Day 133 – 134: Oct 3 – 4. Spent one more day and night in Milwaukee enjoying the unseasonably warm weather in October. Karl (retired CIO Northwestern Mutual) and his wife Helen met us at the marina and after a short tour of the boat, we headed out to a very cool street of restaurants (East Brady Street) for empanadas. I can’t remember the last time I had empanadas, but they were authentic and fabulous. Really enjoyed catching up with Karl and meeting Helen. They also very graciously gave us a quick car tour of some of the sights in Milwaukee.
It was interesting to learn that much of what we think of today as Milwaukee’s lakefront wasn’t there when the first Europeans began to settle in this area in the early 1800s. As the city developed, land was developed nearly all the way to the ends of the tall bluffs that then lined the lakefront, leaving little space for public lands along the water. The lakefront we know today was the result of massive landfill projects over the past 100-plus years that were engineered to maximize both its industrial and recreation potential.
These landfill areas were created by literally dumping earth and stone into the lake until it built up into new, useable land. The earliest fill projects were mostly undertaken using dirt and mud dredged up from the lake or river bottoms and other loads of unneeded debris, including garbage and coal stove ash. These areas include pretty much all lands between the South Shore Marina and North Point. South of the straight cut, where the rivers enter the lake, are the huge docking terminals that were built on the outer edge of Jones Island in the early 1930s. This project was undertaken to maximize the shipping potential of the port and took advantage of the new south portion of the breakwater wall, which could protect large ships as they docked or sat moored at the island.
The lands just to the north of the straight cut have known the most varied uses of any part of the lakefront. One of the first major fill projects was untaken in the 1910s; the initial idea was to use this as expanded municipal docking space. However, by the time the project was finished, railroad shipping had taken away so much business from Great Lakes package freighters that the extra space was not needed. The area was eventually used as an airfield and later a flight school for seaplanes. During the Cold War, it was home to an anti-aircraft missile battery. Since 1970, it has been known as Henry Maier Festival Park, home to Summerfest and many of the city’s major ethnic festivals.
Karl drove us by beautiful stately homes on Oak Leaf Trail that at one point overlooked the water, but the land was filled in to create acres and acres of additional land that allowed the addition of a major thoroughfare as well as, what is today, parks and marinas for public enjoyment. The former lighthouse looks a bit out of place land locked miles from the water, but the addition of public lands was a priority for the socialist city mayor and government at the time. He was opposed to the rich barons of Milwaukee who owned those homes also owning the lake frontage and believed the lakefront should belong to the people. Fascinating!
As we considered what to do in Milwaukee, and with the Museum of Art and Brewery closed on Monday and Tuesday, we opted for the Harley Davidson Museum (see previous post) and the Milwaukee Brewers vs. Arizona Diamondbacks wildcard game. It was a short Uber ride back and forth to the stadium and great experience there: Really nice stadium with a roof that opens in good weather, pretty darn good traditional bratwurst and ice cold Oktoberfest and enthusiastic crowd, but sadly the Brewers fell apart in the later innings and lost…..then lost again last night (10/4) so they are out of it.
Wednesday morning (10/4) we left Milwaukee with a forecast of 2-3 foot seas and winds about 15 knots out of the South/South East. Not ideal, but we’d be taking the waves pretty much straight on the bow for the about 2.5 hour run to Racine. It was a little bouncy, certainly nothing Legacy can’t handle, but I did take the bar down and wrapped the bottles in beach towels and placed them on the floor (better safe than sorry)! It was a beautiful warm day (high 70’s) when we arrived in Racine at Reefpoint Marina – a huge marina with very nice accommodations including a smokehouse restaurant that smelled so good, we decided to eat dinner there. Yum!
We spent the afternoon at the Racine Art Museum (a bit of a snooze except for the pottery) and the Heritage Museum (much more interesting), then biked about 1.5 miles to what should have been a full service grocery store, but it’s shelves (in a bit of a seedy area) were pretty bare, so we left. Will re-provision in Chicago and we found the couple things we truly needed at the marina convenience store.
Racine has a rich history from its roots in fur trading to developing into an industrial city and a factory town almost from the beginning. The first industry in Racine County included the manufacture of fanning mills, machines that separate wheat grain from chaff. Racine flourished throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, eventually becoming the home to major corporations including the well-known SC Johnson family company with products like Windex and Pledge. Other surprising items invented in Racine include malted milk (Horlicks), the blender (Hamilton Beach), the blow dryer and the portable vacuum cleaner. Racine is also home to InSinkErator, manufacturers of the first garbage disposal and the Western Publishing factory where Little Golden Books were printed. It also has a fascinating history, well laid out in the Heritage Museum, of their support and role in the underground railway bringing slaves from the south to freedom in Canada through Racine.
Forecast for Thursday, 10/5 is super flat seas (barely a foot if at all) and winds very light (0 – 10 knots out of the north). Ideal conditions for our 5.5 hour trek to Chicago… that is ideal except for these pesky tiny flies/gnats that aren’t being blown away by the wind! Ugh!
Looking forward to reuniting with other Loopers in Chicago and doing some additional touring in Chicago. We are still on track to traverse the 3 locks on the Illinois River (Brandon Road, Dresden Island and Marseilles) on 10/14. The first of the AGLCA flotillas will move to the Joliet Wall today and lock through tomorrow. That will begin to clear the log jam of boats in the Chicago area. The plan makes for long days for the looper boats (it’s about a dawn to dusk trip) and then they need to keep moving the next day to allow the next flotillas to come through and take up their marina/wall space. There are over 20 flotillas in all. Looking forward to some time in Chicago then getting on with moving down the river system to the warm weather!
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