Barn Quilts, Cows, Trolls And Mustard

Yesterday morning we took off for several destinations. Our first stop was at the town of New Glarus, a town that looks like it was imported straight from Switzerland. On our way we passed a few more barn quilts and I'll be posting the pictures.

New Glarus is really a neat town. If your hungry for a trip to Switzerland but can't afford it, come to New Glarus "America's Little Switzerland". This town was settled in 1845 by Swiss immigrants and has retained it's Swiss charm in everything from the Alpine style architecture, colorful flower boxes and Swiss/Eurpoean food.

Two shopkeepers from New Glarus where in Zurich and saw a "cow parade" there and decided it would be a nice thing to bring back to New Glarus. So, now New Glarus has it's own "cow parade". I've taken pictures of several of the cows and will be posting them at Picasa. The cows are imported from Switzerland and painted by local artists.

From New Glarus we drove some country roads to our next destination, Mount Horeb. This area was settled by Norwegian, German, Swiss & Irish immigrants in the 1840's. You can see the influance in the buildings and the food offered in the bakeries and restaurant. The main street is affectionately known as the "trollway". This is because of the 17 life size trolls that are placed in front of business's and shops. Of course we searched out a few and I took pictures. Interesting....

We had lunch at Schuberts Diner, Bakery & Soda Fountain. Soup and salad was our choice of the day and it was very good. The bakery items were so tempting but I didn't give in. It was hard to say no.

Back on the road to our final destination, The Mustard Museum which is located in Middleton, WI, near Madison. I know, your saying "the mustard museum"??? That's what I said when Garry told us about it but hey, it's different, right?

It all started in 1986 when the Founder Barry Levenson was walking the aisles of a grocery store after his favorite baseball team lost the World Series. He was looking for the meaning of life and as he passed the mustards he heard a voice, "if you collect us, they will come". Thus began the collection of what is now the Worlds Largest Collection of Mustards and Mustard Memorabilia. The collection now comprises of more than 5,200 mustards from all 50 states and more than 61 contries.

The museum was interesting but the best part was the mustard tasting area in the gift shop. They have mustards for sale from all around the world. We found one that we liked, a sweet but hot mustard, one that doesn't burn but has a bit of heat. I'm sure we will enjoy it on many sandwiches to come...

It was time to head back to Brodhead but we had one more stop to make. Just outside of town we had seen a sign advertising a "haystack" dinner. We had experienced one of these several years ago in Goshen, IN and decided that would be our dinner tonight. It was put on by the local Amish community which has about 30 families. A small community by compairison to other areas. The haystack was delicious as were the pie desserts. I had peanut butter cream and Dean had apple. Very, very good. I will be visiting the Amish bakery tomorrow for sure.

With that under our belt, so to speak, we headed back to the campground and visited with Jenny & Garry for awhile. I really hate that they both have to work while we are here but we will make the most of the time we can get together.

I hope you enjoyed our little journey as much as we did. We will be moving to the Wisconsin Dells on Friday so be sure and come back to see what we find.

Safe Travels......