Wisconsin Oddities and Motorcycle Travel - Post Your Pix

This thread is another opportunity to take some motorcycle rides to check out some Wisconsin oddities and share pictures of them with our fellow inmates. Need a reason for a ride? Knock off a few of these. Many of you have already visited some of these sites. If so, please share your pix in this thread.

I'll attach a GPX with locations posted.

Below are some overview maps. If the waypoint pin is green, it means it has already been captured. If blue, not yet. Either way, post your pix, and maybe share the story, to help amuse us over the long winter.

Posted so far:

Big ball of twine near Lake Nebagamon (NW WI) Cannonshot
Sinking Caddy in Cudahy Cannonshot
JFK Urinal Spooner Cannonshot
The Fonz, Arnold's Drive In, Laverne & Shirley - Milwaukee Cannonshot
Oscar Mayer Weinermobile spotted in Hurley Cannonshot
Spencer Tracy Boyhood Homes Milwaukee Cannonshot
World's Largest Stuffed Black Bear, World's Largest White Pine Log, Murals in Glidden Cannonshot
Snowmobile Hall of Fame St Germain Cannonshot
Pedal Taverns Milwaukee Cannonshot
Cornell Pulpwood Stacker Cannonshot
Jurustic Park (Marshfield) and Bobrowitz Sculptures (Merton) Cannonshot
Pagoda Gas Station (West Allis) and Sherman Perk (MKE) Cannonshot
Giant Corkscrew near Hurley Cannonshot
Wisconsin Concrete Park Phillips Cannonshot and C Squared
Liberace's birthplace (West Allis) Cannonshot
Dr. Kate and the World's Largest Penny (Woodruff) Cannonshot
Coffee Cup Pizza (Milwaukee) Cannonshot
Viking Motel (Buffalo City) and Prairie Moon (Cochrane) SGrider
Rock in the House (Fountain City) Cannonshot
Dinosaur Sculpture (Kenosha ) Moose Dog
Chicken (Osseo) and World's Largest Roasted Chicken (Elk Creek) CHicken (Birnamwood) Cannonshot
Paul Bunyan (Eau Claire), Paul Bunyan (Sayner), Paul Bunyan (Woodruff), Larry the Logroller (Wabeno), Blue Ox (Lakewood) Cannonshot
Gas Stations - Thorp, Waupaca X2, Kewaunee, Sister Bay, Green Bay Cannonshot
Franks Diner (Kenosha) Cannonshot
Wisconsin Auto Museum (Hartford) Cannonshot
Lionel Railroad Club (New Berlin) Cannonshot
Yerkes Observatory (Williams Bay) Cannonshot
Bay Beach Amusement Park (Green Bay) Cannonshot
John "Trophy" Heisman grave (Rhinelander) Cannonshot
UFOs (Elmwood), Rocket and Crystal Cave (Spring Valley) Cannonshot
UFO and Rocker (Osseo) Cannonshot
Orange Moose, Mouse, Deer, Death Trip (Black River Falls) Cannonshot
Horseradish (Eau Claire) Cannonshot
Big Steer in Osseo Cannonshot
Holcombe Indian (Holcombe) Cannonshot
Laura Ingalls WIlder (Pepin) Cannonshot
Warner Bros in Cement (Nelson) Cannonshot
Worlds Largest Talking Cow, World's Fair Pavilion (Neillsville) Cannonshot
Tractor on a Stick, Murray the Mouse (Chip Falls) Cannonshot
Mel the Cowboy (Spooner) Cannonshot
Big Deer (Fifield) (St Germain) (Antigo) Cannonshot
White Horse (Spring Valley) Cannonshot
Cop Statue (Cornell), Big Gust (Grantsburg) Cannonshot
Birthplace of the Hamburger (Seymour) Cannonshot
First Smokey Bear Costume (Mercer) Cannonshot
Guy Fishing (St Germain) Cannonshot
Snowmobile Derby (Eagle River) Cannonshot
Gasoline Alley, Gas Alley Exhibit, Gas Station (Tomah) Cannonshot
Yellowstone Trail (Withee) Cannonshot
(Ashland) Bass, (Birchwood) Bluegill, (Shell Lake) Two Tailed Walleye Cannonshot
(Hayward) Musky at Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame Cannonshot
(Milwaukee) Arthur Bremer, Teddy Roosevelt Shooting Cannonshot
(Wabeno) Steam Phoenix Logging Engine Cannonshot
(Laona) Worlds Biggest Soup Kettle, Lawn Mower Cannonshot
(Monico) Rhinelapus, (Rhinelander) Hodag Cannonshot
(Fox Point) Yard Art Cannonshot
(Perkinstown) Garden of Chainsaws Northwoods Yeti
(St Franice) Dobberstein Grotto, (Milwaukee) Welcome to Cleveland, (St. Francis) FBI Hqs Cannonshot
(Rice Lake) Gorilla, (Mauston) Cow Bench, (Oakdale) Cowboy Mouse Cannonshot
(Deforest) Giant Cow, (Westfield) Pioneer Figures Cannonshot
(Hubertus) Bearwolf, Holy Hill Cannonshot
(Clintonville) 4WD Museum and Ice Cream Cone Cnanonshot
(Eau Claire) Donut Chef guy, Ship Shape Car Wash; (Augusta) Beaver Cannonshot
(Milwaukee) Ladybug CLub, Gertie the Duck Cannonshot
(Menomonee Falls) HD Assembly Plant Cannonshot
(Hudson) Dick's Bar and Grill Cannonshot
(Washburn) The Sawdust Factory Cannonshot
(Bayfield) Maggies Cannonshot
(Land O Lakes) Loose Moose Cannonshot
(Rhinelander) Packer House Cannonshot
(Tomahawk) Big Moose Cannonshot
(Aniwa) Giant Badger and Squirrel Garage Cannonshot
(Ashippun) Honey Acres Cannonshot
(Milwaukee) Holler House lanes Koz's mini-lanes Cannonshot
(Milwaukee) Wacky Shack, Tripoli Temple Cannonshot
(Germantown) Dheinsville Settlement and bell museum Cannonshot
(Luck) Duncan Yo Yo Factory Cannonshot
(Clear Lake) Historical Museum Cannonshot
(Elk Mound) Tower Cannonshot
(Amery) Haunted Church Cannonshot
(Monico) Kovac Planetarium Cannonshot
(Tomahawk) Harley Plant Cannonshot
(Tigerton) Rocks for Fun Cafe Cannonshot
(Birnamwood) Statute of Rodeo Rider Cannonshot
(Park Falls) Old Abe Eagle Memorial Cannonshot
(Baraboo) Forevertron LoopGaroo

GPX to share. (V2 Jan 1 2017 version) Original downloaded 100 times from prior private site.

This guy has one of the world record balls of twine. Serious competition for a title in that category. 22,100 pounds, 37 years work.







Starter ball. 47 pounds - one for each year of his age.

Sinking Caddy in Cudahy. 1955 Fleetwood.

JFK stopped in to this bar in Spooner and used the urinal back in 1960.

The 1974-1984 show Happy Days was "located" in Milwaukee.

The Fonz statue downtown. Laverne and Shirley attended the cerempny too.


Richie Cunningham and the gang used to hang out at Arnold's Drive In. Arnold's was based on the Milky Way in Glendale (which is now Kopps' Custard).







Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney (Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams) of the Milwaukee "based" Laverne & Shirley show lived in a basement apartment and worked at a local brewery. They were said to live on Knapp Ave but there is only a Knapp St where this residence like theirs is a common sight.

Oscar Mayer Weinermobile spotted in Hurley.



These things go on the road to promote Oscar Mayer products.

Spencer Tracy's Boyhood Homes (Milwaukee)

Spencer Tracy lived in these homes as a boy. Later he became a famous movie start that won two Oscars out of nine nominations. (Captains Courageous and Boys Town wins.)



As a kid, he was quite a scrapper. He went through between 15 and 18 elementary schools mostly because he fought a lot.



He even did some time at a military (naval) academy in Wisconsin. As a teenager, Spence became friends with Bill O'Brien. The two joined the Marines together after WWI.



When they got out of the Marines, O'Brien convinced Tracy to study acting together at the Marquette Academy. They had a blast. O'Brien changed his name from Bill to Pat which is how we remember him for all the times he played a priest in the movies. (Here with James Cagney.)

Glidden

Worlds Largest Stuffed Black Bear

The day after Kennedy was shot in Dallas, a guy shot a giant black bear in the head in its den north of Glidden. The 12 year old bear was 7'10" from tail to nose and weighed 665 dressed out.



The town proclaimed themselves as the Black Bear Capitol of the World. They used to display the bear in parades.



Eventually they built a display for the bear in town. Hard to photograph the bear with the reflections on the glass.



The world's second largest black bear, dressed out at 660 lbs, is on display at the BP on Hwy 8 at Tripoli. I haven't been there yet.





Glidden also boasts the World's Largest White Pine log that is also the last sleigh hauled log. It is estimated to have about 1,950 board feet of lumber.



They also have some nice murals in Glidden.

Snowmobile Hall of Fame St Germain

Pedal Taverns Milwaukee

Cornell Pulpwood Stacker

Jurustic Park near Marshfield

















Bobrowitz Sculpture (drive thru) Town of Merton

Frank Seneca Service (Pagoda style gas station in West Allis). This was built in 1927 when adventure touring by automobile was quite popular. One oil company built about 100 of these with the idea of attracting the curious. One in Cedarburg, that I haven't visited yet, is a jewelry store.





Sherman Perk is a coffee shop in an old gas station in Milwaukee.



It would be nice to see someone develop a tag thread like this to encourage people to locate and photograph these old gas stations around Wisconsin. I've taken a lot of pix of them over the years when I saw some interesting ones. I'm sure others have as well. A good start would be with Jim Draeger's book Fill 'er Up: The Glory Days of Wisconsin Gas Stations (Places Along the Way). Jim locates 59 representative stations around the state but there are others. I met Jim and spoke with him about his books. Nice fellow. I see used copies of this book are available from Amazon for less than $10.

Giant corkscrew near Hurley. Why you ask? Because Danny Hurley was awarded a patent for a cork puller back in 1887. Apparently Danny used to pull a cork from time to time.

Wisconsin Concrete Park near Phillips.

Retired lumberjack Freddy Smith performed as a one man band in his s'loon there. At age 65, in 1950, Fred started building statues to honor people. Over the years Fred built 237 figures. His last was a life-sized Budweiser Clydesdale Team pulling a beer wagon. Fred kicked in 1976. In 77 a big ass wind storm took down a bunch of trees that damaged 2/3 of the figures. The Kohler Foundation did a restoration. Now the place, including the joint and Fred's home, is a park.

Liberace's birthplace in West Allis. Liberace was born here in 1919. He had a natural talent for music, but also trained hard at it. His father played french horn on the side with the International Harvester Band. Liberace used to play locally using the name Walter Busterkeys. More info on Liberace.