Tuesday 9-11 Fun Day

Just having fun

Today we had a fun time visiting a few small towns and villages in Wisconsin. The first stop was  Shawano to visit Twig's Beverage Museum. Twig's Beverage is a local family owned bottling company and has been making sodas since 1951. It got its name from Floyd Hartwig whom everyone called Twig. Twig's specializes in producing special sodas in old fashion bottles. We walked through the museum and learned the history of Twig's. The museum backs up to the production area and if they are bottling you can watch them via observation windows, we were lucky and got to see the family bottling the sodas. One son loaded the bottles on a conveyor, next the bottles traveled through a machine that puts the labels on, then through a cleaning machine, followed by a machine that fills the bottle with soda and caps the bottles. After that the father removed the bottles and put them in a box which goes through a machine that tapes the top and bottom. Another son unloads the boxes and stacks them. After watching them we continued into the tasting area where you can taste all the flavors of soda they make. They also bottle Sun Drop soda. We tasted Forget-Me-Not Grape, Butterscotch Root Beer (most popular soda), Carmel Apple and Sun Drop. They sell their sodas to local bars and grocery stores. After tasting the sodas we walked through the gift shop and bought a six pack (Black Cherry, Carmel Apple, Cream, Forget Me Not Grape, Orange and Root Beer). We had a great experience and the employees were very friendly.

Entrance to the Twig's Museum

      

Delivery truck from 1951

Bottling the sodas

The different flavors that Twig's make

Six pack we bought

The second stop was the quaint village of Gresham, it's known for barn quilts. There are over 60 hand-painted decorative guilt squares in Gresham. The size range from 2' by 2' up to 8' by 8' all made by volunteers from the Gresham Area Advancement Association to brighten up the area. We walked around town looking at and taking pictures of the beautiful quilts on the walls of homes, businesses and businesses that are no longer in business. Afterwards we went back to Gresham Park where we had parked to have lunch. The park overlooks a nice river. While there we visited with a couple of people riding motorcycles.

Old train depot in Gresham

Forever stamp barn quilt at the post office

Clock on main street in Gresham

Barn quilts on a business

Barn quilts on hardware store

The third stop was Wittenberg, it is known for murals. Wittenberg was suffering economically because the highway system was built and it bypassed Wittenberg so no one came to visit. In 2005 a group of concerned residents got together and started the Walls of Wittenberg to bring out the beauty of the village. The first mural was completed in 2006 and is still there. Since than there have been more than 26 murals painted. We had fun walking around downtown seeing all the murals. There wasn't a map so we probably missed some of them. The most impressive ones I saw was on the veterinarian office, I love animals. There was a mural on every eave of different animals and people. The bakery had a mural that wrapped around the whole building. We parked on the street and there was a huge mural on the wall about the railroad coming through town. The bank had a mural of a mama bear and her two cubs. There was a lot of marvelous murals. When we got back to the Minnie a local lady stopped and visited with us. She told us where other murals were in town, we drove by them as we were leaving.

First mural in Wittenberg

Mural on the bakery

Veterinarian office

Mama bear mural

The last stop was Marathon Park in Wausau. It is a gorgeous park located in town and by the University of Wisconsin. It has rv sites with power and restrooms with showers (have to have a code to use them). There are playgrounds, pickle ball courts, ice rink, huge county fair buildings, splash pad, walking trails and a train. There was the Little Red Schoolhouse Museum with a cute sign in front of it saying Little Red Schoolhouse Teacher Parking Only. It has giant pine trees throughout the park. While there we walked around the park. It was a great park to stay at.

Camping at Marathon County Park

 

The splash pad at Marathon Park

The Little Red Schoolhouse Museum

The train that runs in the park