Northern Wisconsin Farms

We lived in Wisconsin for thirty years, but we never traveled to the northern part of the state - especially near Michigan and Lake Superior. But as we were winding down our recent cross country roadtrip from DC to the great Northwest and back, we took a detour on our way to Milwaukee. Some very good friends of ours have a place in Boulder Junction and live near a river and love to fish. So when we left Saint Paul, Minnesota we drove north east through some very desolate places. But those desolate places were some of the more interesting ones with up close views of farms and barns that Wisconsin is noted for. For whatever reason, the buildings looked so much more like traditional looking barns than what we saw everywhere else on our travels. Maybe it was just being in a more familiar state. Maybe it was the time of the day. Or maybe it was just the anticipation of meeting good friends. What did surprise us was a black bear of some kind that went scampering past us and through the fields. I hardly had enough time to get a photo - a little black dot. We had been through Yellowstone and all over the northern Pacific states and never saw a bear. Who would have thought it? The good thing about being out if the sticks is the solitude and open spaces; the bad thing about it is the solitude and open spaces - especially when you need a restroom or gasoline.