In Da House...
Sep. 28th, 2021 05:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingmanDay 19 of the 2012 Road Trip & into the House On The Rock... Paserbyp may not like some of these photos - the place was quite gloomily-lit, so some shots are a bit dark!
Sept 29. Saturday – Dodgeville to Milwaukee
Rising blearily after probably not enough sleep, we stumbled down to the ‘Continental Breakfast Room’ & had muffins, toast & bad coffee in a room full of Grey Nomads, whose default table conversation seemed to be set permanently to “Complain-Whinge-Grumble”. So really the only high point of breakfast for us was the tube of Vegemite we’d brought from home, which at least made a few Nomads pause in their diatribes to see what on earth we were doing to our toast! Couldn’t check out of the Inn fast enough - if that lot were heading for the same place we were, we wanted to be well ahead of them. Although, the Inn does have some items from the House on the Rock collections scattered around it, so we had a bit of a wander around before pointing Steve McQueen down the highway
Well... House on the Rock... how to describe the place? All we knew about the place came from reading Neil Gaiman's book American Gods (2021 update: the book was made into a TV series... well, most of the book anyway - the show was canned... but it's visually stunning) So let’s start with the facts: We arrived there at 10am & left just after 4pm & there was probably still quite a bit that we didn’t get to see – just because there are so many things crammed into the place & while there's a vague kind of pathway throughout, it's kind of like an IKEA store, in that it's easy to wander off the path & forget where you left it & if you just stick to the path, you'll miss things. I was expecting just one ‘House’, but there’s really a complex of three or four separate buildings, all with distinctive architecture & filled with the rambling collections & artworks of Alex Jordan, the creator/builder & curator of the place, well, until his death in 1989. Definitely a man I’d have to invite to my ‘Fantasy Dinner Party’. From what I read on various information boards around the place, he sounds like a more-than-slightly obsessive free-spirited, intensely creative bit of a loony... but aren’t all the interesting ones??
We actually went through the original ‘House’ without even realising it – the place having been factored & connected in with the rest of the complex (in every sense of the word) by a wandering & long covered walkway supported on concrete pillars above the surrounding bushland. And the ‘Infinity Room’ was a definite highlight. Over 200ft long & designed to look like it’s growing smaller until it vanishes into... well, infinity. Except it really does shrink as you go... the end of the room is a point so small not even a Chihuahua could get in. And all suspended about 40ft above the tree canopy, so it’s an impressive view downwards too
It's not easy to photograph a moving carousel in a darkened room!!
One HUGE carousel, Asian art & artefacts... dollhouses... calliopes & music boxes...gardens, fountains... bizarre stairways, nooks & crannies, low ceilings & rambling corridors... suits of armour & guns from across the centuries... glassworks... knick-knacks, ephemera, odds’n’sods & just plain kitsch... but somehow it all works! The nature & atmosphere of the place makes every little & large thing seem like it’s meant to be there. We both walked in with fully charged point’n’shoot cameras & walked out six hours later with flat batteries, but elated & reassured that the human spirit of eccentricity is alive & well. Long may it thrive... in such a wonderful location nowhere near a really major highway, so you get the sense that the people who come there, really want to be there. Though why you’d take anyone under the age of eight through the place is a bit baffling to me... & probably a bit cruel to the kid. I’d probably cry a lot too...
A relatively short drive across to Milwaukee after that, which was probably just as well... we were a bit overwhelmed by the day. Checked in at a Motel 6 opposite the airport & next door to a Mexican restaurant, so dinner was taken care of. Great food, but a lot of it & a red wine of unknown origin that wasn’t too bad either. A call to Gary & Kathy back in Colorado to let them know we’re alive, well & having lots of fun & now an early night to catch up on some sleep
A leisurely drive down to Chicago tomorrow, only seventy five miles... but it’s a big town...
Sept 29. Saturday – Dodgeville to Milwaukee
Rising blearily after probably not enough sleep, we stumbled down to the ‘Continental Breakfast Room’ & had muffins, toast & bad coffee in a room full of Grey Nomads, whose default table conversation seemed to be set permanently to “Complain-Whinge-Grumble”. So really the only high point of breakfast for us was the tube of Vegemite we’d brought from home, which at least made a few Nomads pause in their diatribes to see what on earth we were doing to our toast! Couldn’t check out of the Inn fast enough - if that lot were heading for the same place we were, we wanted to be well ahead of them. Although, the Inn does have some items from the House on the Rock collections scattered around it, so we had a bit of a wander around before pointing Steve McQueen down the highway
Well... House on the Rock... how to describe the place? All we knew about the place came from reading Neil Gaiman's book American Gods (2021 update: the book was made into a TV series... well, most of the book anyway - the show was canned... but it's visually stunning) So let’s start with the facts: We arrived there at 10am & left just after 4pm & there was probably still quite a bit that we didn’t get to see – just because there are so many things crammed into the place & while there's a vague kind of pathway throughout, it's kind of like an IKEA store, in that it's easy to wander off the path & forget where you left it & if you just stick to the path, you'll miss things. I was expecting just one ‘House’, but there’s really a complex of three or four separate buildings, all with distinctive architecture & filled with the rambling collections & artworks of Alex Jordan, the creator/builder & curator of the place, well, until his death in 1989. Definitely a man I’d have to invite to my ‘Fantasy Dinner Party’. From what I read on various information boards around the place, he sounds like a more-than-slightly obsessive free-spirited, intensely creative bit of a loony... but aren’t all the interesting ones??
We actually went through the original ‘House’ without even realising it – the place having been factored & connected in with the rest of the complex (in every sense of the word) by a wandering & long covered walkway supported on concrete pillars above the surrounding bushland. And the ‘Infinity Room’ was a definite highlight. Over 200ft long & designed to look like it’s growing smaller until it vanishes into... well, infinity. Except it really does shrink as you go... the end of the room is a point so small not even a Chihuahua could get in. And all suspended about 40ft above the tree canopy, so it’s an impressive view downwards too
It's not easy to photograph a moving carousel in a darkened room!!
One HUGE carousel, Asian art & artefacts... dollhouses... calliopes & music boxes...gardens, fountains... bizarre stairways, nooks & crannies, low ceilings & rambling corridors... suits of armour & guns from across the centuries... glassworks... knick-knacks, ephemera, odds’n’sods & just plain kitsch... but somehow it all works! The nature & atmosphere of the place makes every little & large thing seem like it’s meant to be there. We both walked in with fully charged point’n’shoot cameras & walked out six hours later with flat batteries, but elated & reassured that the human spirit of eccentricity is alive & well. Long may it thrive... in such a wonderful location nowhere near a really major highway, so you get the sense that the people who come there, really want to be there. Though why you’d take anyone under the age of eight through the place is a bit baffling to me... & probably a bit cruel to the kid. I’d probably cry a lot too...
A relatively short drive across to Milwaukee after that, which was probably just as well... we were a bit overwhelmed by the day. Checked in at a Motel 6 opposite the airport & next door to a Mexican restaurant, so dinner was taken care of. Great food, but a lot of it & a red wine of unknown origin that wasn’t too bad either. A call to Gary & Kathy back in Colorado to let them know we’re alive, well & having lots of fun & now an early night to catch up on some sleep
A leisurely drive down to Chicago tomorrow, only seventy five miles... but it’s a big town...
