Midwest travel links for October 2015

Check out some great Midwest-related stories I found online this past month:

12 Ways to Map the Midwest-Where, exactly, is the Midwest? I've heard this question endlessly debated, and Aaron gives us eleven various ways to look at this region of the country at the Urbanophile blog. I generally think of the Midwest as including the regions considered the East North Central and West North Central regions by the U.S. Census (#2), but as Aaron demonstrates, there are folks who might consider states like Oklahoma or Alabama as part of the Midwest. What do you think?

The 2015 Edition of Autumn in Pure Michigan-Aaron shows us some beautiful reasons why we love autumn in this state so well. Check out his beautiful images of fall foliage, corn mazes and a traditional fall visit to one of Michigan's cider mills. Check it out at The Adventures of elATLboy blog.

Iowa Steel Cows-Many folks consider a view that includes cows grazing in a field as a quintessentially Midwestern image, and Deb found a host of these images gracing the scene in Decorah, Iowa. Check out her story at the Just Short of Crazy blog about finding these quirky cows and the clever artist who created them.

Pappaw's Honey Farm: Hidden in Hagerstown-I love finding a farm that sells locally produced honey, and this honey market on a farm in Hagerstown, Indiana sounds like some of the family honey producers I've found elsewhere in the Midwest (like in Grand Rapids, Ohio). Check out her story about it at the Little Indiana blog.

Apostle Islands Grand Boat Tour, Bayfield-One of our most memorable evenings when we visited northern Wisconsin a number of years ago was the evening that we went on a Sunset Cruise to tour lighthouses in the area. I still have the photos somewhere, although they're not as easy to find now as our trip happened in our pre-digital camera days. I'd love the chance to visit the area again one of these days with the idea of capturing more lighthouse images, but meanwhile, I'll share this link to Kenneth's story and lighthouse images from the Bayfield area in his Wisconsin Explorer blog.

The Madeline Island Ferry-We also visited Madeline Island during our trip to northern Wisconsin and have fond memories of that excursion as well. Check out Kenneth's story about his ferry trip to the island at the Wisconsin Explorer blog. Thinking we should heed Kenneth's warning about visiting the island soon before too many other tourists discover it!

Pick Up A Penchant for Pudding Stones At Gene Stratton-Porter's Wildflower Woods-We recently visited Michigan's Upper Peninsula and heard about pudding stones on Drummond Island. Pudding Stone is the name of conglomerate rocks consisting of rounded pebbles held together with a sort of cement of finer grain stone, and the he rock looks like some sort of raisin pudding. We'd actually seen this before at the northern Indiana home of author Gene Stratton-Porter, which has a large pudding stone fire place. Check beesfirstappearance blog to read Betsy's story about Stratton-Porter's home and State Historic Site in Rome City, Indiana

REA Power Plant Museum: The Beginning of Rural Electricity-The 1930s was a time of great economic hardship in the United States, but it's always interesting to read about public works and grant projects that still made some great improvements possible like this farmer-owned electrical co-op (and now museum) in Franklin Country, Iowa. I loved the classic Art Deco-style architecture of this building and reading this story by Connie of how it came to be the first farmer-owned cooperative to go live west of the Mississippi. Check it out at the Midwest Wanderer blog.

The National Mustard Museum (Or "not quite chipmunks in hula skirts. But still pretty awesome.")-Well, yes, it appears to be! This museum near Madison, Wisconsin has long been on our bucket list, but Sally definitely makes it sound like a must-do because (as Sally might say)...guys...Free mustard samples! Check out the story at Sally's unbrave girl blog.

That's it for this month's Midwest travel links list. Do you have any favorite Midwest stories or blogs to share?

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