Our trip to Milwaukee
August 13 - 15 2004

We were heading to Milwaukee Wisconsin on Friday August 13th to spend the weekend visiting with friends. We got a late start on Friday, so we stopped and spent the night (29k) at the rest area near Menominee, Wisconsin which is about 80 miles from our home. While Menominee isn't far from our home in the twin cities, it is far enough along that we will have a good head start over what we would have leaving Saturday morning.

We woke up early Saturday, and were on our way by about 7:30 or so. Since we had a little time, we decided to use the free ferry at Merrimac, Wisconsin. The side trip was worth it, and the ferry crossing (44k) took just a few minutes.

Once we arrived in Milwaukee, we left to photograph a (now) rare locomotive (55k). It was an F-unit being stored at the Wisconsin Southern's facility on the north side of Milwaukee. From there, we traveled to just south of downtown and saw the Empire Builder just before it arrived (48k) in the depot. We also saw the train a few minutes later just west of the depot (59k).

We enjoyed a cookout and slide show in the backyard, where we shared our favorite photographs and celebrated birthdays for all those attendees born in August. We called it a night a little early because it was a little chilly - the temperature was about 60 degrees.

Sunday we woke, got cleaned up and had breakfast at a local restaurant. We then went in search of trains. We found another F-unit (63k) and passenger train somewhere on the south side of Milwaukee. The last car of the train was this Great Northern tail-end observation car (59k). This train was being prepared to be sent to Kansas City, where it will be displayed. Also in the area, we also saw a ship (60k) that was unloading salt.

We then started heading toward home. Our hosts traveled with us part of the way, and showed us Byron Hill. Since we knew a train was on the way we waited and got a picture (43k).

From Byron Hill, we went to Fond Du Lac to see the shops and yard there. We saw this CN train (55k) and another train. We then went to Oshkosh where we saw this bridge (53k), and said goodbye to our hosts.

On the trip home we saw the car in front of us hit a deer. Also, we were almost home and we had a flat tire on the trailer (42k). Fortunately we had packed everything needed to change the tire and we were on our way in about 20 minutes. Once we got home we bought two new tires and had the wheel bearings inspected and re-lubricated.

All for now!