Day 39: July 24, 2016
The House that Alex Built

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After crossing the Mississippi River just north of La Crosse, Wisconsin, I left I-90 and headed southeast on US-14. That took me by this cool welcome sign and the world's largest six-pack.

Construction on US-14 east of Readstown, Wisconsin, was responsible for a pretty big detour. Rather than following the official detour, I made my own out of US-61 and Trout Creek Road. There is a real sense of accomplishment that comes with reaching the intersection of Trout Creek Road and County Road X.

I was surprised and a little excited to see a brewery sign in the middle of the countryside and when I saw the neon in the window I knew I'd found a kindred soul. But, though the pubery has been going on for awhile, Mel's Brewing had only recently got all required permits in hand and the first batch was still in the fermenter. There were other choices, however, and I made do with Wisconsin Amber from Capital Brewing.

Although Wisconsin's capital was more or less my destination when I turned onto US-14, it wasn't my immediate destination. The House on the Rock has long been on my "to see" list and today was the day. Actually, today was just one of the days. It seems my stop at Mel's (or something else) had cost me the option of touring the entire attraction in one day. There are three sections and the estimated minimum time to see all three is three hours. With just two and a half hours till closing, I only had time for Section 1. I could buy a ticket for just that section or buy the full ticket and come back tomorrow. Tomorrow will be "one of the days", too.

Section #1 is the actual house. I'm not sure that owner Alex Jordan ever really lived here but he certainly entertained here. It seems to consist mostly of conversation areas, eating areas, and wow-look-at-that areas. The thing that people remember most is the Infinity Room shown in the third picture. The room juts into the air and at the furthest reachable point a window offers a view of the trees below. Most of the furniture in the house was custom built and, even though it's only benches, the furniture in this room is no exception. At a later point in the tour, it is possible to step outside to take a look at the room's roof -- and beyond. The house contains just a couple of the mechanical music makers that Jordan apparently loved and of which I'll see many more tomorrow. I didn't get pictures of everything in the house and didn't post anywhere near all of those I did take but I'm pretty sure Jordan overlooked nothing. Yeah, it's in there.


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