May 21, 2012, Spring Green, Wisconsin

May 21, 2012.  Where would you find a $6000 bed, a $2500 leather chair or a $500 mobile of leaves?  We found them as original designs at the Taliesin Visitors Center, shown as picture number four, above.  The visitors center was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  Taliesin is the home and architectural laboratory of America's best known architect.  Taliesin is a Welsh word meaning "shinning brow."  Wright believed that you never build atop a hill, you build into it.  If you build on top, "there is no hill."  Taliesin is his 37,000 square feet home, autobiography and his life's labor. 

Taliesin was originally built for Wright and his mistress.  It was rebuilt two times after fire destroyed much, if not all of it.  The first fire was set by a deranged servant who first murdered Wright's mistress, her two children and several others with a cleaving axe.  The second fire was attributed to faulty wiring.

The pictures above require some explanation.  Though it cost less than a Hula Hoop, Annie didn't want to tour the home.  So, we drove by several times as she tried to take pictures from Harvey.  Each time she pressed the shutter, a tree or a road sign would jump in front of the lens.  Frustrated, she gave the camera to me and I took the pictures that actually look like something.  Annie is a sweet, lovely woman, but as a photographer?  Well,  the word "Doofus" is so hurtful, I won't use it.

Taliesin was Wright's home for most of his life.  However, there is also a Taliesin West in Arizona.  It, too, was designed by Wright.  In addition to the home near Spring Green, Wisconsin, Wright's first commissioned design, at age 19, was a chapel ordered by members of his family.  Over the years, he designed a barn, a wind mill and a school where his aunts taught until their retirement.  The complete complex sits on 600 acres in the rolling hills west of Madison, Wisconsin.  

Speaking of doofuses - which, of course, I wasn't - we spent 15 minutes and $25 today to learn that we should run the refrigerator on gas while dry camping. As it was explained by the owner of Quietwoods RV Center, running the fridge on DC current is like hooking a fire hose up to the batteries and running the electricity out on the ground.  The heating element used to heat the freon eats electricity.  "Always use gas when you aren't hooked to electricity and you'll never have a problem," he admonished us. 

I chuckled when he said it because I've been trying to get Annie to run the refrigerator on gas.  She doesn't like gas.  She is afraid of gas - and almost everything else in the universe.  She thinks that if we turn on the gas, we will die in our sleep.  So, she insisted on running the fridge on direct current, off the house batteries.  I have tried to gloat silently, but it has been hard.  It has been very hard. 

Malachi's blog will slow down for the next few days.  We are on our way home from the first leg of the trip.  We have chores at home and the office to attend to before heading west.  Malachi will blog again when he has something to show and tell.  See you then.