Today’s post is 1575 words, 73 photos, an 8 minute read. Enjoy!

Hi everyone,

Last week I told readers the series on Sicily would continue this week, However, I’m taking a one week detour to tell you about the fun and experiences we had hosting our friends from the Friendship Force of Toronto. Regular readers may remember that last year about this time, my Traveling Partner and I traveled with Friendship Force of Wisconsin- Madison to Toronto to visit their club. If you missed those posts, click here, here, here, and here. But first a brief recap on Friendship Force.

Friendship Force

Friendship Force of Wisconsin-Madison is one of about 350 Friendship Force clubs with 16,000 members located on six continents and sixty countries. The purpose of this nonprofit international organization is to promote cultural learning and understanding through personal friendships and homestays. By meeting, hosting and staying with fellow ambassadors, we learn about each other and experience views of the world often much different than our own. This helps us overcome differences and promotes peace between our fellow citizens of the world. In other words, a world of friends is a world of peace. Check out Friendship Force International by clicking here. Also follow Friendship Force of Wisconsin-Madison and Friendship Force of Toronto and check out their Facebook pages too.

Hinchley’s Dairy Farm

After a get-acquainted activity and delicious brunch, we took our Toronto Ambassadors to Cambridge (Wisconsin, not England!) for a tour of Hinchley’s Dairy Farm. Tina Hinchley gave a brief overview of the Wisconsin dairy industry and their farm. They milk 250 cows with the use robotic milkers. They raise most of their own feed and sell any excess as a cash crop.

We boarded a wagon for a tour of the farm. Tina took the group through the heifer barn, young females preparing to enter the milking herd. This was followed by a drive through the milking barn where the robotic milkers were in action. The robot does the work of preparing the cows for milking, attaching the machine, and recording the amount of milk each cow produces. The computer attached to the robot collects over 100 data points for each cow that goes through the milking process. Cows enter the milking stanchion when they are ready to be milked, sometimes up to 5 times per day. If a cow enters too soon the robot opens the gate to let them out. The barns are super clean and cool to keep the cows comfortable to enhance optimal production.

 

We even had a chance to hand milk a cow. Everyone was successful under Tina’s guidance.

The farm has more than cows. There are chickens of all kinds, pheasants, geese, and a couple of young pigs. Ambassadors had an opportunity to bottle feed one of the pigs. The pigs were happy and guzzled down the milk.

It was a fun afternoon at a typical Wisconsin dairy farm.

Dorf Haus

After the excellent and well-received tour we headed to the Dorf Haus in the village of Roxbury for a traditional Friday night fish fry. It was tasty and the old time German band was a delight.

Dane County Breakfast on the Farm

It was a cool and cloudy Saturday morning as we parked in the the large field for the Dane County Breakfast on the Farm. This event is held every year in early June on a dairy farm in Dane County. This year it was at the Blue Star Dairy in Deforest. 

We rode the tractor pulled wagon from the parking lot to the farm. We got in line for our tickets and soon were partaking in our delish breakfast. After we finished breakfast, we looked at some of the many educational exhibits when it began to drizzle. That sent us back to the car for our drive to the Wisconsin State Capitol where our Ambassadors from Toronto took a tour.

Pontoon Boat Lake Cruise

While much of the day was drizzly, the sun appeared in the late afternoon, just in time to board MSCR pontoons for a ride on Lake Mendota. Amesh was the boat captain. He took us on a three hour ride past the Wisconsin State Governor’s Executive Residence with a stop at the UW Memorial Union Terrace. After a dish of delicious Babcock ice cream, we passed near the Wisconsin State Capitol, through the Tenney Locks, and back to the boat dock on the Yahara River. A fitting end to a good and long day.

The Free Day

It’s customary during a Friendship Force journey to plan a “free” day when the home hosts and Ambassadors can do whatever they want. We did two fun things that day besides having a leisurely breakfast and lunch at our house. The first was to watch the Fools Flotilla, a parade of vessels small and large on the Yahara River from Lake Mendota to Lake Monona where the Marquette Neighborhood Association Waterfront Festival was taking place. The event is sponsored by the River Alliance of Wisconsin to promote clean water and recreation. Here’s a little of what we saw.

After lunch, we made the short drive to the headquarters of Epic, a health care software development company in Verona, a suburb of Madison. Visitors are allowed to do self-guided tours to view the unique buildings that are filled with artworks from the area. Tours will take visitors to the barn, Ella’s Carousel, Deep Space, the Treehouse, Emerald City, the Wizards Academy (Harry Potter themed), and others. The grounds are well kept with an eye to good sustainable practices.

On our tour to Central Park, we passed through Heaven and Hell, the slide down to the floor below, entered Isis, the asteroid near Mars, the Dragon’s Lair, and the Comet Kohoutek. The tour also took us to a conference room ,here Miss Kitty was keeping an eye on things from the balcony. Yes, it was that Miss Kitty, proprietor of the Long Branch Saloon on the tv program, Gunsmoke (1955 to 1975). A nice reminiscence in an out there world.

Cheese, Mustard, and Art

It was an early rise for the drive to Plain, Wisconsin for a visit to the unique Cedar Grove Cheese Factory. They produce handcrafted cheeses that are RBGH free as well as some organic cheeses while using sustainable practices to preserve the environment.

After a stop for lunch at Culver’s in Sauk City, we stopped by the Mustard Museum in Middleton. We looked at all the mustards from around the world and our Ambassadors left the gift shop with a few gifts for the folks back in Toronto.

Our next stop was at the Chazen Museum of Art on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This facility is open to the public but it’s primary mission is to collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit works of art in support of the teaching, research, and public service mission of the University.

Cranes (the animal kind) and the Big Top

It was a nice, sunny day to visit the International Crane Foundation (ICF) near Baraboo, Wisconsin. Their mission is conserve cranes along with their ecosystems, wetlands, and flyways. We had a guided tour, led by Luke, to meet all 15 of the world’s crane species. It was informative and interesting to see and hear about the efforts to save some of the endangered species of cranes. When visiting Wisconsin, this place should not be missed, especially those with kids. They will have a blast.

After lunch, we paid a visit to the Circus World Museum along the Baraboo River. This was the winter home of the Ringling Brothers Circus from 1884 to 1918 when it merged with the Barnum and Bailey Circus. This museum is run by the Wisconsin Historical Society. We viewed many of the exhibits, watched a woman get shot out of a cannon, and took in a performance under the Big Top.

Up in the Sky

It would be a hot day but it was very cool to attend a presentation at the Atmospheric Oceanic Sciences Building (AOSS) on the UW-Madison campus. This is where weather satellite imagery was developed. Research continues to improve weather forecasting. After the presentation, we went to the roof of the building where much of the hardware that collects weather data is housed.

As a bonus, the view from this building provides a 360 view of the city of Madison. Here’s what it looked like earlier this week.

Energy

From the weather building, we walked under the Camp Randall Arch to the Wisconsin Energy Institute. The folks that work in this building conduct research and provide education on the transition toward new sources of clean energy, energy systems such as power transmission, and solutions to energy problems. Importantly, they are preparing the next generation of energy leaders.

Our tour guide gave us an overview of some of the materials they are researching for sources of electrical generation. She also talked about improvements to the electrical grid that are being looked at and the development of microgrids, It was very interesting and a peek into the future of energy in this country and around the world.

A Final Farewell

After nearly a week of learning about and experiencing in Madison and the surrounding area, it was time to say goodbye to our friends from Toronto. They and we had a great time getting to know each other around the breakfast table, dinners, and all the events we planned for them to see. We hope our paths cross again.

Next week, I’ll continue my series of posts on Sicily.

Until then, happy travels!

Tom

PS: Click here for a link to the post about my book “Farm Boy.” Contact me if you are interested in purchasing a copy. Thanks to all have plunked down your hard earned dollars and read the book. TM