Day Three- 1/4 Lap of America Taleisin 40194 about 398 miles Wake up in Madison, WI (no odometer pic) Ladies and Gentlemen, at this point this becomes a major challenge. Wisconsin is not close to anything, unless you count Canada. The part of Canada where the bears live. It's their own world in Wisconsin. And what are we doing? Going to visit the 2nd home of one of it's favorite sons. Well, it depends on how you are counting. You counting the way they count in Wisconsin? He was born in Wisconsin, and moved away to Illinois and then moved back to Wisconsin so it could be his 3rd home. It's the second home he built. He had to rebuild it a couple times after fires and murders of his mistress and 6 other people. If you listen to the people in Wisconsin they'll tell you he was born in Wisconsin and lived in Wisconsin and died "on the way to Wisconsin". (Nevermind that he died at his 3rd home that he built in Arizona. But that's a whole different story.) Oh, just get the video and come back here and start reading after you watch it. We'll wait. OK all you hard core Frank Lloyd Wright freaks, here we go. 200 photos condensed to 100, about 400 miles after Toledo, according to Dave. I beat him up to figure it out from his GPS ("forgot to bring the cable" feh). I was up and ready to go at 630am, so we were leaving. JTP in bathrobe asked, "You mean now?" Yessireebob, let's GO. Into the rain. The cold, cold wet rain. And traffic. Who knew they even had this many people in Wisconsin? Frank Lloyd Wright Memorial Highway In search of breakfast. In search of gas. In search of Taliesin. Have you noticed how the rain stops every time we need it to? Pics of the babies at The Taliesin Visitors' Center JTP is clearly proud of his car, Res Ipsa, and Wisconsin, and his friends Visiting Frank Lloyd Wright homes is a lot like visiting Disneyworld except the man at the gate isn't wearing a costume. Make reservations. Pay for your ticket. Board the bus. Keep your hands inside the car at all times. Did I mention that it was cold? And wet? There is some disagreement about Margaret, our guide. There is a faction that thinks she knows her stuff about Frank Lloyd Wright. I think she is the Dr. Laura of Frank Lloyd Wright. She said, "Frank Lloyd Wright was 6 ft tall." Frank Lloyd Wright was 5'8" tall, and some fraction of an inch towards 5'9" wearing lifts, babe. Aside from every other book and building saying he was 5'8", it's pretty obvious when you see how low the ceilings are at Fallingwater. Click on the image to read more about our trip to Fallingwater in April. Here you see Dave, who is 6'1" standing under the roof of the guest house patio. Do ya really think FLLW would have made ceilings so low that he'd have to remove his hat or bend over? 6 feet, feh. Margaret also told the group there was no need to visit Fallingwater, that it was all repaired- which is a nasty bold faced lie. Fallingwater is falling into the water, and needs contributions to embark on an ambitious plan to recsue the most famous home in America. In Pennsylvania. Needless to say I held no great love for Margaret. And it was cold. And wet. And I was hungry. And she's bashing Fallingwater. Taliesin profile. The lowest protrusion is a cat walk about 3 ft wide that FLLW built for his second wife, so she could view the grounds like a bird in flight. All I had for breakfast at the Taliesin commissary was some very strange cheesecake. It had like a Star Trek anomaly filling with various shades of cheesy white stuff. When I looked twice at it, JTP said, "This is Wisconsin, don't tell us about cheese". Hey cheese-boy, we just drove from New York, don't tell us about cheesecake. I remembered JohnB's warning about ordering a burger in Wisconsin- "Remember to tell them 'No butter on my burger please'." That would have to wait until lunch. I am sorry to go on about food and breakfast so much, but we had a really hard time finding food in Wisconsin. So, I am freezing. And hungry. And ticked off at the guide. The heated vest is great when it's plugged into my car, but standing on the side of Shining Brow in the wind with my feet in wet grass in leather boots, and it's lightly raining little freezing rain drops. Margaret is still talking about the trees and the grass, and telling tall tales about Frank Lloyd Wright. I am thinkin I am 3 days into a 10 day drive, 1000 miles from home and can't afford to get sick for standing outside in the rain like a jackass listening to her make up stories. I'd like to go inside please. "No, you may not." Uh huh. Let me tell you how long that BS lasted. About a New York minute. So, all these lovely outdoor pics are from DaveT. In fact, most of the pics from the whole trip are from DaveT. I took about 100 pics on the whole trip, Dave took about 1000. I just get to code them and pore over the pics he sends like jewels in Pandora's box. Another part of the challenge is presenting the pics. Usually I am cropped and reducing the size and number of images, this time is not so easy. Reducing the size can mean losing the nap of fabrics that are treasures in their own right. Cropping is nearly impossible because everything is beautiful continuously as far as the ey can see and in every direction. The ceilings, the floors, and everything to your left and right. Whittling down the number of images left me with 100 that I love. So, uh, there's a lot of images, and they're all pretty big. :::::cheesy grin:::: DaveT and JTP took the outdoor tour while I got to sit inside the Great Room. The Taliesin staff allowed me to sit, with my shoes wrapped in blue paper shoe-peds, on any seat with a certain gold colored fabric on it in the great living room. I was fairly ecstatic. I sat everywhere and checked out the room from every angle I could think of, and tried to sneak photos. I suck at sneaking. Wait till you see the shots Dave got later. :) Here's the report from Dave on the outdoor stuff, with notes from me, his editor...

1 Day Three- 1/4 Lap of America Part 1 Another Change in Plans~~ Part 2 Indiana~~ Part 3 Chicago Roads~~ Part 4 The Pit~~ Part 5 Teachum's Garage~~ Part 6 Love and Hate on I-294~~ Part 7 Route 14~~ Part 8 Manona Terrace (FLW)~~

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