Milwaukee in my mind is associated with beer production, Happy Days and a reference in Wayne's World. I'd just come from Chicago and loved that so I didn't have much hopes for Milwaukee because it's a tough act to follow.

I needn't have worried because it turned out well. The Greyhound station is fantastic and reminded me of an airport departure lounge. I think this is because it's shared with Amtrak so there was more money available to build it than the usual bullet-riddled shacks they serve Greyhound out of. And getting off the bus doesn't feel like a hostage rescue with a SWAT team shouting "Go! Go! Go!" as we all run from the coach to the terminal building while a team of trained snipers keep the kidnappers pinned down.

A short walk up from Greyhound got me to downtown and I followed the crowds to find where the action was at. Firstly I was impressed that there were crowds because before Chicago I was sick of towns with no people on the streets. The next thing that impressed me was that there was a small mall right downtown - people AND shops? Wow! I managed to buy my Wisconsin souvenir within 30 minutes of being in town. The absolute best thing about it was that this is my 30th state on this trip and I found a fridge magnet saying "Wisconsin - the 30th state" so it must have been the 30th state admitted to the Union. How appropriate!

The one thing I was keen on doing was the Milwaukee Museum of Art so I got myself down to the lakefront. I found a bridge with a strange wing-like sculpture at the end of it. I sat down to get my camera out to get a photo of it and for the next ten minutes there was always somebody in the way so I waited patiently. Then, when I looked up, it seemed like everybody was standing on the bridge looking at the wings. Then I thought I heard some music and I stared intently at the wings and I could see they were slowly moving. They were folding inwards, away from me. I checked my watch and it was exactly midday so I concluded it was a scheduled show. Over a few minutes they slowly folded back to form a perfect cone, which was amazing. Then the unfolded again to wing form. I was incredibly impressed with the engineering feat although the folding could've done with being a bit faster. You can see the two states of it in my photos.

When the show was over I went across the bridge and into the museum, which was underneath the wings. The first thing I did was to have the poshest lunch of the trip so far in the museum cafe. Most museum cafes I've been to have had burgers, pizza and sandwiches but this being an art gallery and, therefore, not targeted to kids, it was quite posh. So I had a goat's cheese tart and glass of chenin blanc as I sat and looked out on beautiful views of the lake.

I don't know whether it was the wine or not but I really enjoyed the art in the museum. It was split between old and modern and even the modern pieces weren't too bad. (I guess they put all the bad modern art in the Tate Modern in London.) Being a weekday the museum was very quiet so I was able to walk around without pushing through crowds. I suppose that's the one negative about the museums in London being free - they suddenly become very popular.

I spent a good few hours in the museum, much to my own surprise, before chilling out in a park by the lake for a while until I felt up to some exploring. I found a very cute old part of town with some beautiful old Germanic buildings. However, knowing what lengths Americans will go to to rope in tourists (don't even get me started on how many things in museums are replicas without making that fact obvious!), I was suspicious that there was a whole row of perfectly old looking buildings. I took it at face value though and appreciated it.

The centre of town was quite nice as I walked back through at the end of the business day. There were actually lots of people waiting for buses and they were decent-looking people and it warmed the cockles of my heart that mass transit was working in a city.

Milwaukee was pleasant. I might not be using that word for a while now because I have to hit the Great Plains states next and, I don't want to pre-judge, but I'm expecting some dull places. No-one I've spoken to has responded to my telling them that I'm doing to Iowa and Nebraska with "Oh wow, you're going to have so much fun there - they're the best states in the country! I'm so jealous!". But that's the purpose of my trip - to see everything.