Playing Barn Quilt Hide and Seek

 Shawano County is the Barn Quilt Capitol of Wisconsin. Barn quilts are painted squares on barns to look like quilts. They help preserve the old barns of Shawano County, promote tourism in Shawano County, and create an opportunity for a 4-H service projects. They also make the drive through Shawano County more enjoyable as you try to find and point out the quilts.

There is an actual Shawano Barn Quilt book that provides maps and information about the quilt. You can also find a list of all the barn quilts on the Shawano Barn Quilt website. Now I did not do any research about where the barn quilts were located. I prefer the find them as we drive by method.

As Heather and I were driving through Shawano County on our library road I started looking for barn quilts. Once I explained what I was doing, she would help and when we spotted one she would slow down to let me take a picture. We did find several quilts around the Shawano area on our way back to Appleton.

Once we started we could not stop. We found barn quilts in Waupaca County.

We even found some in Kewaunee and Door Counties. Because of the Scandinavian heritage, they prefer a star pattern or just a metal star. 

I will continue to play barn quilt hide and seek on road trips. Iowa and Kansas has many barn quilts which is what inspired the Shawano County barn quilts. Maybe one day I will take a road trip and see all 400+ barn quilts of Shawano County. 

4955. Go to Confections For Any Occasion in Theresa

 Since the hubby had no games and it was a nice day for a drive, we headed down to Holy Hill to see the fall foliage. The road to Holy Hill was very busy. We did not go up to Holy Hill but the drive through the area was in full fall colors. This is a drive everyone should take a least once in their lives even if you do not go up to Holy Hill.

Besides you can also see the Holy Hill Skeletons.  Jimmy Zamzow, the creator of the display, has been creating the display of skeletons for the last 21 years. People come from all over to see the skeletons. This year's theme is 'Til Death Do Us Part. The only problem with the display, it is on Hwy 167 which is quite busy with all the traffic headed to Holy Hill, the Ice Age Trail, and Sunday Drivers.

After driving through the area, the hubby started playing down what's this road to head back to Appleton. He didn't really want to take the highway. He decided to take Hwy 175 out of Slinger. I saw a sign that said we were 10 miles from Theresa. I asked if we could stop at the candy store in Theresa. He agreed since he is a sucker for good candy.

I first heard of Confections For Any Occasions by Joel in Our Wisconsin Magazine a few years back. Joel, a blind confectioner, started selling his creations to neighbors. By 2002, he outgrew is production area and opened his own store in downtown in Theresa. 

Joel makes many kinds of treats. They are slightly pricy and the pieces are small. Since I couldn't make up my mind, I opted for a mystery box of 6 pieces and the hubby got a couple coconut clusters. We also got a few hand made caramels which is the hubby's favorite.

Everything was very good. I am not a fan of turtles or toffee but both were in my mystery box and were probably the best I had. The hubby really enjoyed the caramels.

 

I would definitely stop and try other creations. He makes beer barrel truffles which sound really good. I won't go out of the way to get it but if driving through town,  I would definitely stop and get some candy and you should to.

5219. See the World’s Largest Penny in Woodruff

 When planning our road trip to Northern Wisconsin, my original plan was to head to Hurley and then over to Hayward. I reversed directions for logistical reasons. That really doesn't matter because either way, I wanted to stop in Woodruff, which we would be driving through anyways, and see the largest penny. 

I am a sucker for the largest anything and why not see a giant coin. It was outside and it was pretty COVID safe.

I was expecting a metal penny created out of copper like pennies were back in the day. Nope. This one looks to be created out of cement and is a nice grey/silver color.

The World's Largest Penny was created to honor the Penny Parade which helped build the Woodruff hospital back in the 1950s. There is a plaque telling you about the history behind the penny.

Would I drive out of the way to see the world's largest penny? Nope but since we were driving almost right by it, I figured we could check it out. It's worth a quick photo op if you are ever in the Northwoods but not worth going out of your way to see.

5239. Go to National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward

 When we decided we wanted to finish crossing off the rest of the Wisconsin counties I've never been to, I decided I wanted to try to get to Hayward to see the big fish. Apparently I was to the big fish when I was a toddler but of course I don't remember being there. I knew the hubby would enjoy going there as well.

The big fish is part of the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame. The grounds consist of a museum, hall of fame, and of course the giant fish which you can actually go up into. The price of admission for an adult was $8.75 and children (3-17) were $6.75. The museum and grounds are open Mid-April to end of October at least 5 days a week. 

Our first stop was the giant fish which was really the only reason I wanted to go. Inside the fish are display cases as you walk up the numerous stairs to the fish's mouth to overlook the grounds. Unfortunately there is no other way up to the mouth of the fish but stairs. They were not too bad and wide enough to accommodate social distancing. 

Then we entered the museum which was a housed in a separate building then the visitor center and fish. The building itself has 3 different wings coming off the main entrance. Again plenty of room to social distance. 

One whole wing was dedicated to fishing motors. I think the earliest ones I saw were over 100 years old. I loved the various models, shapes, and sizes of them all. It was like a treasure chest.

Another wing was the hall of fame which included pictures of everyone and their fish broken down by types of fish. Many of the pictures were at least 30 years old. There were not too many recent photos. 

The last wing had more motors and the largest musky ever caught. 

Outside was a few displays of different boats and of course more fish statues. 

It was all very fascinating. The hubby was impressed. He said it was worth the money. I liked when we got there, lunch time, it wasn't very busy but the longer we stayed the more people arrived. If you want to avoid the crowds, go first thing in the morning, around lunch time, or towards the end of the day. 

Even if you are not really a fisherman, pay the $8.75 to climb the stairs to have your picture taken from inside a giant fish. 

5212. Go to Henning's Cheese Inc in Kiel

 On the way home from Saukville, the hubby asked if I wanted to stop and get cheese curds in Random Lake. After a quick Google search, I suggested we check out Henning's in Kiel. Neither of us have been there but we've always wanted to stop. 

Henning's is your typical Wisconsin cheese store... many variety of cheese and fresh cheese curds. When we walked in we didn't see any cheese curds. I thought we were too late and they were sold out. The hubby realized we needed to request them at the counter where they packed them fresh from the bucket. That's almost like getting the milk fresh from the cow.

There was also a small museum inside about cheese making include old cheese presses and different tool used to make cheese back in the day. It was like a time capsule. 

Inside the museum, was also a small viewing area that you could see them making cheese during the week. Being Saturday of Labor Day weekend, no cheese was being made.

We will definitely be back. It is closer than Lynn Dairy and the curds were very squeaky. Nothing beats a squeaky cheese curd.