July 2019, Wisconsin, Day 9

Well played, Nana!!

Today was a down day. We just wanted to hang with Nana and I needed to get the laundry done. She had planned a few stops, but first, glorious sleep and a breakfast spread big enough to feed an army.

After breakfast,  we swung by Jason and Taya’s house (Nana’s son and daughter-in-law). We hadn’t seen them since they’d moved from Marietta. They took us on a tour of the lovely home that they are restoring. She is an 1863 beauty queen and they are taking meticulous care of her.

Hey, pretty lady!

The ceiling on the porch was made with re-claimed barnwood from a collapsed barn on the property

Then we asked Nana to direct us to the nearest car wash. We were still carrying around 10 pounds of caked-on mud from the slip-slidey, mud-boggy road outside of Sioux Falls. Also, the grill of our car is where butterflies and all insects go to die. I don’t know if the mid-west is especially buggy or what, but the front of our car looked like an entomology expo. And while I don’t consider myself to be especially prideful, I didn’t want to roll into Chicago like Jed Clampett, et al.  in a mud- caked, bug-splattered vehicle with Georgia tags. I’m just trying to do what I can to promote my sweet, southern homeland. I’m not even gonna wear my Frannie pack. Much.

Then it was onto the Shoe Box! The Largest Shoe Store in the Midwest! This big ol’ store was chocked full of every sensible shoe imaginable and filled to the brim with friendly mid-westerners. They really are the nicest people! Plus, the kids needed school shoes so two birds, one stone. Plus, EVERYBODY knows Nana including the owner of the Largest Shoe Store in the Midwest. So, our shoe purchase came with the Nana discount off the top. #score

The mother ship is calling me home

We loved the funky little shoe-themed cow statue

We drove through the countryside and saw the farm where Nana grew up and the little one room school house where she walked to go to school every day. It was cool to show the kids first-hand how different their lives are from the lives of children only a few generations ago.

Just a swangin'

Howdy, Abe!

The well still pumps water

The next stop was the highlight of the day (for some of us). We got to tour a working dairy farm! 

Very Dairy

Mae gets in on the action

The ever-patient Dawn Evert

And let’s just say that when you are positioned at the business end of a cow at milking time, sometimes things fall….and splatter….on your face. Then your sisters see it and make fun of you because you have cow poo on your face. Then you decide that you like playing with the farm cats better than milking cows.

Right before Dung Drop 2019

Cats. Less likely to poop on you.

Scott and Dawn Evert were so tolerant of us as we helped with the milking process and asked about a million questions. And now, we’ve seen first-hand where milk comes from!

We returned to the house and John took the kids to the village pool and Nana and I sat around her kitchen table with a glass of wine and some delicious Wisconsin Cheese. We talked about the highs and lows of her long life. What a treasure she is to our family. I just wish Wisconsin wasn’t so far from Marietta.