This weekend was the annual Fort Atkinson Rendezvous Days held in a nearby town. This is a celebration that has been held since 1977 with reenactments of the post from the 1840’s. The reason that the fort was even built in the first place was that back in the 1830’s the Winnebago Indians were resisting moving from Wisconsin and afraid that they would have to be moved by their enemies at the time the Sioux. So General Atkinson promised them that the Winnebago Indians could stay there and it would be considered neutral grounds between the two. When the fort was completed, there was a total of 24 buildings on the land. The Winnebago Indians stayed there until 1848 when they signed a treaty and the military escorted them to Minnesota. The weather today was absolutely perfect, so Daryl got the Chevelle out of the Roadhouse and off we went to Fort. We really wanted to see the Melodrama that they were putting on today because a bunch of our friends were in it. The hardest part of getting to the Fort is just finding a place to park. There are so many people usually at the Fort that you just know in advance that you’ll be walking. 
We made it just in time for the melodrama and joined the rest of the crowd that was there also watching it.
During the show
The cast
Now I’ve been to the Rendezvous days many times before, but never watched the show, so this was a good time! After the show, we made the usually rounds just checking everything out and seeing who’s all there. Now usually you’ll know at least 1/2 of the people because they are local’s, but today there were a lot of people that I didn’t know. I guess that’s good though. There is just about everything there that you could buy. From iron kettles, bracelets, baskets, soap, to skunk hats. And there is almost as much variety to see.
This guy was playing this old 1800 music player
So after walking around and checking everything out, we made one last stop at the kettle corn. I really couldn’t believe that you could go to the Rendezvous without buying kettle corn. The smell of it is everywhere and it’s always as good as it smells. We took the corn and headed to the Chevelle to find some dinner. It was such a great day to go on a road trip, and we weren’t quite sure where we were going to go. We ended up on the Great River Road heading to Gunder, Iowa to the famous restaurant that sells the Gunder Burger.
Gunder, Iowa home of the famous Gunder Burger. There isn’t much in this town and the restaurant in on the left
The Gunder Burger is a pound of hamburger and all the fixings, and it’s huge! If you can eat it, you get to wear the Gunder Hat and have your picture taken. But today we only had sandwiches. Once home I laid down for just a little bit (are you seeing a pattern here?) and was watching for Daryl outside to get the tractor and bucket to help pick up the apples that had fallen. Yea, not so much luck with that. He had most of them picked up when I realized he even had the tractor out. He thought that I planned it that way, and even though I didn’t – it sure worked out well for me! As for tonight, it’s time to get ready for the upcoming week. Daryl is planning on heading out into the fields tomorrow to start taking out the beans and we’ve got another wake to go to tomorrow night.