A (short) road trip

On Wednesday, I went with some knitting friends to Mineral Point, a small town in southwestern Wisconsin about an hour from Madison.  In the 1830s the discovery of lead here caused the first "mineral rush" in the U.S. It's unusual in Wisconsin to have so many buildings made of stone, the legacy of the Cornish miners who settled here.

 

Mineral Point has many galleries, bed and breakfast places, and little shops but mid-week it's pretty quiet. So quiet that our first two choices for lunch weren't open—I should have checked the days of operation as well as the hours. We did find a place to eat lunch and more importantly, the yarn store we came to see was open. It's called La Bella Vita.

We fondled many skeins of yarn and each of us (except Mr. Rududu) found something to purchase. We loved the way the yarn was arranged by color.  I almost bought some beautiful vintage buttons but I settled on a little cashmere (!!) and some deep eggplant purple alpaca to go into my alpaca collection.

The countryside in southwestern Wisconsin is hilly because it was not reached by the last glacier and the drive from Madison is scenic. It's hard to capture the rolling hills in photos, but I love how big the sky looks when you are up on a ridge. On the way home the sky was full of dramatic clouds just before we had a brief summer shower.

There's more to explore in Mineral Point. Next time we will go on a Friday or weekend so more restaurants are open and perhaps go to Pendarvis, a museum in 6 cottages built by Cornish miners. So far it has fallen into the category of places that are so close we don't get around to them, even though other visitors come long distances. One project for this summer is to enjoy some nearby adventures.