Another Excursion

The other day we were on our way to Iowa and decided to make a stop along the way.  Actually, we had several stops planned but we didn't make it to all of them.  I'll explain why in just a minute.  Anyway, the first stop was at the Falk Wells Sugar River Wildlife Area, just outside Paoli, Wisconsin.  This looks like a newer wildlife area the county is working on.  It is hard to visualize it as much of a wildlife area because its so surrounded by agriculture land, residences, and a business or two.  But the county is working on it.  Maybe its a restoration project.  At any rate, one little portion of it is accessible and pretty nice.  I figure its new and in development because as I was checking it out in advance I noticed the "street view" and the satellite view were different.  One showed a parking area, the other did not.

And neither view showed the little bridge we found when we stopped.  I had thought we were going to have to hike a short distance to get to the pond but it turned out it was right there off the parking area.

You could tell the bridge was fairly new.  The lumber still had the markings from construction on it.  It was a nice little bridge.

We had the mutt with us so we walked around a little bit, taking in the scenery.

Over the bridge there was a trail.  Hadn't seen that in the satellite images at all.  But then again, sometimes its difficult to see features like trails, especially in wooded areas.

I had hoped that, being farther south than Timms Hill, that we'd still be able to see some of the fall colors but that didn't happen so much.  Most of the leaves in this area were down and on the ground.

Still, here and there were remnants of the foliage and the beauty that had recently been all over the area.

What had looked like a pond turned out to actually be a wide spot in the river.  The Sugar River.

Still, it was a nice, quiet, peaceful place to visit.  Except for the bridge, trail, and parking area, it was pretty much undisturbed, what we could see, anyway.

And the mutt enjoyed stretching her legs and checking out the smells in the forest.  She doesn't get into wooded areas very much.

Then it was time to head back to the car.

When we pulled in there was a tractor and trailer so we had to stop and get a picture.  We have a couple of little grandbaby boys that would have loved to be in this picture.

The next stop wasn't too far down the road, in New Glarus.  We were getting hungry so we made our dinner stop a little earlier than originally planned.

It was a fun place to stop.  They were an ice cream place with a grill so of course they had a cow bench out front.

Inside it was like a 50's diner.  A small counter, the whole place was pretty small. 

But the food was good and we were hungry.

Dessert of course, was the best part.

By the time we'd finished eating and went back outside it was getting pretty dark.  Our side trip was in the hopes of seeing some more of the fall colors but it was already too dark to see anything more so we decided to cut it short and beat it on to Iowa.  I guess we should have known there wouldn't be much time for sight-seeing because the days are getting so much shorter.  We'll have to save the rest of the trip for another time.  So instead of traveling a winding trip west across the bottom of the state we cut back up to the highway and hurried on.  Still, it was a nice trip and we enjoyed it.