A Midwest Roadtrip 2023 - Milwaukee

We started the final day of our Midwest road trip in Dubuque.  For our first stop of the day, we backtracked a little bit to Dyersville, Iowa. We couldn’t be in this part of Iowa and not visit the site where they filmed the movie - Field of Dreams. 

The Field of Dreams site was everything I hoped it would be and more.  There is no charge to visit the field, but the suggested donation amount is $20, probably because of the line in the great baseball speech delivered by James Earl Jones, "Ray, people will come, Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway, not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around," you'll say. "It's only twenty dollars per person." They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it. For it is money they have and peace they lack.” We were happy to hand over our $20. 

The Field of Dreams experience was excellent. The house, the field, it looked and felt like we walked into the movie. Alison and I could have sat in those bleachers all day. A family arrived around the same time as us and they brought some bats and balls to play some baseball on the field. The sweet sounds of kids and baseball made the place come alive. When they were done my grandma and I ran around the bases. It was a magical place. 

Kevin Costner carved "Ray loves Annie" on this bleacher while they were filming "Field of Dreams"

MLB built a stadium out here. They have played a couple of MLB games here. 

After the Field of Dreams, we headed back to Dubuque where we crossed the Mississippi River into Wisconsin. We were headed to the last stop on our road trip - Milwaukee. It was a 3.5-hour drive from Dyersville to Milwaukee so we made a couple stops along the way. 

Our first stop was the house on the rock. This Wisconsin attraction was recommended by Ricky and Pat. They told us it was a can’t-miss stop on the way to Milwaukee so we added it to the itinerary. They may have oversold it just a bit. We realized this was going to be hokey when we saw the giant urns covered with lizard and dragon statues all along the entrance. Inside we had to decide if we wanted to go see the house. We were here so we paid the $20 per head (more begrudgingly than at the field of dreams) to see the house. It required a decent walk so my grandpa stayed behind. It was a strange experience. The house was built by Alex Jordan. It was his dream house built atop a chimney of rock. You could really see the exterior of the house because it was surrounded by trees. The house is surrounded by Japanese zen gardens and other attractions. We just paid to see the house. Alex Jordan was a prolific collector of many random things and everything he collected was on display. The house itself had very short ceilings and was full of oriental art and collectibles. Many instruments were all rigged to play themselves. One of the main rooms is the infinity room which is designed to appear as if it stretches off into infinity. There were some interesting aspects to the House on the Rock, but overall we would give it three stars and we have to say it really was not worth the price of admission. 

We continued on our way and didn’t stop again until we were near Milwaukee. Our next stop was Kopps Frozen Custard to get some lunch (giant hamburgers) and some frozen custard. We quite liked Kopps. I had red raspberry custard which was oh so good. 

We only had one thing we wanted to do in Milwaukee. That one thing was attending a baseball game at American Family Field. American Family Field is the 20th baseball stadium where Alison and I have attended a major league ball game together. 

We really liked American Family Field. The energy at this stadium was special and they work hard to make sure the baseball experience is top-notch. It didn’t hurt that we had excellent seats just 4 rows up from the visiting dugout. We were close enough to you could smell the dirt on the field. When we pulled up to the stadium there were tons of people out in the parking lot tailgating. You don’t see tailgating much at baseball games, but apparently, it is a big thing here in Milwaukee. The game was a party. Milwaukee also has one of the all-time mascot races. They have a sausage race where various varieties of hot dogs race around the field in the 6th inning. The Polish dog won tonight. Alison and I love a good mascot race. They also have a very rousing rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the 7th inning stretch followed by “The Beer Barrel Polka,” also known as "Roll out the barrel". It was way fun. The food at the stadium was excellent. We weren’t all that hungry, but since we were in Milwaukee I couldn’t pass on a bag of Wisconsin cheese curds. They were so good I went back for a second bag midway through the game. These quickly became a favorite baseball snack for us. 

The game itself was over almost as soon as it began. The Milwaukee Brewers were playing the Arizona Diamondbacks. Both of these teams are having good seasons and the pitching matchup looked like it could be a good game. That was not to be. The Diamondbacks batted 1-9 in the first inning. Corbin Burns pitching for the Brewers loaded the bases with no outs and ended up giving up 6 runs on 7 hits in that inning. Burns would pitch 4 more innings (to my grandparent's chagrin) all told he would give up 7 runs on 8 hits. That was plenty Mark Kelly would pitch 7 innings for the Diamondbacks giving up 1 run on 3 hits. The D-backs won 9-1. 

It was a spectacular night for baseball and a fitting way to end our road trip across the Midwest.