The Great Wisconsin Touring Book : 30 Spectacular Auto Trips [Paperback]

Gary G. Knowles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 2000

Do You Think You've Seen Wisconsin? You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet!

This book is about saying yes to the "other road" -- the road less traveled. The road that isn't necessarily the straightest or the fastest. It's about taking you to spectacular scenery seldom seen and connecting you to a rich historic past. It's about fun and discovery, with the trip rather than the destination in mind. It's about roads for people who adore cars and have a passion for driving. This book is about roads that wiggle, and it's for people who love life and Wisconsin.

You'll find:
*30 great tours that will take you to every corner of that state and introduce you to hundreds of fascinating places.
*Thorough, easy-to-use maps to guide you on your journeys.
*Listings of many outstanding reasons to stop, including parks and other points of scenic interest, tours, waysides, shops, restaurants, and other great attractions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 162 pages
• Publisher: Trails Books; Revised edition (October 25, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0915024845
• ISBN-13: 978-0915024841
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,398,651 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #71 in Books > Travel > United States > States > Wisconsin

More About the Author

Born at the hood ornament end of the Baby Boom (November 13,1946), I was taught first to love riding and then driving by my father, Eugene T. Knowles and mother Del (Knowles) Fenner. Long before anyone ever thought of kid seats or seat belts I would stand between Mom and Dad on the bench seat of our '53 Chevy and watch the miles roll by as we drove to northern Wisconsin for a vacation, to California to visit relatives or just to run an errand from Glenbeulah to Plymouth.

In 1960 as I was entering high school at Elkhart Lake my mother bought a used 1956 Mercury convertible. It didn't take long to become a fan of sunny drives through the Kettle Moraine, the thrill of the breeze off Lake Michigan and the beauty of looking up at the night sky to see the northern lights, the Milky way or Sputnik arcing over the horizon. I soon was convinced that open-air driving was the finest way to travel.

At Elkhart Lake I had the good fortune to have friends introduce me to sports cars and road racing at Road America. As a volunteer photographer I had a track-side seat and pit access to watch the world's greatest race drivers - Bruce McLaren, Augie Pabst, Denny Hulme, Mario Andretti, Jim Hall - and dozens of others on one of the finest international race circuits. One of my first sports cars was a forest green Triumph Spitfire roadster which I ralleyed quite successfully with navigator Greg Nametz (whose father Everette was one of the founders of Road America).

I graduated with a BS in Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1969 and spent a couple of years with Garrett Theological Seminary (at Northwestern in Evanston, IL) before pursuing a career in communications. I received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts to develop innovative cable-tv programs and produced and hosted hundreds of TV and radio shows (in Madison) from 1974-79.

In 1979 I went to work for the State of Wisconsin and became the Director of the Bureau of Communications for the Division of Tourism. I got to know the many of the state's main and back roads while traveling extensively to host VIPS, travel writers and film crews. Working with a staff of five professionals I directed the development of an award winning Wisconsin travel publications program that included the Wisconsin Auto Tours Guide as it's most ambitious book. The Auto Tours was designed primarily to direct travelers to attractions on state and some local highways. From 1984 until 1997 (the last year it was available) it was the most requested tour guide the state produced.

I left the state in 1993 to get back to the private sector, serving as a marketing communications consultant, first with the Knupp & Watson Ad Agency (1993) and then in my own firm (Gary Knowles Marketing Communications - est. 1994).

In 1993 Alex McDonell (a fellow driving enthusiast from Madison) and I got together to create an event we'd both talked about for several years: The Wisconsin Convertible Classic Tour. This tour was designed to invite convertible lovers to spend four days in August touring Wisconsin's great backroads. It started with 67 cars in 1993 and quickly grew to more than 200 in 1998. The final WCC tour was held in 2005 and then in 2006 my wife Mae and I re-founded the tour with Mike and Donna Peroutka, convertible lovers and touring enthusiasts of Green Bay. Today it's called the OpenAir Classic and it's better than ever. (www.OpenAirTours.com)

The Great Wisconsin Touring Book is the net result of exploring Wisconsin for more than 35 years. It took about 18 months of checking routes, organizing notes, shooting extra pictures, checking maps, stretching my family's patience, begging forgiveness and pleading for extensions from my publisher before it all come together. There are 30 tours here. There are at least 30 more waiting to be told. Enjoy!

Gary Knowles
Madison, WI
November 2000 - Updated 2009
www.WondersOfWisconsin.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You better get this book to tour Wisconsin!, September 29, 2001

By 

MaePatrice Knowles (Madison, WI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Wisconsin Touring Book : 30 Spectacular Auto Trips (Paperback)

...let me tell you a few things -- it really is the best darned guide to Wisconsin you'll ever find. He hit most every backroad in in the state. This book is different than the usual guides in that it focuses on the fun to drive wiggly roads that driving enthusiasts enjoy -- AND has an insiders view of where to go, stop, eat, play and shoot pictures. My husband says the publishers should have given it a better title...something like "The Cows Made us Do it"....but I suggest you get a copy and check out these tours. They're NOT your usual dash from one attraction to another. You'll have a great time. MPK

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great idea, needs some work on useful information, July 17, 2004

By 

C.E. Lopes "C.E." (Bradenton, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Wisconsin Touring Book : 30 Spectacular Auto Trips (Paperback)

The book is good, easy to read and provides interesting trips.

What it lacks is distance information and time-frames (yes, I know the author says all trips can be done in a day, but might take a weekend or more! That doesn't help scheduling a weekend trip).

It would be really useful to have distances between the high points of the trips, zip codes for the cities (mapquest, anyone?) and a basic time-frame for each section of each trip.

Finally, the book seems to ignore any source of information on the internet, always pointing you to phone numbers... If I don't stop my car to ask for directions, why would I call someone to get information??? ;-)

So, the book is good, but be prepared to consult additional resources for distances and durations. And regarding finding information on the internet - you are on your own...