We did a dawn launch this morning and headed north along the Mississippi River. Today’s attraction was a “house” in southwest Wisconsin called House on the Rock. Giving Chicago a wide berth, we ended up crossing the river three times. It was an easy drive that got us to our destination in seemingly plenty of time. The house was designed by Alex Jordan Jr. and as its name implies it was built atop a rock. He opened it in the early sixties and immediately began charging admission ($1 for adults, 50¢ for children). Jordan worked on the house for the rest of his life and work continued after his death. Promotional info indicated that four hours would be sufficient to see the house and grounds. We were about halfway through it, when one of the attendants buttonholed us and told us that if we didn’t get our butts in gear, we would not get to see everything. This complex is a maze, but running through it is a single path along with plenty of signage that one can follow and almost convince yourself that you have seen everything along the way. The site is packed with all manners of stuff. As we progressed ever onward, we were successively impressed and then more impressed again. The place is reminiscent of Saint Louis’ own City Museum and Santa Fe’s Meow Wolf.

One of House on the Rock’s oldest and most salient features is the so-called Infinity Room. Cantilevered 200′ and lined with thousands of windows, the room tapers to a point giving the illusion that it disappears into the distance. The story goes that Jordan once approached Frank Lloyd Wright with his plans for another building that he was working on at the time and sought his approval. Supposedly, Wright rebuffed him with the insult, “I wouldn’t hire you to design a cheese crate or a chicken coop. You’re not capable.” Afterwards, incensed by the insult, Jordan vowed to show up Wright and said, “I’m going to put a Japanese house on one of those pinnacle rocks and advertise it”. That is the creation story told about House on the Rock. The story continues, Jordan’s advertisements eventually angered Wright, who built is own estate just a few miles down the road from Jordan’s. It is called Taliesin and is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. We plan on visiting it tomorrow.