Day 8-9, La Crosse, WI

I was going to take Wednesday off to deal with La Salle's wheel bearing. That was until we found that UPS would deliver our package sometime between 9 AM and 7 PM. It made no sense to sit around our dreary hotel waiting for a package. So we called our friends the Houdeks to get a ride with them on Wednesday's tour.


They were in a modern car which was very comfortable, especially after spending so many days in our 68 year old model. But at the first coffee break, I decided to ditch them and ride in an original 1925 Packard Touring car. What a great call. This Packard, their first straight eight model, was both elegant and practical. She cruised easily at 45 mph. The diamond pattern worn leather seats were comfortable. She could not go like our La Salle, and her transmission howled like an old school bus. But she seemed quite at home on these rural winding roads.


A touring car has no windows, but this one had most of its original side curtains installed. It felt like being in a cozy tent in back. The front seat was not quite as comfortable, winds easily defeated its complex, multi piece flat windshield. The owner, Ted Bunnell of West Virginia, drove her beautifully. Someday, it would be great to own a car like this.


The tour brought us to southeastern Iowa, through Amish, Czech, and Norwegian communities. Most interesting was the Czech town of Spillville, named after a river mill in town. Here we had a Czech lunch joyfully served at the Innwood Ballroom. A slippery round wood dance floor looked well worn by many dancing Czech feet. I learned that Spillville hosted Anton Dvorak over the summer of 1893. It left a lasting impression on both Dvorak and Spillville. He wrote some music about the town, including some of the New World Symphony. Memorials to him are everywhere.

We crawled into the hotel around dark, just in time for another banquet. We had German knock wurst and sauerkraut, very tasty. Live entertainment by a local singing group was outstanding.


Wendy and I hitched a ride back to the hotel to find that La Salle's bearings had arrived. We slept better, knowing we had the parts to fix the car. We decided to leave that project to the morning, with better light and rest.

Guess what, it was raining when we got up. No problem, we attacked the bearing problem at 8 AM anyway. The outer bearing was the culprit, it had a damaged inner race. We replaced both inner and outer bearings. This solved the problem. The La Salle front end was smooth and quiet again. I think this bearing must have been failing for years, I don't recall the car ever rolling so quietly.



We were on the road by 9 AM and went off to catch up with the tour. Old cars were gathered by the hundreds at the amazing Habelman Brothers cranberry farm. This 600 acre farm produces a significant fraction of all the whole cranberries sold in the US. We were given a vine by vine tour of the entire process. It was quite a show, they brought all their staff on-line to show us the production and packaging process -- even though the berries harvested were several weeks too early to be sold. This was a large operation, but it is still a family farm. It was started in 1907 by the grandparents of the current brothers.


La Salle headed home. On the way we stopped at a doll (wife) and model train (husband) museum in Wisconsin. Check out http://www.raildoll.org/ I was particularly impressed with the Barbie collection, I'm not kidding. I have never seen so many Barbies.


This was about the end of our day. La Salle's new wheel bearings were great, but she developed a misfire that was mainly annoying. I think the points need to be opened a bit, hopefully that will get her purring. We'll take care of that problem later......