player's Handbook. I've been trying to get into the habit of using the cream. While I haven't gotten into the routine of applying it everyday, I do most days. It doesn't smell bad.
(late October 2022)
(Listen to the prelude.)
While my hotel room in Rice Lake was nothing to write home about, I nonetheless relaxed there a little while before jumping in the shower so I'd be all clean and nice smelling for dinner at a Wisconsin staple – the supper club.
Lehman's Supper Club was not far from my hotel and had been given the seal of approval by Ryan Urban, editor of the Barron News-Shield, whom I got to know online. I was hoping to be able to meet him after dinner at the local brewpub where I'd ply him with a few beers before trying to convince him to grow a moustache and get a flattop haircut so he could be the Jonah Jameson of northwestern Wisconsin.
Aside from a couple pictures of neon signs, none of my photos from Lehman’s turned out well. My phone cost all of $60 and there are times when the camera's autofocus mechanism reflects my parsimonious ways. It was early – 5ish – so I was joined by only a smattering of older couples in the dining room, although the bar area looked well populated. My waitress was a lovely woman in her late-20s or thereabouts and she seemed in good spirits. She even called me “Honey”.
I ordered the fried walleye but this entailed much more than a mere filet of fish. A relish tray is standard fare at supper clubs but the one I was given was anything but typical as it included a few pieces of fruit – watermelon and cantaloupe – instead of being strictly a vegetable affair with carrots, celery, and radishes ready to whet your appetite for a slab of prime rib or a large filet of fish.
The French onion soup was rather good and I enjoyed the dill vinaigrette on my salad. The meal included bread as well as what was described to me as a turnover but was really a clover leaf roll that I suspect was made from tapioca flour as it was light, fluffy, nearly hollow in the middle, and didn't particularly taste like wheat. It still tasted fine, however.
A rather large walleye gave its life for my dinner that night. The filet was probably 10 inches long and quite delicious.
Although I had eaten more than my fair share, there was still room for beer. And so I was off to meet Ryan Urban, who was able to put me on his social calendar, at Agonic Brewing Company.
Agonic opened just last summer in an old feed mill and, in homage, a wooden combine header rotated above our heads. While remodeled to be a brewery, the space had retained much of the feel of its former purpose.
When I arrived, Ryan was not yet there and a few gentlemen were at the end of the bar chatting away. I caught a few comments about The Hu, a Mongolian band that I saw back in the spring. I'll admit that I did not expect to hear chatter about a Mongolian rock group up in Rice Lake.
Before long, Ryan showed up and we enjoyed one another’s company over a couple beers. I’d met him in-person once before back in the summer when he was in the Madison area to get photographs of WPA murals that hung in the post offices of small towns in the area. Editor by trade, documenting the WPA murals of Wisconsin post offices is his avocation.
I learned from him that wild rice harvesting in Rice Lake ended when the Red Cedar River, which flows out from the lake, was dammed. When asked about how things were at the paper, he noted with pride that he had won an award earlier this year for his reporting on the elevated levels of manganese in the town of Dallas’ water supply. So many belated congratulations to Ryan!
He also told me what became of The Buckhorn, the tavern owned by Otto Rindlisbacher. Rindlisbacher has been described as "perhaps the foremost figure in the history of traditional music in Wisconsin". He played various instruments but I think of him as primarily a fiddle player. He also built instruments when he wasn't playing them. This in addition to running a tavern and having a sideline in taxidermy. He was part of a group that performed lumberjack songs at the National Folk Festival in Chicago in 1937 and had various recordings of his entered into the Library of Congress. Now, just because Ryan told me of The Buckhorn's fate doesn't mean I recall what he said. It was now a laundromat or a hardware store or some such thing. I guess I'll just have to head up to Rice Lake again to find out just what became of it.
Alas, the intrepid reporter had domestic duties to attend to – it was a school night, after all – so we only had a few before saying our goodbyes. As I was walking out, I noticed something I hadn’t noticed on the way in:
Hammerschlagen!
Hammerschlagen is a game in which players take turns hammering a nail into a stump. The first person to pound their nail in fully wins. (I'm not sure if it has to be countersunk or if being flush is good enough.) Sometimes there’s a fee to buy your nail and the winner gets a cash prize. Other times losers buy a round.
My night was uneventful and I got a good night’s sleep. I arose late – for me – showered and prepared to head out and yet, when I looked out the window, it was still dark. Uff da! It was after 7 so where was the sun?
I packed my car and headed downtown for a cup of coffee at the Badger Brew Coffee Loft, the retail arm of Woodland Coffee Roasters which is just next door. Co-proprietor Heather was behind the counter and she was quite cheerful considering the lack of light outside. The coffee, their winter seasonal, Nordic Notes, was a smooth dark roast. Good stuff.
Heather was very knowledgeable about her coffees and quite affable. It was a pleasure to start my day by chatting with her.
I even brought some beans home.
All of their blends had a rural Wisconsin/up north kind of name. Sweater Weather was a very tasty blend of, if I recall correctly, South American and African beans.
With it being noticeably light out, I took my leave and headed down the street to watch the sun rise over Rice Lake.
It was a lovely morning. A bit chilly but not too bad. Just down the street was the Post Office. I moseyed over there and did my best Ryan Urban imitation.
I was reminded that I was up north when I saw a yard full of logs at the Birchwood Manufacturing Company.
I took a little time to wander around downtown and almost immediately ran into a ghost sign which was in tip top shape.
Mantiques – Antiques for Men.
I ran into the Rice Lake Masonic Temple.
Considering the comments of a friend of mine here in the Madison area who is a Mason, I was rather surprised to see so many temples up north. (I spied one in Hayward too.) He noted dwindling membership and how lodges are consolidating around the state and so I didn’t expect to see 2 temples in such sparsely populated areas.
I discovered that Rice Lake had a gaming store, The Boardwalk.
After wandering downtown, I drove south a few blocks to Knapp-Stout Park on the shores of Rice Lake and home to the Great Lakes Forestry Museum.
Am I missing any other lumberjack museums or events?
Even though the Hall of Fame was closed, it was a rather neat area with something like 20 different trees there on the grounds with signs indicating what kind they were.
While strolling around, I found some disused concrete pillars.
As I continued walking, I ran into an osprey nest.
I did not make the climb to determine if it was occupied.
At the south end of the park, there were more of those mysterious concrete pillars but also an explanation.
After wandering the pillars, it was time for me to be homeward bound. I returned to my car for the drive south. A quick stop at a gas station for fuel and coffee (that was decidedly inferior to the stuff at Badger Brew Coffee Loft) and I was off. Just down the road apiece, I made sure to get a snap of the giant bobber on the side of the highway.
On the drive home, I listened to a few episodes of University of the Air, a Wisconsin Public Radio program which features UW-Madison faculty discussing a chosen topic. The shows that I had downloaded for the trip were about naturalist/ecologist Aldo Leopold.
I learned that back when Leopold was working at the UW-Madison and making the observations that would become A Sand County Almanac, the deer population here was paltry. I figured that since they are everywhere around the state today, that it had always been that way. But over-hunting meant that their numbers dwindled to next to nothing in the early part of the 20th century.
The fact that they’re everywhere now – running out in front of cars, for instance, and in need of an annual harvest to keep the population down is testament to the work of conservationists.
At the same time in the early 20th century, Wisconsin had only the barest crane population and now the state is home to the International Crane Foundation and decades of conservation efforts have brought them back.
********
Bonus photo. It’s a newborn Piper!
(late October 2022)
(Listen to the prelude.)
As happened last year, October rolled around and I found myself with a fair amount of vacation time to use before the end of the year. So I once again planned a trip up to the northwestern part of the state. And just like last year, my first destination was Osseo to meet a couple of friends from high school for dinner and drinks.
On the way up, I stopped at the Black River Falls rest area. It has a lovely scenic overlook a short walk from the parking lot. You go up Bell Mound and then take a boardwalk around it to the overlook.
The historic marker noted that the area was home to a mine owned by the Jackson County Iron Company and that the mine’s buildings and pit would be visible from the overlook. I looked and squinted and looked again but couldn’t see them. Later I realized that the marker dated to 1976 and that the pit mine was handed over to the county and had become Wazee Lake at some point in the intervening years. My Frau and I took a swim there back in 2009 and it is magnificent. Water clear as day. Most of the lake is rather shallow but the open mine bit is a genuine abyss and I am told that people dive there to get their certification.
A 30-mile drive north and I was once again in Osseo which lies in the far northeast corner of Trempealeau County. Founded in 1857, the origin of the name is lost in the mists of time but the best theory is that it comes from the name of a character in Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha" which was published the previous year.
My time in Osseo last fall saw no shortage of rain and I abandoned my plans to walk a stretch of the Buffalo River Trail as the storms had left many large puddles. This year was dry and warmer, even if the sun wasn’t always shining. I parked, pulled my bicycle out from the back of my car and was off.
Although it had rained the previous night, the storm wasn’t of biblical proportions so standing water was merely sporadic. But the crushed gravel wasn’t always firm and my tires sank in for much of the ride. Not deeply, mind you, but my legs did get a workout.
The trail is about 36 miles long and stretches from Mondovi to the west of Osseo to Fairchild to the east. It follows Highway 10, more or less, and is a former rail corridor. The railroad was built between 1887-1890 by regional lumber baron Nathaniel Foster. (I have once source giving his middle initial as G while another C.) Foster owned lumber yards in Mondovi and Osseo as well as Eleva and Strum, two towns which are in between those two. Originally called the Sault Ste. Marie & Southwestern Railway, it would become part of the Omaha Railway and finally the Chicago & Northwestern. The tracks were abandoned in 1975 and dismantled the following year. Eventually the Wisconsin DNR bought it and turned it into the Buffalo River Trail you see before you.
The DNR website explains that the Buffalo River was so named because early French explorers had christened it Riviere de Beeufs since the area was home to many bison back in the day.
The Buffalo River, which I remember being called the Beef River when I lived in the area, looks more like a creek as it wends its way from Osseo westward where it eventually meets the Mississippi River.
I saw no other people on the trail but I did see a young buck who was probably sniffing around for a doe.
Farther down the trail near Strum was this fine dome home. I did not expect to see the legacy of R. Buckminster Fuller in rural Trempealeau County.
I checked in at my hotel and took a shower before my next destination which was Burly N Bucks, a tavern which held the promise of beer, food, and good company.
I was to once again meet my friend Jason and a newcomer, Brad, who was unable to attend last year because of his goofy work schedule. This time around, it was Nick who would be a no show.
We had dinner and chatted the night away. Brad and I hadn’t seen one another since 1990 and it was a pleasure to attempt to catch up on over 32 years of life. He seemed to be much like he was in high school, a bit aloof and happy to let others do their thing as long as they let him enjoy a modicum of solitude and the quiet of the country. In between reacquainting ourselves with one another and reminiscing about our high school years, we solved a few of the world’s problems and were flummoxed by kids these days.
Just like last year, no photos were taken. I don't know if this is because we're men, because we're Gen Xers who didn't grow up with smartphones or what. The thought of taking pictures never even occurred to me, although I'd like to show my Frau more examples of the type of people I grew up with.
I felt badly because I had intended to bring up some Nutkrack candied pecans again but completely forgot. On the other hand, Jason bestowed the gift of soap upon me with a couple bars from Chippewa Falls’ newest purveyor of soaps, Ope! It’s Soap. They were beer soaps with the Leinenkugel’s brand. I hope that this gift was not an indication of a hygiene deficiency on my part.
I returned to my hotel, kicked back, and set out to finish the book that I was reading.
********
While I enjoy Twain’s writing immensely, I couldn’t help think that it was truly meant for 12 year-old me. Still, there were some funny bits such the scenes in the church which poke fun at religion. I also laughed when Tom and Huck are planning to become rogues and Huck suggests they have orgies because that’s what bad guys do, never mind that he has no idea what they are.
I had a couple chuckles while reading it and am happy to have gotten this classic of American literature under my belt but it's not something I plan to return to.
********
The next morning I arose planning on investigating the remains of a town no longer on the maps. But first I made a trek over to Osseo’s general store, Stockman's Farm Supply & More, where I bought a pair of boots and some decorative Indian corn which now hangs in our dining room.
The previous night Jason had told me that someone had opened a gaming store in town recently. And so my next stop would be Boards & Bricks.
The store boasts a large selection of Legos, puzzles, board games, and a smattering of role-playing game materials.
At 500 pieces, we stand a chance of assembling it in one night and not having to let it sit out at the mercy of the cats.
Wondering how it was that such a fine store opened up in a very small town, I struck up a conversation with the woman behind the counter. She told that it was opened back in June by a gentleman who had moved to the area from Utah(!) and his dream was to own a gaming store. (I guess Mormons just aren't into Settlers of Catan, Dungeons & Dragons, etc.) Well, he made his dream come true…in Osseo. I wish him the best of luck.
As we were talking, the woman glanced out the front windows. I followed her gaze and saw an older gentleman putting a couple of pies into the back of his car.
"I've seen people carrying pies all day," she noted.
You see, just 2 storefronts down was the Norske Nook, famous for its pies. It's a small chain (4?) of Norwegian restaurants scattered around the state. However, the original (OG, as the kids say these days) Norske Nook is directly across the street from the gaming store.
Puzzle in hand, I made my way back to my car and headed west. On the way out of town, I saw this sign:
All your needs taken care of in one spot.
On Highway 10, I ran into a sight I saw a lot of up north - tractors on the highway.
My next stop was to look at the remains of the long lost town of Hadleyville.
********
Bonus photo. I found another (inoperable) pay phone! This one is inside a little neighborhood grocery store in Madison.
(late October 2022)
I recently listened to an episode of In Our Time, a BBC Radio chat show about various topics, mainly historical. This one was about the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I have never read it but knew the gist of the poem and, of course, its most famous stanza:
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
It was a thoroughly interesting show and I learned quite a bit. I didn’t know that Coleridge was friends with William Wordsworth and that the poem was inspired by some comments from the man who wandered lonely as a cloud. One panelist noted that Coleridge tweaked his work for a long time after completing it, if not the rest of his life. There are something like 18 distinct versions of the poem due to his tinkering. Panelists also discussed the piece’s place in the Romantic movement, Coleridge’s life, and so on. Very interesting stuff. I am now determined to actually read the thing – one version of it anyway. Until then, I will have to be content with Iron Maiden’s song based on the poem.
I found the rarest of things in the wild – a pay phone.
No, it didn’t have a dial tone.
********
After our trip to Milwaukee, I had a short 3-day work week as Thursday saw the Frau become a gaming widow once again when I left for Gamehole Con, a tabletop gaming convention held here in Madison every fall.
Several friends from the Chicago area come up for the occasion and tradition dictates that we all gather for some curry-laced gluttony on Wednesday night at Swad, an Indian restaurant in Monona, not too far from that pay phone above. This is the 9th incarnation of the convention yet no one recalls when we started this gastronomic pre-con pilgrimage.
Some highlights of the weekend.
In the dealer room I spied an Oktoberfest board game which looked like it was right up my Strasse.
I am not sure exactly what this game entails. Perhaps some of the meeples are shaped like big-bosomed Fräuleins clad in Dirndls. A resource management game where you have to acquire steins of bier und pretzels?
I ran two sessions of Trail of Cthulhu this year. It’s a pen and paper role-playing game based on the horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft designed by Chicagoan Kenneth Hite. The scenario on Thursday took place in the fictional northern Wisconsin town of Four Pines. When the northern lights flash in the sky, the residents must choose someone to go on what they ominously call the Coldest Walk to appease the creature in the woods which is the Wendigo, a loathsome fiend of Native American lore that is infamous for its foetid odor of decay and its appetite for human flesh.
Only it’s not.
It’s really the Great Old One Ithaqua!
(Anyone reading this lose 2 sanity points.)
I like to add a little Wisconsin flavor to the story and so, when players go to the local tavern, some old duffs tell their characters lumberjack and Ole & Lena jokes and there's a band playing old timey Scandinavian folk music - usually Hardanger fiddle tunes - which I provide via a laptop, if I have one at my disposal.
My own tradition (OK, it started last year) for running these games is to provide kringle, an oval shaped Danish pastry filled with stuff, for my players. For this game, I had one of the Bavarian cream persuasion. My other scenario on Saturday took place in Alabama and so on Friday I took a nice walk over to Lane’s Bakery to grab a pecan kringle for my players.
My walk took me under one of the old Quann Park bridges – single lane!
