Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Back to the W's

In my/our 27 nights in hotel rooms so far, I don't think we had the TV on 3 times.  We used to watch the Weather Channel a lot, but now between the laptop and our phones, we have instant access to the info we need on demand.  With our showers, packing for the next morning, planning the ride, updating friends, and whatever else, and usually an early start, it just doesn't get turned on.

But if it did, we'd be back to the W's.  As you know, broadcast station call letters west of the Mississippi start with K, and with W east of the mighty Mississip.  We passed that milestone earlier today, crossing into LaCrosse, Wisconsin in the early afternoon.

This was after a visit to the SPAM museum in Austin, MN first thing in the morning, which was about as neat as you'd expect.  Since they didn't open until 10, we were kind of hustling to get to the House on the Rock and Dr. Evermor's Forevertron near Madison here.

Hustling a bit too much, apparently, since a Minnesota trooper coming the other way hooked a U-turn on that rural highway and pulled us over.  We were polite, he was understanding and kind to the travelers from Pennsylvania touring his fine state, and we were sent off with a warning.  Good thing I heeded it, too, because about 30 miles down the road, an associate of his was conducting enforcement activities as well.  With us on record, I don't think the second time would have been a warning.

We decided to skip the House on the Rock.  Funny how we think:  I remember once having a discussion with Donna about either making a detour, or trying to get a little further on a given day or whatever, and I said without a trace of irony, "It's only about a hundred miles."  And without a trace of irony, she said, "oh hell, then why not?"  Now here we were in Wisconsin, and when I asked if everyone was OK with skipping this stop to keep the day from getting too late, Mom says, "Sure, just skip it.  We're close - we can come back some other time." 

We're in frickin WISCONSIN.

Not everybody thinks like we do.

Then we got to Dr. Evermor's and it was closed.  It was sad how pissed I was, after a month of seeing every amazing, fascinating, must-see scenic tourist destination in the country, I'm heartbroken for being unable to see some scrap welded together by a wacky madman.  That ain't right.

From this point, it's pretty much hammering out interstate for 2-1/2 days to get home.  We'll get a little more of the road less traveled tomorrow morning, but before Chicago we'll get on the "big road" and start gobbling up the miles.  We don't have any scenic or oddball destinations up our sleeves anymore - which is pretty much how we plan these trips.  The "week or less" stuff we save for "week or less" trips.  When we're going off the reservation, we see everything we can't get to otherwise.

For the umpteenth time, I have a bunch of pictures I want to add, and a bunch of interesting thoughts and details I'd like to document (I use this as my own journal and like to go back and read it) so there will be more to come.  But barring anything unexpected, it's hammer down from here, so I can get to the lake house with Donna and the kids for Labor Day weekend.

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