Day Nine
Once again I was behind schedule, which made me decide to get up earlier to allow time for getting coffee in the morning. I stopped at Perk Place Coffeehouse and Bakery in Duluth, MN. While waiting in line, Ria was teaching a new employee how to steam milk. I watched intently, not that I would ever drink a cappuccino myself, but to learn how in case a guest wants one. She loved my cup so much I gave it to her. That makes three cups down for the trip.
Ria at Perk Place
9/18/2025
Superior, WI to Madison, WI
391 Miles
I skipped my first planned stop in a futile attempt to save time. I needed to be at Taliesin by 1:30PM. By the time I reached Cranberry Point, I was only twenty minutes behind schedule. I stretched my legs and continued south. I was trying to make up some more time on I-94 southbound; the GPS thought the speed limit was sixty-five miles per hour, but when I saw the first seventy-mile-per-hour sign, I sped up to eighty-four miles per hour. Right then I spotted the state trooper; it was too late to slow down enough. He thanked me for waiting to pull over in a spot that was safe for him to get out of the car. I couldn’t find a current copy of proof of insurance, so he was going to have to give me a $10.00 ticket, but he said if I could get a copy texted to me in the next ten minutes, he would just issue a warning for speeding. Fortunately for me, Maureen was home and found a copy of the current card. Trooper F. Schmall was very friendly and made me promise not to speed anymore in Wisconsin. I asked him how much I could exceed the speed limit without getting pulled over, and he said he pulled drivers over if they were seven miles per hour over the limit, while other troopers only allow five. So instead of saving time, I was delayed another fifteen minutes.
I stopped at a state park near the Wisconsin Dells. I didn’t want to pay for entry, so I ate my lunch in a parking area outside the entrance. I skipped driving down the Wisconsin Dells parkway, which is a few miles of road with a large number of tourist traps.
Taliesin
The gods were definitely against me getting to Taliesin on time. First there was road construction, which had me stopped for about five minutes. Next the road was closed without a detour sign, so I had to find my own way around. Then there was more construction; this time they were stringing fiber. I was behind a van with a guy leaning out the passenger door using a measuring wheel. I got past the van and was finally on County Road C. All of a sudden the GPS announced I had arrived at my destination, but there were nothing but cornfields all around. I said to myself, “I’m on highway C; if I just keep driving, I’ll find Taliesin.” Lucky for me, a farmer came down the road driving a John Deere Gator. I asked him for directions, and he said, “You are on the wrong highway, C, but you are close.” He gave me directions, and I arrived at the Taliesin visiting center fifteen minutes late. I walked into the gift shop, and the woman at the counter said, “You must be Matthew.” She called for the shuttle bus to come and pick me up so I could catch up to the tour group. When I arrived at the studio, another woman walked up to me and said, “You must be Matthew. The group is right there, and you haven’t missed anything.” The tour was fascinating. In Frank Lloyd Wright’s bedroom, I noticed an oarlock from a gondola mounted by a window. I mentioned it to the tour guide; he said I was only the third person in five years that knew what it was.
Oarlock from a Gondola
Madison, WI, is a hopping place. I stopped at a coffee shop near the University of Wisconsin, Madison campus. There must be more than ten thousand students there because they were everywhere I drove for miles around. I stopped and ate falafel at The Mediterranean Joint; it was very good, better than what I get at Mamoun's Falafel in New Haven, CT. On the way to the hotel I drove through an old warehouse district where lots of people were sitting outside bars. There was even an outdoor concert going on.
