Posts Tagged With: Columbus WI

April 21, 2025

Another short trip to get back into the swing of things. We had believed we had never spent any time in Madison and wanted to visit the WI state capitol. (A week ago, in going thorugh some pictures, Chris saw that we had visited the capitol back in the late 1970s-but that visit certainly was not top of mind.) Two nights seemed sufficient.

On the way to Madison, we stopped at Necedah National Wildlfe Refuge. This gave us a chance to break up the drive with some walking. The visitor center was impressive, although closed. The center/HQ was constructed of various LEED type materials. The style reminded me of the large HQ at Voyageurs National Park in International Falls.

We made two short walks around the visitor center area. It is not prime time yet for migratory birds, but we saw Canada geese, swans, and some sort of ducks in the distance. We were impressed with the quality of the boardwalks used in the wet, marshy areas. Maybe not your most dramatic item on our trip, but it was nice to see boardwalks that were well made and maintained.

As we were driving, Chris was looking at the Rand McNally maps. She asked me how far Columbus, Wisconsin, was from Madison and if it was out of our way to visit it. Columbus, Wisconsin, is the turnaround point for the Trails and Rails program on the Amtrak Empire Builder. This is the volunteer program I do in the summer. The Trails and Rails program is a joint venture between Amtrak and the National Park Service.

We decided the detour to Columbus was relatively short and we could eat at one of the three places Trails and Rails guides frequent when we are in town. I showed Chris the highlights, and I was able to expand my knowledge. Having a car here was unusual for me and parts of town otherwise inaccessible to me were now discovered.

We ate at the bar with Mexican food, quite tasty. I stopped in at the Amtrak depot and learned that station platform repiars were not yet completed and would impact how the trains loaded. This information I later passed on to the other T and R guides. It seems like various repairs have been ongoing for several years. It might have been easier and quicker to knock it down and start over.

On the way to Columbus, on one of the back roads, we passed a shrine called Queen of Peace. Evidently back in the 1970s a local woman said she saw a vision of Mary, Mother of Jesus. The Catholic CHurch investigated and did not validate her claim. Despite that, others felt the woman’s vision was valid and built a shrine here. It is still going strong 50 years later and they have an elementary school also. The shrine was closed, even the gift store, so we just drove around and did a Google search about it.

After Columbus we made our way to Madison. We stayed at a Hilton downtown in a corner room with a great view of the Capitol and Lake Monona. Madison is built in an area the Ho-Chunk Indians called Four Lakes. Downtown and the University are built on an isthmus between two lakes, Lake Monona and Lake Mendota. The Madison Convention Center is on Lake Monona just a block from the Hilton.

Sunday was Easter. Before going to church, we had breakfast. Our deal at the hotel included a full, off the menu breakfast. It was quite good and we avoided the crowd that showed up for their Easter brunch. We went to church at the Catholic Church on the UW-Madison campus. We had arrived early, found a parking space, and were going to walk the campus for a while. Walking past the church, we saw people going in, 40 minutes prior to Mass starting. The person at the reception desk told us people were arriving early to get a seat. So we went in and waited along with others in order to have a seat. There were so many attendees that they ran out of Communion hosts.

The Chazen Museum of Art is on the campus and we visited there after church. Part of the building was being renovated so only a portion was viewable. I particularly liked an exhibit featuring works by Wharton Esherick from PA.

Easter was rainy but we took a chance and went to the Arboretum. The visitor center was open but really had no exhibits or flowering plants of any interest. Once we realized that, we left and went to The Chocolate Shoppe for an afternoon ice cream treat.

Returning to the hotel, we walked over to the Convention Center and enjoyed the lake view. Dinner was also in the hotel. It was not very crowded, I guess everyone had Easter brunch.

Monday was our busiest day. We started out with another full breakfast at the hotel, then over to the Capitol. Unfortunately, our tour was joined by children from two classrooms. Fortunately, they were well behaved.

The tour lasted an hour and included numerous steps to climb with the final climb up to the outside observation deck. The school kids had returned to their buses so the small space was uncrowded . Inside was a small museum of history about the Capitol, outside was a great view of both lakes and the campus.

After the tour we packed up and left the Hilton and Madison. Our next destination was Cross Keys, headquarters for the Ice Age Trail Alliance (IATA). IATA is an non-profit partner to the National Park Service Ice Age Trail. The Trail is 1200 miles, following the edge of the last glacier in North America in its journey through Wisconsin.

The Ice Age Trail is only in Wisconsin and the Trails and Rails program guides talk about it on our Amtrak Empire Builder journey. The people from IATA would be presenting a one hour Teams online training for the T and R guides on Friday. Since I was in the area, I thought it made sense to stop by and say hello. I picked up a few items for guides to distribute on the train.

Leaving Cross Keys, we knew we had extra time before our last planned stop of the day so we made a side journey to Mount Horeb. This town has marketed itself around trolls. Norwegians had become the dominant immigrant group in the area and trolls seemed a natural fit for marketing. The local museum discussed the history both of the local area, the Driftless Region, as well as the troll theme. It was a pleasant and surprising diversion.

Our final stop of the day was the campus of the company Epic. Epic develops “software to help people get well, help people stay well, and help future generations be healthier.” It is privately held and must make a lot of money. The campus is divided into six regions, each region consisting of a cluster of office buildings connected to each other.

Epic allows visitors to wander around the campus area and inside the office buildings, starting at 2 PM each weekday. Each of the six campus areas has a self guiding tour, in a glossy written multi-page handout that highlights conference rooms, artwork, even hallways. It takes about one hour to tour each campus. We chose the campus titled “Prairie” since it is located right at the visitor check-in and we did not have to walk to another area. A mother and her three children were in front of us. This was their third time here, driving up from their home in Illinois each time.

It is hard to describe everything we saw. We will put in some pictures to try. You might do an Internet search for Epic tours and see for yourself.

We were astounded. While not knowing the Epic work culture, the setting made me think I would never retire if I worked here. Every person has an office with hallways that are not bland. There is a conference hall/amphitheater that seats 11,000. There are bikes and a tram to get around the campus. The artwork is from Wisconsin artists suggested by employees

Evidently the building design people went to Disney and to Microsoft to determine if creativity or efficiency is more important. One said creativity drives efficiency, the other said efficiency drives creativity. Epic tried to combine both.

Chris and I could only handle one tour, taking an hour to complete. The sensory overload made us think we could not handle a second one. Maybe during one of our driving trips to the South or East, we will stop in for a visit to another campus.

The drive home was uneventful. One more small trip under our belts. Next effort will be late May.

Ed and Chris, not finished until May 6.