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With many miles ahead of us, the busses rolled out at 8:00 AM. The first
stop was in Columbus at Louis Sullivan designed bank. Built in 1919, this
was the last of eight "jewel box" banks he designed. This one
even has his name on it. The 1892 City Hall
building on the opposite corner looks pretty cool, too.
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Along the way we passed a tiny Standard Oil station and an equally small
pagoda shaped Wadham Oil & Grease Company station.
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In Milwaukee, Leon's Frozen Custard opened in 1942. The neon arrived
in the 1950s. The dog sign looks as if it might be animated but it isn't.
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As it had been in Baraboo, lunch in Racine was on our own but this time I
had a place picked out in advance. The Ivanhoe Pub & Eatery is housed in an 1891
building that in 1898 was a Pabst taproom. It's right next to an abandoned
White Tower. When someone on the bus pointed out the White Tower, I
hastily snapped a picture which turned out to be my best capture of the
recently painted Pabst sign on the pub's wall. I took another as we walked
toward it and one more when we arrived. The building on the other side of
the White Tower was once (1902) a Miller taproom.
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Provided information on the Frank Lloyd Wright designed SC Johnson complex
stressed that no interior photos would be permitted. I decided to leave
the camera on the bus and just use my phone. I casually snapped a picture
of the Rondelle Theater from the 1964 New York World's Fair then stuffed
the still live phone in my pocket. All sorts of settings were changed as
we walked and when I finally took out the phone to take a picture, the
screen was so dim I initially thought the phone was totally dead. I
eventually made out some buttons and went through the motions of taking
pictures but I wasn't even sure that anything was being recorded let alone
what it was. The lone picture of the 1950 Research Tower is the best I
got. Back on the bus, digital resuscitation of the phone was successful.
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Many of us exited the busses a few blocks from our destination to
accompany Kevin on a little walking tour. Kevin basically just knows lots
of stuff then augments it by deep research on target locations. And he
remembers it! I, on the other hand, feel fairly learned immediately after
listening to him but will be nearly as ignorant as I ever was in a matter
of minutes. What almost looks like a single building in the first picture
is actually two built by the same important guy. Kevin knows who.
A duck named Gertie got the attention of a war-weary world when she nested
under this bridge in 1945. As I snapped a picture of the statue, bells
started ringing to announce a draw bridge opening that temporarily held us
on the wrong side of the river. As can be seen in the next photo, the
bridge had to be raised only a small amount for this
boat. Although it has a ways to go to challenge San Antonio, Milwaukee
has the beginnings of a river walk. The Fonz is a permanent resident.
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The bus at the far end of the block is parked in front of where dinner
awaits. Mader's first opened in 1902. Beer was the initial
focus with a nod towards food. Surviving prohibition called for a turn to
quality food and that continues today. This
was a great place to wrap up the conference although disbanding totally
was still a long bus ride away.
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