Stoneage Ramblings

By John R. Stone

Every fall we spend a week in Onalaska, Wisconsin on grandparent duty. While their parents take a week of vacation we watch the three granddaughters, or we used to watch the three girls.

Years ago, when we started, they were all in school, one or two years in three different schools. But the oldest two have now graduated from high school and are now in college. Ella is starting her junior year, Natalie, although she is two years younger, is starting her first year on campus as a sophomore thanks to lots of AP credits earned in high school.

That leaves Zoey, the precocious 13-year old, who is in 7th grade. So all we had to do for a week was take Zoey to school, pick her up afterwards, feed her and enjoy her company. It was a very easy week.

We went to Onalaska, a Lacrosse suburb, our usual way, down to Red Wing and then down Highway 61 along the Mississippi River. It is a beautiful drive, mostly on four lane roadways. Coming back we decided to go up the east side of the river on Wisconsin 35. It’s a two-lane road all the way but also had nice river views, especially from the south end of Lake Pepin on north.

As we were heading north on the roadway we were surprised by all the Minnesota license plates. It was a warm, sunny Saturday and there were lines of motorcycles, people in convertibles with the tops down and others heading south. In a couple of stretches we counted nine Minnesota plates to each Wisconsin plate, and we were in Wisconsin!

We finally figured out that people were doing a circle route, crossing the Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers and coming into Prescott, WI, heading south where they could cross back to Minnesota at several places down river such as at Wabasha or Winona to take Highway 61 back to the Twin Cities.

It must be a nice trip, a lot of people seemed to be doing just that!

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One day while Zoey was in school we went to the Dahl Auto Museum in Lacrosse. Among the cars was a 2020 Ford GT. Only 1,500 were built and the Dahl family, which owns a number of car dealerships including Ford, bought one of the vehicles.

The person at the museum said that to purchase one a person had to agree not to sell it for three years to avoid people snapping them up for resale to make a quick buck. The Dahls have just kept it at the dealership. These things are very, very expensive. The sticker on this bright blue machine was just over $630,940. Delivery alone was $3,750!

Overall mileage on the sticker was 12 mpg city, 18 highway for an overall 14 mpg. So it also had a gas guzzler tax of $2,600.

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My daily walks often take me past the beach in Glenwood down to where Minnesota Avenue ends at the shore of Lake Minnewaska.

On a recent walk I really noticed changes, not so much in the trees or the lake, but along the shoreline as boats are getting put away for the season. It was in the high 70s during that walk but the lack of boats in hoists was a reminder that seasons will be changing.

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The biennial black walnut harvest is underway. The winds last week knocked down a lot of walnuts. So far I have collected 32 gallons of walnuts from the tree in our yard.

For now I’m taking them down to a lot next to my house and leaving them there for the squirrels to consume. If I leave them up by the house the squirrels shred them and the outer shells stain anything they touch.

Looking up in the tree it appears this harvest is going to last for a while. There are a lot of walnuts still in the tree!