The Motherland

This past weekend was a long, vacation weekend in Northern Wisconsin on a fairly secluded lake. The ladies arrived on Thursday for some "girl time" which left me and B-rad to haul the rest of the gear on Friday. Here's a brief recap:

We hit the road in Sycamore. First stop - Genoa McDonalds (made it about six miles). Next, we took HWY 47 north to 90 but I forgot that you cannot get on the highway headed west at that intersection. We decide to wing it as we're both intelligent, resourceful men (with a compass on the rear view mirror). New motto: It might take a little longer, but we'll get there. This bravery turns fortuitous as we avoid a major toll booth backup in Rockford.

For the next hour or so, we listen to killer music and discuss some possibilities for our band. Our next stop is in Janesville where we're stymied by a truck stop/tourist center that has one six-pack of beer and NO HOT DOG BUNS. This is quickly remedied at the original Woodman's grocery store just down the block which has 400 buns for $1.09 and all of the current New Glarus beer selections. Genius.

Back on the road and we rau through three or four more full-length music CDs plus a Mitch Hedberg show before we made the next pit stop. So as not to appear to be lot lizards, we kept it under five minutes. Plus, the next stop was Chippewa Falls - home of Leinenkugel beer.

Leinie's Lodge happened to be right on the path we were following to our final destination. Although we both had trepidation about taking the time to stop at the expense of more meaningful time with our respective ladies, we reasoned that we earned the extra time by avoiding the earlier toll backup. So, we walked in and there was a welcoming station with two of the nicest ladies on God's green earth. They asked if we wanted to take a tour of the brewery which would take 45 minutes. We said we didn't have that kind of time. They then said (and I'm not making this up), "well would you like some coupons for some free beer at least?"

If you know me, you know that this was a proud and happy moment for me. We found the place, we justified the time, and now we were being rewarded with free beer. So, we did a brief tour of the available merchandise and hunkered up to the bar. Good times. (quick disclaimer - the free beers were small sampler glasses but they were free and they were beer.)

After one more pit stop, we headed out and remembered that we still had to get some ice and some extra beer (in bulk) since we were close. We happened to stop at the one liquor store in Chippewa Falls where they were giving away a free bottle of beer for every six-pack from another small brewery in Black River Falls. Brilliant. I love Wisconsin.

The rest of the weekend was awesome. Once we got there, we built a camp fire, ate an excellent dinner and talked until I fell sound asleep on my chair. On Saturday, we got up, a delicious breakfast was served (bacon and eggs cooked over the camp fire) and the weather was perfect. We played in and around the lake for the better part of the day. It started to rain at one point and I read the rest of a book I had begun, then fell asleep. I took a few naps, actually. It rained a lot after that but we played cards and talked the rest of the time.

Our tent stayed mostly dry but we had a TON of spiders (all different types) visiting throughout the weekend. Our drive home (the wife and I this time) was plagued with black clouds (literally) but only a few stretches of actual rain. The worst of it came near Madison where we started to hatch an alternative plan - if it didn't let up, we were going to stay over and leave really early in the morning. We braved what looked like the makings of a tornado and got all the way home. Needless to say, I slept well.

So, missed a toll delay, got free beer, got free beer again, took many naps, ate fantastic meals, splashed around in the lake, had a spider on me, drove home in a little rain with the girl of my dreams. Great weekend.