We are officially in Cheese Country! We left Minneapolis Monday afternoon after Mark’s business meeting, boondocked in Eau Claire Wisconsin’s Walmart parking lot. Mark attended another business meeting Tuesday morning, and then we headed out towards Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Our first order of business before we left Eau Claire, though, was to find a propane gas dealer. We had stopped the night before at a gas station east of Minneapolis to get some propane. Even though they had the big tank, they only had the ability to fill portable tanks as they weighed the tanks before and after to determine the amount sold. Of course, our propane tank is mounted on our motorhome, so that wasn’t going to work. Fortunately, we did find a propane dealer to help us in Eau Claire. We use the propane for the refrigerator, stove, water heater & furnace, so going without is not an attractive option. I was pleased that this was our first propane fill since we have had the RV, so it seems to last pretty well.
I woke up early this morning because the house was cold. I’m sensing the season changing already. Mark noticed some of the leaves here in Wisconsin already starting to change color, and our last night in Minneapolis actually got below freezing according to the radio.
Mark asked his business associates in Eau Claire if there was any “must-sees” in the area. The only suggestion they could come up with was to be sure to stop in Colby, WI to see the Colby Cheese House, home of the largest cheese block. I was in the back trying to get Erika down for a nap when we rolled into Colby. Seems Mark blinked and rolled right on by the Colby Cheese House. I discovered there are other places besides Sandpoint where the majority of the roads are dirt, because all the side roads outside of Colby were dirt. Mark chose one road to turn around on. He ended up going around the “block” which was a 15 minute detour. The detour gave us the opportunity to see an official Land o’ Lakes dairy farmer. On our way back through town, we did see the Colby Cheese House but it looked closed.
On Saturday, before we left Minneapolis, we enjoyed touring the Mill City Museum. The kids & I had tried to go on Wednesday, but got there just an hour before closing, so they suggested coming back a different day. I’m glad we waited because Mark got to enjoy it with us. It’s a museum that tells about the history of flour making in Minneapolis. Minneapolis is where the Pillsbury Dough Boy and Betty Crocker got their start. We learned that flour dust is highly explosive, and about an ingenious man who in the process of selling an elaborate flour dust collection system, received the task of engineering the entire plant, stole ideas from flour mills in Europe. He rebuilt the flour mill by replacing the stone mills with roller mills, and thereby increased the flour production from 6,000 barrels a day to 51,000 barrels a day. There was also an entertaining 19 minute film of the history of Minneapolis, where we learned the origin of the city’s name & other interesting tidbits. Overall, it was an extremely well done museum with many different activities to engage the kids, and I would highly recommend visiting it if you are ever in Minneapolis.
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