On the fifth day of the Great Lakes Tour (Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019), our Model A Fords found their way to Warrens, WI, to the Cranberry Capital of the World! This weekend is the Cranberry Fest, the largest craft show and flea market (1,400 booths) in the U.S.  Everything cranberry – plus all kinds of things you’d never expect. The ladies in pink below are a mother-daughter group (actually consisting of 7 ladies) who visit the “Cranfest” every year, with a special theme each year.

This town of 363 inhabitants hosts close to 160,000 visitors during the 3-day weekend.

We all parked our cars on the Lions Club front lawn to provide a little car show while we were there. The club took a cranberry bog tour, but our little group got caught in traffic and missed it.  You’ll see some photos from other club members below.

Lunch on our own, and we found a café/biker bar, obviously Harley Davidson fans who enjoy making fun of Japanese motorcycles:

Then, we headed northward and we began to see some of the leaves starting to turn color.  And, we found our own cranberry bog:

And a surprise!

These huge birds are bigger than our great blue herons at home.  They’re cranes, and we learned that “cranberries” were originally called “craneberries” because of the many cranes in the area.  They seem to love the recently harvested corn fields.

Here are highlight photos of the cranberry bog tour from the Clausens;

And from the Robinsons:

And the Hulstroms’ shot shows the Cranfest crowd:

Tomorrow, we reach our first hotel actually on one of the Great Lakes.  Stay tuned…