Friends Brighten the Days

It’s been cold and raining for most of the last four days we spent at Harnischfeger Park, a county park near our friends Jane and Rob Speer. I met Jane in third grade, and Bud has known her since fifth grade. One of the nice things about retirement has been reconnecting with her and getting to know her husband, Rob. Not only was the weather bad, but Rob wasn’t feeling well, but they managed to show us a good time anyway. They had us for supper the day we arrived, which was a nice treat. The next day Jane drove out through the rain to see our trailer and visit for a bit. She even brought most of the fixings for lunch!

On Saturday it was probably a bit colder, but it wasn’t raining, so Jane took us to Madison. Rob still wasn’t feeling up for an outing so he graciously agreed to keep Matey. We met two of their children along with spouses, kids and dog and that was fun.

We also took a tour of the capitol building.

This building replaced one that burned down and was completed in 1917. It’s a very impressive building, it’s mostly stone and has 14 different kinds of marble in it.

The dome is the third largest, by volume, in the world. One of the tour group asked our guide about the largest ones. He thought one was in Turkey, but then said, tongue in cheek, “We don’t really care about those.” To give you some sense of the size, one of the rings below the windows is a railing and if you look closely you can see the tops of the doors that take you out to an observation walk. We did not do that, it was cold and by the time our tour was done we were hungry, so we opted for a restaurant instead.

There are four wings with four meeting rooms. No one was there since it was Saturday, but our guide unlocked them and took us through. This was a general meeting room.

Since this was an interior room the architect designed skylights to bring in natural light.

The next wing had the Supreme Court. The plastic chairs aren’t usually there, they were in place for a special function.

This is the skylight in that room.

We visited the senate chamber…

with its skylight.

The Assembly Room was a big enough space that it had exterior windows, but it still had a beautiful skylight.

On Sunday the sun finally peeked out. Rob was feeling some better so he and Jane both came out and we all took a walk on the trails at Harnischfeger Park. They had never been there, and were impressed with what a nice county park it is. There are several miles of trails.

The eastern boundary of the park is the Rock River.

It really was a nice camping spot once the sun came out. We went for one last meal at Jane and Rob’s and thanks to them had a fine time during what might have been some dreary days.

We’re moving on today and though it’s not raining it is cold and cloudy.