Northern Exposure--Day 20

The sun is about to set on our time here on the banks of the Mississippi River. We have enjoyed this week in Southwest Wisconsin. We have explored much of the area and seen many of the sights. But, like all good things, this part of our journey must come to an end. Tomorrow we will hook up and head Northeast to others areas we have never explored.

But before we left the area we decided to take in a festival. A Midsummer Festival to be exact, although officially today was the first day of summer. Up north, toward LaCrosse, is the small town of Coon Valley. At Coon Valley is something called Norskedalen Nature and Heritage Center. This is a place dedicated to all things Norwegian. Norskedalen is open from May to October and in addition to the Visitor's Center they have an old homestead working farm. Each June they have their Midsummer Festival where many of the local people demonstrate the crafts of years gone by. They also had many animals including Fjord Horses which are stout built horses bred for pulling the plows. To transport people around the grounds they had horse drawn wagons. The wagon in the picture to the left has a two horse team pulling the wagon. One of the mares had a colt with her. They had the colt tethered to his momma and he followed along while the wagon made it's rounds. The trip to Norskedalen was a good way to end our time in this part of Wisconsin.