Peas On Earth – Another Golden Spike? – Onalaska (On Wisconsin?) - August 24, 2020

 

This morning we took our time getting started. We had a hot breakfast, visited Falls Park in downtown Sioux Falls, and then made a stop at a local quilting shop.

 

Shortly after getting back onto I-90 East, we entered Minnesota. Most of this section of the highway parallels the border between Minnesota and Iowa, which runs just a few miles south of the interstate. The road is as straight as the borderline on the map. For 300 miles we passed through cornfields and soybean fields. According to Karen’s research, most of the corn grown in the region is used to produce ethanol for fuel.

Just over halfway to Wisconsin, we stopped in a rest area near the town of Blue Earth, MN. While stretching our legs, we discovered that this is the place where east met west in 1978, when the final segment of I-90 was completed. The event was commemorated by having two large construction vehicles mimic the famous transcontinental railroad locomotives, while several dignitaries gave speeches. The Department of Transportation even tinted a section of the roadway a golden hue for the occasion. It is known as the ‘Golden Stripe’.

Not to be outdone by these festivities, local businesses and a radio disc jockey put together enough money to commission the construction of a 55’ high fiberglass rendering of the ‘Jolly Green Giant’ just in time to take part in the Golden Stripe ceremony. At the time, the Green Giant food company had a canning plant in Blue Earth. The original plan was for the giant to stand next to the interstate. Real estate deals for this could not be worked out, so the giant hung from a large crane on the day of the ceremony and was then relocated a mile south of the freeway to its permanent home in the town of Blue Earth.

 

At about 30 miles west of the Mississippi River, the rolling terrain becomes more wooded and hilly as the freeway descends eastward toward the river. We needed some more roadmaps, so we stopped at the AAA office in Onalaska, WI. This is a sleepy little suburb north of La Crosse that got its start as a lumber town. Our friendly AAA agent gave us some maps and told us how her town got its name:  the popular story is that the town’s founder got the name from a poem entitled, ‘The Pleasures of Hope’, written in 1799 by a Scottish poet named Thomas Campbell. One stanza in it supposedly refers to native people in the Aleutian Islands.

Our hotel for tonight is situated on the banks of the Mississippi River on the old waterfront of La Crosse, WI. The neighborhood of former industrial buildings is being revitalized with restaurants, hotels and a performing arts center. It’s kind of like a small version of San Diego’s Gas Lamp District. However, it’s Monday night and there are very few people around. We have a nearly private outside entrance to our first-floor room, so it was easy for me to get right out to the parking lot, walk a few blocks to a pizza joint, and bring it back to our room for a relaxing evening meal.

 

While we’re on the topic of city names, La Crosse apparently got its name from French traders, who came up the river and saw Native Americans playing a game similar to their own French game of la crosse, whose name derived from the similarity of the racquets to a bishop’s crozier.

 

Next: South down the river…