Greetings from Wisconsin - Part I

Hello from the America's Dairyland and the Badger State! I'm just north of Milwaukee attending a class this week. I flew up on Friday & spent the weekend exploring. Having never been here before I can't speak with much authority about the place, but I do have a few impressions: the landscape is beautiful and green right now, with velvety grassy meadows and many lovely mature hardwood trees. They don't have the mostly brick construction that you seen in OKC or KC--instead, there is more hardwood or limestone. There seems to be an unusually large number of big, ornate churches. I was expecting the Lutherans, but turns out the Catholics also have a large presence here. Another thing that's a little eerie, I haven't seen a SINGLE WALMART in 3 days here. My southern friends know how strange that feels.

As soon as you get outside of town you see one picturesque farm after another. They almost all have huge barns, several grain silos & some even have actual corn cribs (something I thought only existed in sappy country-western music). There are alot more blonde-haired fair skinned people than i've seen anywhere else. I knew the German, Polish & Scandinavian immigrants had settled here, but didn't realize the Irish & Italian had left a big impression as well. It still seems to be a very cosmopolitan place now: walking around downtown Milwaukee I heard 20+ languages in one afternoon.

One very noticeable thing. The natives here definitely seem to have a distinct personality. It's hard to articulate but they seem very somber and unsmiling. Many of them have been talkative without being particularly friendly. Hmm, maybe that's what "salt of the earth" means. Speaking of salt, the regional food seems rather bland but tries to make up for it with extra cream and butter. Also, the drivers here are surprisingly impatient! Apparently driving the speed limit really pisses people off.

A small aside, my rental car smells like fish, & i'm still on the fence about whether it's worth returning before this Friday. It's not too bad in the cabin, but if you open the trunk after it's been sitting in the sun, it just about knocks you over. My question is, has it reached the point of maximum fishiness, & now will start to smell better? Or is it still on a plateau, or God forbid, upward curve. We'll see. Stand by for part II....