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Don checking his bag,
my Spyder is behind him. |
Every year since 1992 my friend Don Schneider and I have taken an annual summer trip, usually to Wisconsin. This year being no different, we left today for four nights and will head home Friday.
I brought the netbook with me in an attempt to journal our travels, we'll see how it goes...
As virtually all trips before, we officially start at the Dubuque Dairy Queen. This is symbolic because it is the last town before entering Wisconsin, and until you see the bridge spanning over the Mississippi River, you ain't on vacation yet!
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| Yep, that blue spec is Don. (Forgot to zoom) |
The ride was warm, but great. We passed through favorite towns of Dodgeville, home of the famed "Don 'Q' Inn" where you can stay in an actual airplane, and Spring Green where Frank Lloyd Wright had his residence and architecture school (tours are $45, and no, I've never taken the tour).
This year, we mixed it up a bit and are not staying in the Wisconsin Dells. We normally stay at the Mayflower Motel, and have for the better of 20 years, but when calling for reservations we encountered a motel under new ownership that doesn't appear to value customer service any longer... thus we are staying in Portage Wisconsin. I've heard that the Mayflower has gone downhill and has even filled in one of their outdoor pools to make room for more parking; we'll check that out later this week.
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| Decisions... soda? |
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| Decisions... beer? |
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| Wow! What's a "clean remote"?? |
We arrived in Portage not sure what our hotel was going to be like, but considering what we've stayed in before, it had to be an improvement!
We checked in, grabbed our bags and lo and behold... a clean room! Heck, even the remote for the tv was a "clean remote" (meaning that is has all smooth surfaces to make disinfecting easier).
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| "Hardly any rats." |
Don checked out the bathroom; no leaks, mold or scaling of the faucets! There wasn't even any bedbugs! All the signs of reasonable accommodations.
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| The Hitching Post |
After a long day on the road, the desk person recommended a restaurant just up the road from our hotel, "The Hitching Post". It wasn't much to look at, but the food was excellent and a reasonable value. We both had burgers with fries, but Don opted for the beer battered ones which was the way to go.
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| Beer battered fries for the win. |
After dinner we heading down the street to the Walmart for "supplies" (snacks). The only problem was that this particular Walmart doesn't carry alcohol, which was no problem for me as I don't drink, but a big problem for Don as he enjoys a particular beer only available in Wisconsin. We dumped our goods back off at the room and headed out to the Portage Theater to catch a movie. The theater turned out to be an old restored movie house that has been around for close to 100 years. Not sure I trust the teenage employee who told me this, but we'll go with it.
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| The Supplies |
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| Portage Theater |
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