Wisconsin 2023 - Day 3

June 6, 2023 (Tuesday)

This morning we set off for Council Grounds State Park, about 30 minutes south of where we were staying. Council Grounds is a small, 509 acre park on the Wisconsin River. It features a nice tract of forest along the river, with various hiking trails. 

We arrived before the office opened, picked up a park map at the kiosk and set out for the Big Pines Nature Trail.  The parking area was near the river, so we started there. 

On the gravel bars in the river we spotted some Sandhill Cranes. They seem to like Wisconsin in the summer.

Sandhill Cranes

Just upriver from the parking area was a small dam and powerhouse. 

We were able to follow a trail to the dam and found a sign for Alexander Hydro. The lake behind the dam was named Alexander Lake.  This reminded us of the many small hydroelectric projects that we came across in Maine during the summers that we spent there. 

We spotted (!) a Spotted Sandpiper on the rocks below the dam, and then headed off to hike the wooded trails in the park. 

We were a little late in the year for the peak of migration, but we did see some of the breeding birds in the forest. There were dragonflies, butterflies and caterpillars to look at as well. 

American Redstart

Dragonfly (TBD)

Ebony Jewelwing

Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar

We finished up in the park, had lunch, and then headed north to Woodruff, Wisconsin to visit Hillestad Pharmaceuticals. 

This turned out to be another small business, employing a couple of dozen locals. They started with manufacturing supplements for people on dialysis. Apparently dialysis removes not only toxins from the blood but also some necessary vitamins, minerals and other substances. Hillestad continues to specialize in supplements for people on dialysis but has expanded to offer a broader range of products. 

The front of the business was a store selling their products, while the much larger back area was the manufacturing plant and warehouse. 

Posing with the bottles!

The president of the company, Don Hillestad, gave us the tour, and he was very enthusiastic about the business and its history. Unlike the Mepps Lure tour, we were free to photograph anything we wanted! 

The first thing that we saw when entering was a huge storeroom full of raw materials. They included botanicals, various powdered vitamins, minerals, and other compounds, and a wide variety of other ingredients. Don told us that much of the material was being held awaiting results of Quality Assurance testing. All of their raw ingredients are tested by a third party lab to assure purity, potency, etc. 

He then showed us various parts of the facility. At many locations we were allowed only to look in the window as it was a controlled manufacturing area. Understandable. 

We saw the Weigh Room, where ingredients were batched out for various products, then the Mixing Room where they were mixed. 

Weigh Room

Mixing Room

Finally, batches of mixed material were sent to a room where they were pressed into tablets. There were a bunch of different molds displayed, along with some of the finished products. The dry mixture is just the right consistency, and when pressed into a tablet is stable for packaging, shipping, and consumption.

Waiting to be made into tablets

Some products are pressed from a single material, others have two halves. 

We saw a pressing machine running, making tablets. It was incredibly fast. I don't recall exactly what Don said the rate of the machine was, but I recall it was hundreds of thousands of tablets each day. They were just pouring off into a bin like water. 

Pressing machine

They have a separate machine that filled capsules, but it wasn't running that day. 

Capsules

Probably the most interesting area was the Quality Control Room. They have a Mechanical Stomach with a brew that models stomach acid at the appropriate temperature and the appropriate amount of agitation. It is used to make certain that pills dissolve correctly and within the appropriate timeframe. It was pretty awesome. 

Gastric or Intestinal Fluid anyone? 

They also had a machine that rolled pills round and round to simulate packing, shipping and handling. So that your pills aren't a bunch of dust when they arrive!

Mechanical damage simulator

And we saw lots of packaging, storage, and shipping type areas. 

Packaging Room

We also saw displays with many of their supplements. They seem to have something for everyone!

Their best selling product is the Summit Gold multi-vitamin. They advertise it as a premium multi-vitamin made up of carefully sourced ingredients including "SeaPlex" which comes from kelp and other ocean plants. There was a display board showing how each layer/portion of the tablet was added, and then the entire thing coated with iron, magnesium, calcium, and then beeswax for that nice shine!  A fancy vitamin indeed!

It was a very interesting tour, and Don gave us each a small bottle of Summit Gold as a parting gift!!

We headed home after a fun day of birds, hiking, and pharmaceuticals!

Next - Back to the George W. Mead Wildlife Area, and Robot Cows...

Wisconsin 2023 - Day 2

 June 5, 2023 (Monday)

We were up bright and early and headed for the George W. Mead State Wildlife Area. We traveled over rural Wisconsin roads and passed one dairy farm after another. We did pass through some wooded areas and enjoyed the cool green countryside. 

The Wildlife Area is made up of several tracts of land set aside for conservation and hunting. Much of the land includes wetlands, rivers, and ponds and is rich with wildlife. 

We first stopped at a wetland area a few miles west of the main tract. We found Sandhill Cranes feeding in a harvested field. When we see them in winter they are gray, but these all had a distinct rusty color. 

Sandhill Cranes

In a small pond we found a pair of Trumpeter Swans. They are among the largest North American birds and they are huge!

Trumpeter Swans

We then headed over to the main area of the refuge, which includes the Visitor Center. 

They have some nice trails which include ponds, boardwalks over marshes, and forested areas. By this time it was getting warm and the bird activity was slowing down. But we still found some birds and dragonflies to observe. 

Tree Swallow

Gray Catbird

Dragonfly (to be identified)

We finished up at the refuge, had lunch, and then headed off to the first of the factory tours that Teri had found in Wisconsin. 

Mepps Lures (Sheldon's Inc.) is located in Antigo, Wisconsin and employs around 25 folks. 

Todd Sheldon owned a small fishing tackle store in Antigo, and in 1951 tried a Mepps spinner that had been given to him by a GI returning from Europe. Mepps was a French company, and their spinners were well known in Europe, but not in the US.  Long story short Todd had so much luck selling the Mepps lures that he partnered with them and eventually bought the company. 

Fun fact, they buy squirrel tails from local hunters for 25 cents per tail, and use the fur in some of their lures! I don't think anyone is getting rich selling squirrel tails!

Taking all of the combinations of lures sizes, hook types and colors into account, Sheldon's Inc. (Mepps) manufactures over 4000 different lures in their 50,000 sf facility.  It seems that most of the raw materials (hooks, brass and plastic beads, spinner blades, etc.) still come from France and are imported in huge batches, to be assembled into the various combinations of lures in Antigo.  Customers range from the big box stores to individuals who order a single lure on line or over the phone. 

They offered a tour of the factory, but like so many businesses, no photos inside the production area!! 

The tour was very interesting, and was lead by one of the workers. She demonstrated many of the processes with in-production lures. There were batch after batch of different lures being worked on in various stages, with invoices and shipping boxes everywhere. The twenty five or so workers rotate between the various stations and work on lures in batches. Everything from bending wire to a shape, threading on beads of various colors and materials, adding hooks, spinner blades, decals, etc. One lady was tying squirrel hair to a batch of treble hooks, much like tying fishing flies. 

To describe the work as tedious-looking would be an understatement. We noticed that the vast majority of workers were women and many had been with the company for a decade or more. 

On our way out we viewed a few different displays in the lobby. Cameras allowed out there!

A display of very old Mepps spinners. 

It was a fun tour and a great way to end our day. We returned to our "Cabin in the North Woods" and spent a relaxing evening reading and watching television.

Next - Council Grounds State Park and Hillestad Pharmaceuticals

Wisconsin - 2023

 After our very pleasant visit to Michigan last June (Michigan Blog - Day 1) we decided to move over one state and visit Wisconsin this year. There was a nice young couple on our Alaska cruise from Madison, Wisconsin, and when we told them we would be visiting in just a couple of weeks they were excited. But when I told them the two towns that we'd be staying in, their reply was "That is kind of in the middle of nowhere!"  I responded that we were "middle of nowhere" kind of folks!

June 4, 2023 (Sunday)

After spending the night in a hotel near the San Antonio airport, we departed at 6:45 and landed in Milwaukee at 11:30 after a one-hour layover in Chicago.  We grabbed our rent car and headed north!

Our first three nights would be spent in Tomahawk, Wisconsin, about 4 hours north of Milwaukee.  On our way north we stopped at Horicon National Wildlife Refuge. 

We have some friends that had volunteered here a couple of summers and we had always wanted to visit. It was Sunday afternoon and the visitor center was closed, but we hiked the Discovery Trail which included a lookout over a small lake as well as a section through a nice patch of forest. 

In the open grasslands we saw a male Bobolink displaying. This bird has the nickname "Skunk Blackbird" due to its black, white and tan coloration.  It is a bird of the northern grasslands that we virtually never see in Texas. 

Bobolink male

It was a warm, sunny afternoon and butterflies were flying as well. I managed to get pictures and identifications on a couple. 

Indian Skipper

Pearl Crescent

A Song Sparrow was playing King-of-the-Mountain on a log, and Common Grackles were, well, common. 

Common Grackle

Song Sparrow

After a couple of hours at Horicon we continued north to our Airbnb "Cabin in the North Woods" in Tomahawk. It turned out to be a nice little cabin on the shore of a lake called Jersey Flowage on the Tomahawk River. The cabin looked to be newly remodeled inside, with lots of natural wood. 

Our impression from communications was that this was a new owner, and new to AirBnb. Probably an investment/business. The cabin was very nice but a bit odd in that the bedrooms had no closets, chests of drawers, or shelves. So we pretty much lived out of our suitcases.  

The location was quiet, cozy and just right as a base for our explorations.

Next - George W. Mead Wildlife Area and Mepps Lures

Alaska 2023 - Wrap Up

5/21/2023 (Sunday)

We were docked in Juneau when we woke up, and after a quick breakfast we left the ship at 8:30.  Most of the crew turned out to say goodbye. 

We relaxed in the UnCruise hospitality suite until our 10:45 shuttle to the Juneau airport. The Juneau airport is really tiny, with only three gates. I wonder how they handle the thousands of passengers on the bigger cruise ships? Do they all leave from Seattle?

We saw about 80% of our shipmates and a couple of crew members waiting for the same flight to Seattle that we were on. It departed at 12:50 and landed in Seattle at around 4:00. We caught the airport shuttle to our hotel and got checked in with no issues. We were tired so ordered Uber Eats for supper and just relaxed for the evening.

5/22/2023 (Monday)

Our flight back to San Antonio departed a little after noon and arrived at 6:30 p.m.  We picked up our vehicle from the off-airport parking lot and drove on home. 

Overall thoughts:

This was a great trip. May is definitely a better time for us to visit than July.  Far fewer people, and cooler weather. We really lucked out with sunny days and saw very little of the expected SE Alaska clouds and drizzle. 

We got to see much of the area north of Juneau that we hadn't seen on our last trip, with Glacier Bay National Park as a special treat. There was a laminated map in a passageway where our route and each day's destination were marked. It is laminated and so a little glary, but the red line shows our voyage over the seven days. Glacier Bay NP is at the top, with Juneau circled near the center and Dawson Glacier near the bottom.

We didn't have any real opportunity for souvenir shopping, but did pick up a couple of neck gaiters (which we wore on the ride to Dawson Glacier, great for keeping your head and ears warm!) and glasses straps on the ship. Teri had also scored a couple of magnets from Glacier Bay National Park.

We are sold on UnCruise. Bigger cruise ships don't interest us (especially Mark) at all, but the small size, activities, and accessibility of the Uncruise ships makes them perfect for us.