Monthly Archives: August 2010

Woody the Root Beer Man

By | | Food and Drink, Soda (Pop)
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This is Woody the Root Beer Man in Oglesby, Illinois. Wow, a drive-in! I was holding my root beer float when Henry Moore – that’s M-double O-R-E, (he made a point of getting the spelling right) introduced himself. Makes you wonder how many times he delivered that line. At any rate he was delightful. He owned the restaurant for 50 years, purchased it after WWII, and then sold to his son. Now he is an employee. This was a man living his dream. Thanks Mr. M-double O-R-E. The float was good too.

root beer

Woody the Root Beer Man

Wisconsin Pumpkin Silo

By | | Food and Drink, The Rest of the Food
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At some point during a prolonged car trip, like this one through eastern Wisconsin, there comes a point – well you know the rest. Going after this Big Silo was one of those points. All this for a pretty lousy Big Thing shot. On top of that Meyer’s Market was equally disappointing.

pumpkin

Wisconsin Pumpkin Silo

Mustard Museum

By | | Food and Drink, Hot Dog and Hamburger
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On the Wisconsin trip I wanted to stop at the Mustard Museum in Mt. Horab. We planned to stop there on Saturday morning. At breakfast in the Wisconsin Dells Friday morning the USA Today I bought to get the Soduko featured a story on the museum – it was National Mustard Day Saturday! Mt Horab was planning a big blowout since the Museum was moving to another town. Anyway, when we got there Main Street was blocked off for the celebration.  Food, drinks and a good time, too bad we couldn’t stay longer.

mustard

Mustard Museum 2

 

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Mustard Museum

Cheesy Photo

By | | Food and Drink, Inflatables, The Rest of the Food
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The Oscar Mayer car was there, of course. And Mr. Mustard as well. I can’t begin to tell you how much unexpected fun this experience was. They even had a car show, of course all the cars were painted mustard yellow. Are you ready for a good pun. This cheese photo makes for a pretty “cheesey” photo. Get it? Not much to get anyway was there?

cheese

Cheesy Photo

Gertrude the Gurnsey Cow

By | | Animals, Cows and Bulls
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Meet Gertrude the Guernsey Cow. Looks an awful lot like Sissie the Cow just below. Maybe they’re related? Anyway, she was the last Animal we visited on our Wisconsin trip. Gertrude is actually near Rockford, Illinois in Lockwood Park. I’ll have to say that 4 days of Big Thing hunting was pretty exhausting. When Deb asked me what the next object was and I told her a Big Cow, she replied, “Another cow?” I knew at that point we should head home, and we did!

Gertrude the Gurnsey Cow

Gertrude the Gurnsey Cow

Flamingo Hotel

By | | Animals, Birds
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Once we got to the Wisconsin Dells it was pretty late – we had dinner and turned in for the night. This was the large flamingo we came to town to find. The Dells are a great vacation spot. Lot’s to do if you have children in the family. We went on a couple river tours and enjoyed ourselves. It is a classic resort town — fudge and moccasin stores abound.

Flamingo Motel

Flamingo Motel

Trojan Horse

By | | Animals, The Rest of the Animals
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Leaving one of the river tours, which involved an ex-US Army amphibious duck we spotted this Trojan Horse at the Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park. A water park, go cart track, mini golf all rolled into one. Gives you an inkling of what the Dells has to offer.

Mt. Olympus Trojan Horse

Mt. Olympus Trojan Horse

Wisconsin Dells Lumberjack

By | | Lumberjacks, People
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“A Family Traditon since 1958” it says on the sign out front. It should say “More Than You can Eat.” The Paul Bunyan Cook Shack in the Wisconsin Dells is crowded, serves lots of food and is perfect for families. Not for me. Like Cracker Barrel you have to walk through a gift shop to eat. Go there if that appeals to you. At least they didn’t have the rocking chairs on the porch in front. Did I make myself clear that I didn’t like this place, except for the Big Guy!

lumberjack

Wisconsin Dells Lumberjack

Papa Bear’s Bed

By | | Objects, Other Big Objects
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During our trip through Wisconsin we drove right past Papa Bears Northwood Store and would have missed this Big Bed. Lucky for us we stopped at Mark’s Market, an open air vegetable market down the road. We grabbed a couple of Big Fruits and Vegetables and when talking with Mark he asked if we got the Big Bed. “You can’t miss it,” he said. Well we had, and backtracked to get this image. By the way, Papa Bears looked like a nice store. Stop in if you have the chance, south of the Wisconsin Dells on US-12 in Baraboo. Thanks for the tip, Mark.

bed

Papa Bear’s Bed

 

Wisconsin Farmer

By | | Other Big People, People
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A planned shot. We traveled high and low to get this shot. I think one of the faults with GPS is that you don’t necessarily take the route that you would if you looked at a map. On the other hand the GPS takes you on a route that you would not usually take and you get to see a little country. If you’re in a hurry use a map. In this case the address I was seeking was the middle of a field We continued down the road a little and in the BP station we found this Big Guy.

farmet

Wisconsin Farmer

Mark’s Market

By | | Food and Drink, Fruit, The Rest of the Food
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Southbound from the Wisconsin Dells we were cruising down US-12 to get a Muffler Man in Baraboo. We never did find the Muffler Man – turns out it was laying in pieces behind a wall. Anyway, we spotted the Big Corn in front of Mark’s Market. Did a quick u-turn and pulled into the open air market. After introducing ourselves Mark invited us to take all the photos we wanted. That’s when we noticed the Big Strawberry. Not quite as large as the one in Indiana but good size all the same. They also gave us the tip on the Big Bed which can be found on the Big Objects page.

strawberry

Mark’s Market Strawberry

corn

Mark’s Market Corn

DeForest Elephant

By | | Animals, Elephants
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I like these Big Elephants. There is one close to home in Pendelton, IN and another at Jim Hipp’s Nursery in Southwest Indiana. A big animal made ever Bigger is fine. This one in DeForest, Wisconsin is at the Citgo gas just off Interstate 90/94. We had to wait to take this image, some parents were taking photos of their kids with the elephant, then the dog walkers were next in line. I had to be careful where I stepped to get this image.

DeForest Elephant

DeForest Elephant

 

Sissy the Cow

By | | Animals, Cows and Bulls
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Let me introduce you to Sissy the Cow in DeForest Wisconsin. She is in front of Ehlenbach’s Cheese Chalet just off I90/94 exit 126. Nice cow and an even nicer cheese store. We spent some time inside and, of course, bought some cheese.

Sissy the Cow

Sissy the Cow

 

Dreamkeepers

By | | Animals, Birds
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In Madison Wisconsin we stayed the night at the Edgewater Hotel right on Lake Mendota. Our room overlooked the lake and we had dinner on the deck with a live band playing. One interesting thing about this hotel was the floors are backward. Our room was on the first floor and we had to go down to the 5th floor to get to the deck. I was a little confused when I went to get some ice. Oh, and we got these giant metal birds called Dreamkeepers outside an office building.

Madison Dreamkeepers Birds

Madison Dreamkeepers Birds