Postcard: House on the Rock in autumn

This postcard was mailed 37 autumns ago, in October 1984, the month that the Chicago Cubs tried unsuccessfully to break the Curse of the Billy Goat in the National League Championship Series. 

Pictured is the famous oddity known as the House on the Rock, in southwestern Wisconsin. Here's how the attraction's website describes it: "For over 60 years, the House on the Rock has been a majestic work in progress. It began in 1945, when a man named Alex Jordan had a towering goal: to build a man-made retreat as awe-inspiring as the view from the rock upon which the house would eventually be built. From that spark of imagination, the House on the Rock has evolved to include displays and collections of the exotic, the unusual and the amazing that can be viewed as three separate tours."

The attraction gained some further widespread renown when it was featured prominently in Neil Gaiman's 2001 novel American Gods.

This postcard was mailed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with a 13-cent stamp and this message:

10/26

We had a beautiful day on Tue 10/23 for our trip to see "The House on the Rock." It really is something to see. Understand the man is always adding to his displays in the Alley of Yesteryear. We've been having a lot of foggy mornings & then day is hazy. Also have had rain also. Had a nice visit in Sept. with Bob and friend in Aurora Co. Got home before they had all their snow. Write sometime.

One good website where you can learn and see more about the House on the Rock is fangirlquest.com.

House on the Rock is definitely on my bucket list of places I'd like to see in the continental United States. A lot of my bucket list focuses on architecture, so it also includes the likes of:

• The Biltmore Estate in Ashville, N.C.
• Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, Calif.
• Fallingwater in southwestern Pennsylvania

Of course, I've already been fortunate enough to see many cool places in my half-century on Earth, so I'm doing pretty well in that regard. I've see Lucy the Elephant, Wall Drug, the World Trade Center, the Haines Shoe House, the Gaffney Peach and the Jolly Green Giant in Blue Earth, Minnesota, among many other nifty locations. So I'm pretty darn lucky.