July 17, 2023

Important to note here that most of the EV charge points across over 480 miles across WI were at RV overnight stops. While there was one “fast charger” in Eau Claire, they have been quite sparse. There’s a slow charger – 6kw – in Manitowoc across from the public library with street parking.

It is hard to believe that Wisconsin is actually losing dairy farms! They still are number one in the country with over 6,000 dairy farms in production today.

When it comes to corn fields though, we are looking at close to 4,000,000 farms with corn stalks that will soon obliterate any view of working farms for miles and miles.

I can personally vouch for seeing hundreds of farms along our route across Wisconsin.

While Rob took off toward Manitowoc, I ventured about 15 miles northeast to see the legendary Frozen Tundra, Titletown USA and The Shrine of Pro Football – Lambeau Field in Green Bay. The oldest continually operated NFL stadium.

The Packers began their career here in a small stadium behind Green Bay East High School in 1925. This “new” stadium, built in 1957 had a capacity of 32,000, and it has been steadily growing ever since. Today’s capacity is over 81,000 and there is an average 30 year wait time for season tickets!

Curly Lambeau founded the Green Bay Packers in 1919, played for them and then later coached the team for 31 seasons, ending in 1949. So after his death in 1965, New City Stadium was renamed Lambeau Field in his honor.

And then of course there’s the great Vince Lombardi, who led the Packers into three straight NFL Championships and winning the first two Super Bowls in 1966 and 1967. He never had a losing season as a head coach in the NFL!

After his premature death from cancer in 1970, the NFL Super Bowl trophy was named in his honor. There’s a larger than life replica inside the stadium, greeting fans a they make their way into the atrium.

Can’t leave this segment without a nod to the legendary Bart Starr – quarterback and head coach for the Green Bay Packers. As their quarterback he led the team to victory in Super Bowls I and II. He held the top spot for having the most postseason pass completions at over 104. I won’t mention who holds the number 1 spot now – not a fan. Just saying…

Foxborough Fans can’t hold a candle to these diehard neighbors of Lambeau Field – seriously addicted homeowners along this strip.

One way to get to this neighborhood stadium is taking County Hwy VK, which leads me to the next and final segment of this blog – Alphabet Soup Routes.

Over 100 years ago Wisconsin set up a system to separate the state highways from the county highways. A sure fire way to keep them separate, so there would be no confusion about who would be responsible for the maintenance and repairs, was to number the state highways and letter the county highways. Well there are 72 counties and only 26 letters to the alphabet! Imagine the confusion that one may encounter along county lines – much a recent day when Rob took a detour on CR Q a few days ago outside of Bloomer.

One way to keep the county lines straight was to use double and even triple letter names.

Rob rode anywhere from a few yards to several miles on these county trunk* highways with CR designated on the maps. There are no east-west or north-south pattern restrictions – so many of these routes loop around counties and metropolitan areas.

*not a typo – trunk is synonymous to trunk line which is a railway term meaning a strategic road or major road connecting two or more cities.

Leaving on the 2:00 ferry, the S.S. Badger, today out of Manitowoc and landing in Lundington, MI.

Keeping the rubber side down and ready for smooth sailing across Lake Michigan – Rest Day!

Julie and Rob