Day 40: Spring Green WI to Lacrosse, WI

Stops:

House on the Rock, Spring Green, WI

Don Q inn, Dodgeville, WI.

Located in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin is probably the ultimate roadside attraction, The House on the Rock.  Yes, it is a house built on and into a pinnacle rock with an asian decor and very low ceilings built by Alex Jordan, Jr. as his dream house.  Alex wasn't short either, so it is unsure why the low ceilings. Not only is it a weird house but it is also a bizarre collection of stuff.  By stuff I mean a collection of dolls and dollhouses, the worlds largest carousel, mechanical music machines and much, much more.

When you enter the property, you are greeted with giant planters that have giant dragons and serpents on them.  

There are 3 tours you can take, but we got there late enough, we only were allowed to take one tour, mainly the house itself.  

As you start the tour, you see the Japanese Gardens complete with koi fish and lily pads and a little bridge and waterfall. 

The first house you enter was the original house.  It wasn't very big, but I would consider it a rocking bachelor pad.

Then you go up a 375 ft long ramp into the House.  You notice that some of the walls are the rock itself and once again, the low ceilings and the asian decor.  

The House contains many mechanical music machines, fireplaces, and even a 3 story tall bookcase, and lots of stained glass windows, some used on the walls and some used as tables.

Perhaps the most unique feature of the House is the Infinity Room which juts out over 218 ft from the House unsupported on the bottom and contains 3000 windows.  It really does look like an endless room.

Just up the road is a crazier-than-most fantasy room hotel.  One of the suites is a church steeple. Others include a hot air balloon, a dungeon, an igloo, a geisha garden, and so much more.   These suites are called "fanatasuites."  

The place is so crazy, they use a large airplane as their road sign.  Once featured in a TV ad with Farrah Fawcett's, she left her signature on the fuselage.  Unfortunately, on a recent paint job, the painters painted over the signature.  They tried to fix it trying to remove a layer of paint but it didn't really work well.  The hotel also has a 300 ft underground tunnel that connects it to the nearby restaurant.

Inside the main lobby you can see pictures of the rooms and there are a bunch of dentist and barber chairs around a fireplace.  

Yup, definitely one of the weirdest hotels I have ever been to.