Price of gas: $3.59
Steven’s Point, WI to Amherst Junction, WI, with a stop in Madison
REI stores visited: 5 (Madison)
For no particularly good reason, I decided a visit to Madison is in order. About 9 years ago my cousin got married, and we went through Madison, and we had a really good time. It’s about a 2 hour drive from Steven’s Point, it’s got an REI store, and it just seemed like a good thing to do. This morning Bernie said, “Would you like company?” and I said sure! So a little after 8, away we went. I should mention, this is after Bernie made me some Nueske bacon… everyone loves Nueske meats around here. I need to get some sausage & freeze it for the trip home… We hit the REI first, and had a good time trying on the new fall fashions. Bernie got one of our new coats and looked quite good in it.
We then went to Dick’s, one of our competitors, as I’d never been and wanted to check them out. It allowed me the opportunity to get some basketball shorts… that was good, as mine are long since shot to hell and deserve to go straight into the trash. From there, we went to Trader Joe’s and I had a good time showing Bernie all the fun foods Trader Joe’s has to offer. I also got some treats for the ride home, not that my larder hasn’t been growing with all these relative visits. Holy caloikey. We went to a Mediterranean place for lunch, and then had to track down The Company Store. The Company Store is a bedding store. I love bedding. I’ve been keeping it in check pretty well, but this is an outlet store, and hey, we have to check it out. I have to say, I was kind of disappointed in the deals, but managed to get two comforters anyway. Now I feel set in my house. I’ve always had this problem with having three comforters of wildly different weights, where if the “right” weight is on my bed, a guest would be too warm or too cold. Not anymore! We drove back to Point and got in around 4.
Uncle Jim was already into dinner, and as I was supposed to join him… I did. Stew redux from Monday night, always good the second time around. The last of the angel food cake. Made sure I had all my stuff packed up, and then off to Aunt Janie’s house out in boonie-ville. My Aunt Janie is the youngest child of my grandparents by a lot of years. Janie is 8 years younger than Kathy, who is the next youngest. So while Jim, my mom, and Kathy were all 50s children, Janie was a 60s child. She’s a fabulous hippie, lives by herself and works for an environmental organization. I’ve never seen her house in all these years, and according to my GPS, Janie does not live on any road. Good thing Janie gave me directions. She is out in the middle of farmland and there’s not much around in any direction.
Side note: Wisconsin has a large and varied set of County Roads, that are letters instead of numbers. You might be on county road E (near Grandpa’s) or county road QQ. Janie explained to me single letters run one way (E/W or N/S) and double letters the other, but I’ve forgotten which. Still, I’ve always found it odd to tell someone to turn on county road MM or the like…
Janie is cleaning up twigs when I arrive, and planning to set off her burn pile tonight. I’m already tired from all the driving, but an early night is not to be. Although I’ve had dinner and dessert, Janie takes me into the little town of Iola, and we stop off at this fantastic spot for Gelato. Gelato, way out here? Whoa. Not just gelato, but the owner just starts handing over tasting spoons to me and I try almost all of his 16 flavors. He used plums off the back tree to make a plum gelato. I start off thinking it’s got to be raspberry, but in the end I get a double scoop of crème brulee and plum. Didn’t I just say I’d already had dessert? But holy cow… this stuff is good.
After gelato, we head to the Northwoods Ballroom, a bar that has live music on Wednesday nights. Tonight is Art Stevenson, JR, and Dale playing bluegrass. Janie assures me they are some of the best around, and while I don’t know much about bluegrass, I agree that they are very good. And while the Northwoods Ballroom allows smoking, there aren’t many of them and the bar is big enough it’s not too bad (at least, not until I smell my clothes tomorrow). Some folks dance. There’s an old guy who looks like an old, small-town Wisconsin man – plaid shirt, jeans, black shoes – but he’s wearing a belt that is about ¾” wide and completely glittery. He’s dancing. I want to get his picture, but don’t know how to without feeling somewhat mean about it and figure the glitter wouldn’t show up well with the flash. Bummer.
Janie orders pizza and while I feel like you could roll me home, I do sneak a corner piece. Sausage & mushroom… not bad. When the band takes a break, Janie & I head for home through the backroads & over the river (literally: The Tomorrow River) and Jane sets to burning her burn pile. I’m feeling somewhat overwhelmed by this point, so I come in to type this up, and nearly head straight to sleep. Feeling obligated, I head down to the fire and Janie and I sit and talk a while longer and feed the smaller piles of brush. I missed the bonfire’s start, which was apparently quite impressive. Good thing; I’m a nervous Nellie about big bonfires. But all around the burn pile is green grass, which provides the border. Next thing you know it’s after midnight. The fire is down to embers and we’re content to head to bed.
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