US bike route system....

How fun would this be, if it all comes together!

Happy Halloween!

Guilty.....

Feeling guilty today. So far, it is the nicest day of the week and I drove to work. I biked to work on the coldest morning, so far this fall, and drove today.....how does that work?
Well, I will tell you how it works. I had a bunch of stuff to do over lunch and logistically there was no way I could have covered the amount of ground I need to and get back to work in my allotted time for lunch. Oh, well, tomorrow is another day. I will be ready to scare the kiddos tomorrow night!

Birthday......

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Guessing you and mom are cutting up the rug in heaven today!

CHEERS!

Halloween Humor....oldie but goodie....

A man is walking home alone late one foggy Halloween night,when behind him he hears: BUMP.... BUMP...BUMP...

Walking faster, he looks back and through the fog he makes out the image of an upright casket banging its way down the middle of the street toward him. BUMP... BUMP... BUMP...

Terrified, the man begins to run toward his home, the casket bouncing quickly behind him.. FASTER... FASTER... BUMP... BUMP... BUMP....

He runs up to his door, fumbles with his keys, opens the door, rushes in, slams and locks the door behind him.However, the casket crashes through his door, with the lid of the casket clapping. clappity-BUMP... clappity-BUMP... clappity-BUMP... on his heels, as the terrified man runs. Rushing upstairs to the bathroom, he locks himself in. His heart is pounding; his head is reeling; his breath is coming in sobbing gasps.

With a loud CRASH the casket breaks down the door. Bumping and clapping toward him. The man screams and reaches for something, anything, but all he can find is a bottle of cough syrup! Desperate, he throws the cough syrup at the casket.... and, then the coffin stops.

Commute and lucky.

Today I have dead legs, kind of, they are just tired Not sure way. The commute today was better then yesterday, guessing it was because there was no wind this morning and there was a NW wind yesterday. I left the sunglasses in the truck as to avoid the fogging issue, but have them ready for the ride home for lunch.

My biking issues are such small little issues compared to what life brings us. I can still walk, talk, have my mind, although sometimes that is in question, pretty much do what I want, with in reason, and most days there is not pain. There are others however that fight every second of every day for a semi normal life. Yes, I am lucky, like most of us, we have our health, but all of us know that we will be dealt a card in our lives that we really will want to put back in the deck or give back to the dealer, unfortunately we can not. We deal with the hand we are dealt. Is that where the saying DEAL with it comes from?.....who knows, but I know in given situations that is what we do is deal with it the best we can. Most deal with it privately and others share with close friends and family and still others will put it our there for all of us to be part of. Guess that is what bloggers do is put things out there, but some keep personal struggles personal. I would imagine it is very therapeutic or cathartic for a lot of us to write about our feelings, well it is for me anyway and others I assume also. It really takes a lot to open a person's life up to let the whole world be a part of it through the good times and the not so good times.

The reason behind this blog entry? If you do not read Fatty's blog take a peek over there and add them to your pray list, if you do that sort of thing. They are a brave family putting their life experiences out there even when life goes on to a new chapter.

Why does Fatty's blog hit so close to home, when I have never met or probably will never meet their family? Kris's sister, Susan, was in almost the same boat as Fatty's wife. They both have / had multiple brain tumors that are/were cancer, both named Susan and both have / had kid(s). The struggles Fatty's wife is going through is almost like a mirror to what Susan was going through. Both Kris and I read Fatty's blog last night and we both felt what the family is going through. Not easy for us to read about as it brings emotions back to the surface even after a few years. The heart still knows the heavy hurt of loss.

This is why we ride for a cause. This is why we buy Livestrong bracelets. This is why we donate money to help find a cure. This is our purpose.

Scull cap head

It is official...this is the coldest temperature (26 degrees) I have ridden my bike in! My new purchases worked pretty well, windstopper jacket, good upper base layer and the face mask. I had one big issue today and that was my sunglasses fogged up big and bad. I ended up pulling over and taking them off so then I was without my mirror and the eyes kind of teared a bit. Not a big deal as far as the mirror goes as I can still crank my head around to look but when you are used to using it and then not having it, I became a bit more "Timmy" as they say! Now, the only thing is dealing with scull cap head once I get to work.........vanity be thy name!

Missing........

Missing 1-a/c cover, gray with black trim. Similar to the picture below, minus the snow.





Last night we got home and I took Abe outside in the backyard. I noticed that the a/c cover was gone from the a/c! We cleaned the garage, somewhat yesterday, and I gave Kris the job of covering the a/c. Me and the boy went inside and I asked Kris about the cover and she said of course she covered it. So both of us armed with flashlight were sneaking around the neighborhood last night in search of $12.99 a/c cover! It was pretty funny. Anyway it was not found. Mr Mayor if you see it in Rowena give us a call....awh, hell, with this wind I am guessing it is in Tennessee by now!

Big hair / wig ALERT

WOW, is it windy! Pretty much 25-30 mph with gust upwards of 50 mph in our neck of the woods.

This is definitely bad if you have BIG hair...

Or if you wear a wig!

I called the SAG wagon....

I gave up on a ride yesterday. Yup, totally gave up. I had to call the SAG wagon to come get me. We had decided that a bunch of friends would meet up for breakfast yesterday at 9:00am at Tinner's, 69th and Minn. I decided I wanted to get a bike ride in so, I told Kris I would leave early and head out on the bike with a small stop at the bank to deposit a check. Got to the bank and it was closed so, I hit the bike trail getting on the asphalt path at 12th street to head south, into the wind, to Western then Western to 69th and 69th to Minnesota Ave. Ok, so that was the route. Anyway, I make it to Westward Ho Country Club area and start to get pretty cold. I was layered up ok but I still have not found my neck gaiter so I used a bandanna and the face and neck are was getting cold. I stopped to adjust clothing and had a GU since I had not had breakfast yet. The destination of the ride would refuel the body, so I thought. I also had cold water which some of you might know that I am not a big fan of drinking COLD water when I ride or just in general. Your body does not absorb it as fast as with a little warmer water. So I filled my bottle with cold water before I left the house and as I road it got colder so drinking it made me feel colder when I did have a swig. I had some issues also with my hands tingling since I only had winter gloves on with no padding in the right areas. With all this going on and running really late, I decided to call Kris and have her meet me at Western Ave or Yankton Trail Park area for you soccer players reading this blog. Yup, SAG wagon. DANG IT.

We had a great breakfast and good conversation with the group before heading to a winter clothing outlet sale. I figured I would get smarter about some of the things I needed for my cold weather cycling. Ends up I found a windstopper jacket and a base layer undershirt for a good price so they were purchased. I then went to Scheel's and picked up an under armour face mask. I am hoping it will work ok. It covers your nose and down your neck. I have the Pearl Izumi scull cap already and didn't feel I needed the all in one mask by UA. So it is all a trial by error for me yet with the cold weather riding.

Temp was 36 when I headed out. I only made it 5.28 before I gave in.........UGH, still learning and not giving up.

Planet Green and pork fat........

I was flipping through the channels, channel surfing as they call it, last night and found Planet Green. I had never seen this channel before and didn't know we even got this channel. It was interesting to watch. First off they shopped at a Whole Foods store which has lots of organic food. The store looked like it would be fun to shop at. Now, I am not huge on the organic stuff but this place looked fun with all the fresh fish. We watched Emeril Green. It is Emeril Lagasse, world renowned chef of pork fat, showing people how to prepare a good balanced meal from using more organic food. The chef of pork fat showing how to eat organic, IRONIC, maybe pork fat is technically organic? Anyway I decided to get on the world wide web, the internet as they call it, today and check out the Planet Green site. Look what I found. They actually have a cycling tip of the week section! I might have to check into this site a bit more in the future.

Cool commute

Cycling Cathy's recent blog was about finding motivation anywhere you can find it to get out and ride. So, last night I decided I needed to commute to work this morning. The motivation behind this was bald N surly and Dan. I thought if Dan could commute to work on Wednesday morning in the pouring rain wearing sandals and bald N surly could ride in the pouring rain and the cold of the darkness then I could ride in the cool morning drizzle. Turns out, no drizzle was to be had only damp, cool, 39 degree air this morning.

The choice of clothes, my work clothes of course, jeans, t-shirt, CUBS polar fleece pull over, thick socks and work type boots, then over that, I pulled on some lined nylon pants, my biking rain jacket, helmet (of course) and winter gloves. Turns out, I was sweating when I got to work. Those rain jackets do not breath very well. The only negative is that I could not find my neck gator so my ears and neck were a bit on the cool side but that was it. I also started out without my lights on. I never even thought of it until I met a few cars so I pulled over and put on the trusty head light and tail light. I felt better doing this. I also still had my sun glass lenses in instead of my clear lenses. Oh well, nothing hurt there. All a mater of figuring things out yet and what works best I imagine. I will figure it out soon enough. I never thought I would ever be riding a bike if the temps got below 50!

All in all a good ride to work but feels strange pedaling a bike with boots on.

Next week it is sounding like good weather. Get out on your bike, walk, golf or whatever. Just don't sit there and waste the good weather while we have it! There is not going to be many more days like it!

Artery clogger........

Well, not much to post about. Had a fun time last night with a group of us meeting at the Attic for a birthday. A day late celebration for one of our friends. Of course as always, laughter, libations and good food were had. A bunch of us had the artery clogger. It is a cheeseburger with peanut butter and a fried egg. It is good. Both Kris and I ate half ours then had the rest for supper tonight. If you have never had a hamburger with peanut butter on it you are missing out! I am not a huge peanut butter fan at all and I think they are quite good. Sometimes you need to order a side of extra peanut butter to slather more on them....YUMMY!
Later I met with a couple wild dudes to talk bike stuff at Monk's. One said dude even braved the elements last night and rode up on his bike. I am sure the zip lock baggy under his helmet made the difference....just kidding bald n surly! It was raining pretty good and cold by the time we left Monk's and he even turned down a ride. Get those miles in Mr Surly, you can do it! It sure felt good sitting by the fireplace at Monks. Gotta love that.

If it is not raining tomorrow I will hop on the Ol'fisher to commute to work. I have to reserve judgement on that until morning but I am thinking pretty strongly about it... well, at this point anyway.

Weekend plans include cleaning the garage, starting the snowblower and moving it up to the front of the garage, maybe a bike ride if the weather holds and if other life priorities do not get in the way.

Tomorrow is Friday! Kongaloosch everyone!

New to us recliner

We made a purchase last week from craigslist. I had been looking on there for bikes and occasionally browse for furniture and last week I found a leather recliner from there. I did a little emailing with the recliner owner and with a trip to see it and a little bartering we have a new to us recliner.

The only thing wrong with it is that their puppy chewed a little corner of the foot rest which you can see in the picture. That part of the recliner can be unscrewed and the leather replaced and even if we can't get the same color to match, that part of the recliner flips down and is not seen with it is upright position. This will be done soon. All in all a good experience with craigslist. I think we got a pretty good deal for $175 since it is a brand name recliner!

Bike ride and a flu shot

Bike and body were happy yesterday! I rode back to work after lunch. Abe, the dog, had been so tired from the weekend that I decided he needed to nap a bit longer and not go back to work with me. The Ol'Fisher was happy to be on the road again even though our usual route had to be altered because of road construction. The route home I went my usual way and then drove through the construction....I know, bad girl.

Since we are to get rain today and tomorrow I decided I need to get the yard mowed. I was amazed at how damp the grass was yet. Oh well, I lowered the deck on the mower and went at it. The back yard took two mowing passes each at different levels as the grass is thicker back there. Got it done and I have to say that is a good thing but boy was I tired last night. Never made it through my TV show. Pretty sure I was asleep by 9:30.

This morning I went to Lewis with all the blue hairs to get my flu shot! I paid my $28 and sat in the chair to have a nursing student give me the inoculation. Que the twilight zone music.......The nursing student told me that the lady that had been in the chair for her shot right before me had the same birthday as I did but a different year. Of course you know me....I had to say, "REALLY?" A DIFFERENT YEAR?, That seems odd!" the student laughed, since almost everyone in there to get their shots have 20-30 years on me. The older guy next to me was a bit nervous I think. He asked the student, when she didn't take the cap off the needle if she was a student! Of course she replied, "Yes". He looked a bit nervous. Pretty funny. I figure hey, they have to practice on someone and a flu shot is pretty harmless unless you have reactions to it. Not sure I would be in line if they were practicing starting IVs!

Dead Car, Death Trap and chainring bite....

Where do the weekends go?

We hit Murdo's Friday night for a late supper with, Joan, Luther and Rose. The walleye was wonderful! Of course we went to leave and the Bravada didn't want to start. A nice guy parked next to us gave us a jump and of course we headed back to the clubhouse right away after a lot of thank yous to this kind man. Luther checked out the battery and saw the terminal was a bit corroded so we dumped some diet coke on it to clean it up and of course it started right up. Amazing to think that diet coke will clean off battery terminals. I wonder what it really does to our insides when we drink this stuff? The next morning the old bravada started right off again so we think it was a corrosion issue but still need to get it checked out this week.

Met up with some friends that so kindly agreed to haul Kris's moms love seat back to Sioux Falls for us in their camper with that has a toy hauler. AGAIN THANKS. We had lunch with them before they headed back to Sioux Falls and then Kris and I did some winter organizing at the clubhouse. We got all the patio furniture, hoses all inside and then did some organizing in the garage.

Saturday night we went to the forth play of the Lewis and Clark theater season, Death Trap, a comedy thriller. It was really good. Small cast of five and it all took place on one set. The play really takes a lot of twist and turns. A couple of older ladies that sat behind us were scared at one part and kind of screamed. It was funny. The play was good and has to be my favorite so far this theater season. Next up is It's a Wonderful Life in hitting the stage in December and we can't wait.

Sunday we went to church. I had a couple people come up to me and thank us again for the memorial in my mom's name., the waxless candles. They commented on how quick they light and how pretty they are and of course they are. Mom's spirit will always burn bright and be part of every celebration at Vangen Lutheran Church! The other thing that happened was there was a baptism. The baby's middle name was Mae which was my mom's middle name and spelled the same. Then one more thing was the we sang Borning Cry which we sang at mom's funeral. I guess we were meant to be there today! Headed over to Joan and Luther's for brunch after church before Kris and I headed back to Sioux Falls for more fun! We picked up the love seat from our friends house then took it out to her moms. We then had to move a couch, lift chair and carpet up to Kris's grandmothers house for storage then we had to take if Kris's moms patio furniture. OK, WE ARE DONE HAULING / MOVING FURNITURE FOR A LONG TIME!

The down side to the weekend. No bike ride. Today would have been the best day to crank the pedals but it was not meant to be. My bike is not happy with me. I was going to get the tie downs out of the garage and while moving my bike it kind of tipped and the chainring bit me on the shin. I guess it is pay backs and it was well deserved..........

Trail Expansion in the Hills?......

George S. Mickelson Trail to Mt. Rushmore Connector Trail Being Studied
RAPID CITY, S.D. – An open house will be held Wednesday to gather input on a proposed non-motorized recreational trail connecting Mount Rushmore and the George S. Mickelson Trail.
The meeting will take place at 728 Sixth Street in Rapid City from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The public is asked for input into the benefits, challenges and issues that may be encountered in planning a trail connecting the George S. Mickelson Trail with Mount Rushmore.
Wyss Associates, Inc. has been contracted by the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks to prepare a routing study for the proposed connector trail.

Reorganizing.....

Been trying to organize the bike stuff so it is not ALL over the place. Bought one of these to store all the bike gear in for two people. I put the helmets, shoes, trunks, water bottles, shorts, socks, jerseys, camel baks, lights, misc tools, pumps, GU, Cytomax in there so they are all together now. Should be nice! The only thing is that it is in the basement so trekking downstairs after a longer ride might not be so good but I guess since the beer fridge is in the basement there is a nice recovery drink that can be had before trekking back up the stairs!

Tonight I am going to try and reorganize a few things in the basement and move some furniture around in the "family room" area as we bought a leather recliner from someone on Craiglist. The recliner is in good shape and is mission style. It has one little corner of the footrest that their puppy chewed a bit but it will not take much to repair it. It was a good deal. Come to find out the guy that was selling it has relatives that lived in the Mission Hill area that used to go to Vangen Lutheran Church, my home church when living in Yankton. Small world...........

Heading to Yankton this weekend. Should be fun. Meeting up with Godparents and Rose for supper on Friday night at Murdos and then hitting the play, Death Trap on Saturday night. Should be a nice relaxing time. I think we are taking the bikes to maybe take a little trek out and about by the lake or in Yankton. Neither one of us have been on the bikes so far in October...UGH!.....longest stretch for me not being on a bike since mid-May! Don't like it. I have promised myself that the 20 pounds I have lost since last summer will not slowly start to appear on the body over the winter and in fact weight loss goals have been set to meet by MS150 next year.

Work stuff this week is messed up as we have a booth at the state architects convention today and tomorrow. I have to woman the booth on Friday morning from 9-noon and then take the booth down after that which is always fun. Today is usually the day when there is the most traffic by the vendor booths so usually Friday morning is usually pretty laid back. I might have to take a book or magazine along to read. Of course there is always the chance that one DISNEY loving architect will stop by the booth tomorrow so we can chat about Disney for 20 minutes like last year!

Well, everyone have a safe weekend and a fun ride tomorrow night for FAB starlight ride! Check out what the Mayor will be sporting on his bike for the ride...LIGHT UP THE NIGHT!

Green ride........

The reason you ride? The reason I ride? There are all different reasons why we ride but one thing is clear the fellow in the video gets a few of them figured out.

Expensive lunch........

Pretty much a sluggish start to the week....got to be the weather or my inactivity, maybe.

Kris had today off, from working the weekend, so we emailed Mackie to see if she wanted to join us for lunch downtown since Mackie works downtown. I had decided on Buffalo Berries since none of us had been there before. Lets just say we will not be in a rush to head back there. It is all organic food. Now, I am not against organic food at all, but the soup, black bean Cuban, really didn't have a lot of spice or flavor nor did the wasabi (sp?) (Japanese horseradish) tuna melt. So I had a sandwich, cup of soup and a diet root beer and Kris had a chicken salad, cup of soup and an ice tea. The bill was $23-something. Ok, now I am one that does not mind paying more if the food is good but when the food was average the price was expensive. So they do not get a good review from me. Oh, well. I guess it was a healthy expensive lunch....now I need to have some CHOCOLATE!

Being that Kris is home today she put a roast in the crock pot with tay-dees, carrots and onions. I can't wait for SUPPER!

FAB voters confused?

It seems I was voted in as a FAB Member at Large. Maybe the voters thought they were voting for the largest member not member at large when voting for me?.....

Friday blahs.....

I along with other bloggers have the blahs it seems. I have no interest in riding. I have no interest in working. I have not interest in anything at this point. I am already tired of our favorite TV shows and I have a headache.........

I am sure my attitude will get better but I do have a headache. Went to bed and had a headache and woke up with it also and it is not from having to much fun sampling beer....I could only wish. Maybe it is the post vacation blues. Maybe the change of season up coming. Maybe it is all the stuff yet to do to combat the cold and make the house a little more efficient. Maybe it is the yard work. Maybe it is work stuff. Maybe it is my 401k dropping. Maybe it is the whole world financial crap. Maybe it is our tax dollars hard at work for the CEOs spa day. Maybe it is all the political CRAP. Whatever it is like I said I am sure it will pass. I can only hope it will happen SOON!

Remedy - libations!....Bottoms up KIDS!

Different beverages consumed.........

Some of the different beverages consumed on vacation. These empties were not consumed by one person! I see I missed the spotted cow and of course the RUM!

Ride and vote

FAB Apple Orchard ride and election of officers is this Saturday, Oct 11! Might be a bit on the COOL side! Details can be found here.

Get out there bike, eat (FAB treats at the Orchard) and vote!

Things I learned on vacation

1) People in WI are big into their "yard art" and I mean BIG!

2) It is ok to chase deer while riding a snowmobile?? Unfortunately I never got a picture of this but they had a Caution snowmobile sign with a Caution deer sign in front of it so it looked like it was Caution snowmobile chasing deer! Didn't know that was legal...haha

3) Don't be afraid to order Liver and Onions at a bar, you might be surprised!

4) They have happy cows in WI as most of the bi-products from the breweries go to feed the cows!

5) Not only great cheese but great beer also!

6) Women are inboards and men are outboards! (bathroom signs at the Blacksmith shop) Ok, I knew this but we had fun watching people walk up to the bathroom doors trying to figure out what they were. One poor little guy around 7-ish had to run back to his parents table, holding a specific body part, as he asked his dad if he was an inboard or outboard.

7) Loons change color in the fall from the black and white speckling to a gray color.

8) No matter how close you sit facing a bonfire your butt still gets cold!

9) Little brown bats can crawl in a hole 1" wide by 1/4" tall.

10) Red squirrels are aggressive little dudes.

11) ZYMOCENOSILICAPHOBIA is the fear of an empty beer glass.

12) No matter how many times I travel to whatever destination, I am always amazed by natures beauty.

Best part of coming home....

The best part of coming home was picking up Abe from the spa and Wrigs from a friends house! Well, ok, not so sure Wrigley is happy about being home....haha!

Day 7 of vacation

We got all loaded up and headed out for our journey home. We stopped in Minneapolis at the Mall of America for some shopping and food then onto REI for more shopping before pulling into the driveway at 6:30pm.

At REI I got:

Day 6 of vacation

Dawn (Mackie) and Christi (Gilly) headed home on Wednesday as they wanted to be back to work, Thursday and Friday.

Kris and I decided to clean up the cabin and take the towels, sheets and other laundry to the laundry mat since Lenny, the poop guy, had not been there to clean out the septic tank yet.

We found a great little bakery in Frederic so we got some old fashion donuts for our Thursday morning breakfast and we also purchased a couple loaves of bread. Then it was off to the laundry mat. This place was the cleanest laundry mat I have ever been in. We figured out how it stays so clean when we left. Seems the owners house was attached to the laundry mat. This also explained why they asked you to not start loads of laundry after 7:00pm.

We got back to the cabin and about 10 min later, Lenny, the poop guy, shows up. Then the bat guy shows up about five minutes later. So, yup, I braved the smell standing out by the septic tank and talked with Lenny. Meanwhile Kris was in the screen porch talking to the bat guy. So I am having this conversation with Lenny, the poop guy, and he is asking if we had bat issues. I told him not really bad but there have been some get into the cabin in the past but the owners wanted to get things caulked so there wasn't anymore issues. He then tells me that is one job he would not like to do at all. Ok, so, here I am standing talking to a guy that has a hose in a septic tank sucking out GOD KNOWS (well you do know but I will not go into it here) what out of there and the smell is nasty. He has no gloves, mask or any protective gear on while he is doing this and he is telling me he would not deal with bats! So again, meanwhile, Kris is talking to Batman, yes that is what we called him, anyway he is asking if we were having sewer issues and of course we told him no that it just needed to be pumped out. Then he said that is a job he could never do, which I have to agree with him on that! Anyway we thought it was funny that both Kris and I were having similar conversations with two different people and they both thought they would not do ether's job. Ironic? Que the Twilight Zone music......

We packed up a few things to make the morning exit a bit easier and then headed to Indian Head Supper Club for supper a few towns away. What a place that was. Decor was log cabin meets home interior party meets velvet paintings. They had paintings of Indian chiefs on black velvet and then of course had lights on the pictures. Food was good, at least mine was, pan fried walleye..YUM! We had a very interesting waitress. She had quite the conversations with her bartender about the Twins and the Vikings while we waited for our wine. Of course they were very funny conversations that took place across the dining room so we heard all of it! She told us she had traveled to South Dakota to camp and horse back ride a few times in the Badlands. She also said she camped at Evil Women camp ground on the east side of the state. We think she meant Enemy Swim so we got a chuckle out of that. She hoped we enjoyed their state (WI) as much as she enjoyed South Dakota. I thought that was nice to say and we sure did enjoy WI.

We got back to the cabin to watch the CUBS LOOSE..........................DANG IT!

Day 5 of vacation

Ronnie and Nanci (Kono) headed out and headed north for the rest of their vacation together. They were heading to the Duluth area and I am sure the colors were great up there!

The rest of us sat and played a game of Rumicube and waited for the sun to warm things up outside so we could possibly golf. Well, it never got very warm so we went for option #2 which was to drive around and see the country. We drove back to Taylor's Falls and St Croix Falls area. It was very nice there. We happened upon a walking trail of glacier holes along the St Croix River. Very neat and great picture opportunities. We then decided to try and tour a vineyard but it was closed on Tuesdays...go figure!

BIG Glacier hole

St Croix river

St Croix River

Glacier hole

Heading back to the cabin we stopped and had a beverage at Paradise Landing. A very nice up scale resort on the lake. They had a nice patio area along the lake. We decided that this would a must do on the next trip up there when it gets warmer! We stopped at the classier joint (being facetious here), the Blacksmith Shop, again, had a beverage and ordered carry out, burgers, so we could go back to the cabin and watch the Twins...LOOSE...dang it!

Day 4 of Vacation

We woke to the smell of coffee, bacon and Kris making Belgian waffles!...YUM-O

No plans for the day really. We had our breakfast and then we decided to ride the Dau road on our bikes. This was going to be a bit scary as Dawn and Christi have mountain bike with knobbies, Kris and I have mountain bikes with inverted treads and Ronnie and Nanci were on road / hybrid bikes with skinny tires. We were worried about Ronnie and Nanci riding on this road but they were troopers and decided to go for it. What a great ride it was. The gravel had big stones, no so fun, and also was a bit wet so it was soft in places. This road was 2 miles long of hills, gravel and a canopy of trees. It was a great ride that we were happy to do a round trip on. We saw some deer when we were on the hard surface. One little girl, I named her Jane, get it Jane Doe...bad humor sorry, anyway Jane was doing the deer in the headlights look. I stopped and talked to her and Kono rode up and snapped all sorts of pics of her. Jane was so pretty and just standing there looking like she wanted her picture taken. We all made it back to the cabin 7.2 mile later. No record speed. No record distance, just a fun ride with friends and seeing nature.

This is Dau Road. Pretty much the whole road was covered with trees like this!

Four of us broke out the boccie set. It was a good friendly game but Christi and I lost...DANG IT! The other two of our six were sitting in the screen porch reading and had no interest in taking on the winners. I guess they were intimidated...or something like that.

Our supper was to be a wonderful event. Kono and Ronnie brought steaks, wine and with our grocery store stop we added salad and bread to the mix. The cabin only has a charcoal grill and it has been quite some time since I cooked with briquettes but we got it done. The food was great. We opted for a bonfire out by the lake. The evening breeze was cool and strong so the fire burned great but our backsides got quite cold!

Our fire pit area during the day!

Nothing like looking up at the stars in the country, away from city lights. They are amazing!

Side note: learned a lot about bats. The cabin has had some bats in the past but nothing bad, only one in the screened porch this year but Kris's uncle has a ZERO bat tolerance so one was tooooo many for him! Kris's aunt and uncle had a guy come and seal up any of the cracks that the little browns might be able to enter the cabin through. It seems he was to have this done before we got to the cabin so as not to scare us. No need to worry we are not afraid of them in fact while I was waiting for the charcoal to turn its wonderful gray color the "Batman" came to seal more cracks. He was a nice guy. The name of his company is "Fly by Night" which we thought was funny. Anyway he told us all about bats. Pretty interesting. We even found one little brown roosting under the cabin over hang. This guy was quite the guys. He went to school for gunsmithing and was not going to school for small engine repair and does this bat thing part time. I guess that it typical for that area of WI as it is really a poor area so people diversify to meet peoples needs. We noticed this to be true with the little convenience store down the road. Not only is it a bait, beer, liquor, produce, meds, gas, food store but you can also pick up some landscape pavers when we pick up you gallon of milk!

Day 3 of vacation

Sunday day 3 of vacation was an interesting one. After leaving the Blacksmith Shop on Saturday night four of us decided to try and find a grocery store. We didn't have any luck with that. Seems they close them down VERY early. That left a bit of an issue for Sunday morning breakfast. We decided we would try and find either a place to eat or a grocery store to purchase food. After driving around the little town of 1000-ish give or take a 100 we opted to stop at Janelle's Main Dish. It was the little town cafe. We sat down and the little high school girl came over to wait on us. To our surprise they had a menu that had some very interesting items on it. Wanting to try something different I ordered a reuben omelet! Yup, an omelet with corn beef, sauerkraut, cheese and a little salad dressing. IT WAS AWESOME! Let us just say that all of us had juice and or coffee and a big breakfast and the total bill was around $45 for ALL of us to eat a huge meal. The service was great also which was surprising since our waitress was all of maybe 16-17. Our waitress also gave us directions to the grocery store...yeah! The grocery store was actually very nice for the size of the town. We loaded up and headed out and found a gravel road (dau road) that we ventured down. The road had a tree canopy and was really pretty. Once back at the cabin Dawn and Kono (Nanci) started making chili for supper. We thought this sounded good since it was in the 50s. They stuck it in the oven to bake through the afternoon and then we just sat around sampling a few of our beer purchase sitting in the screen porch.

Hanging on out in the screened in porch (Ronnie and Kono)


Redneck glass koozies (socks)

Mixing the Leines and hanging on to a chilled beer mug was kind of

COLD so Mackie and I put on golf gloves to hold our beer mugs.

Hanging in the screen porch (me and Dawn)

It was fun and lots of laughter was had. Dawn and Christi got Kris some gag gifts for her birthday. OH MY GOD! They were all gifts to use as you get older like, magnifying glass, sunglasses that go over your regular glasses. Then there was a box of some hair coloring stuff. Not for the top of you head but for what they say....."The hair down there!" It is made by Fun Betty and they had heard about it from their hair dresser. She had found it and thought it would be a great gag gift. It is a very funny gift and I can not believe they sell this stuff. We opened it up and looked at it. Again...OMG! The applicator looked like a mascara applicator. Way to funny! And no, no one sampled enough beers to try Fun Betty out! What color did they buy you ask? HOT PINK!




We had our great chili supper, watched baseball and then played Mexican Train dominoes. This is a game that can take hours if you play the whole sets. It is a LOT of fun to play.

Everyone hit their beds shortly there after...

Days 1-2 of vacation

We, me, Kris, Dawn and Christi, hit the road around 3:00pm Friday to head to Cheesehead land. The drive was uneventful but a stop had to be made at Blue Max Liquor in Burnsville, MN. We had to have some beverages for the night and some fun ones for our vacation. After a bite to eat we headed to Hudson, WI for our sleep stop for the night. We also met up with Ronnie and Nanci our other two vacationeers. They had crashed for the night but we needed a night cap before the heads hit the pillows so we broke open a few bottles of beer to enjoy.

Saturday morning we headed to Chippewa Falls, WI to tour the Leinenkugel Brewery. If you ever get a chance to take the tour do so. It is better to do this during the weekday then weekend as you get to see the whole production of the bottling also. It was a fun time and of course you get two FREE 7 oz glasses of Leinies to sample. I of course did a mix. If you are not familiar with this, Leinie drinkers do some mixing of the different Lienie brews. It is a lot of fun and gives some of your favorite beers a different taste. I had a Red Oktober which is their red lager mixed with their Oktoberfest. Very good. I like the Oktoberfest and am not really a Red Lager fan but when you mix the two they are good. Lets see if I can remember what all we tried. Black Bear (Leinie's creamy dark and berry weiss) Honey Bear (Honey weiss and berry weiss) Red Sunset (red lager and sunset wheat)....and of course I can not remember them all...might have to take another trip there.

Ok, so we do the tour and our tour guide, Zach, escorted us back to the Leinie Lodge (gift shop) and what do we see but a whole bunch of bikers. I snapped a pic of a few of them as they took off on their tandems. We fell in LOVE with the Disney bike jersey the one couple had on. Might have to start looking for a couple of those. This seems to be a bit of a hot bed for bikers. I do know that the Leinenkugel have a bike ride the end of May which might be a fun time for a future ride. Anyway when we were there a lot of bikers were coming and going which was neat to see. Why is it the biking and good beer go together? I have yet to figure this out.

So, we head to a little place for lunch. Nothing fancy, but was recommended by Leinenkugel staff. The place was not much on atmosphere but the food was great. We also hit the local grocery store for more beverages. We were given $2.00 off coupons on 12-packs of Leinies for taking the Leinies tour. I did question Zach, our tour guide, about the new nut brown ale Leinenkugels coming out this fall. He said it is not ready but asked if I had tried New Glarus Brewery's nut brown ale. Hmmmm....this is the second time I had heard about New Glarus (thanks Mr Bite) so we decided to purchase some at Gordy's grocery store but to our surprise we looked at the Leinenkugel sample and low and behold their was a featured beer call Fireside Nut Brown Ale! Of course we bought the sample pack and also the New Glarus Spotted Cow, Fat Squirrel (nut brown ale) and a few other beers to sample.

We were finally on the road again and headed to our destination up by Luck, WI.

We got all unloaded and kind of settled in to the log cabin that Kris's aunt and uncle own. Little did Kris know is that I sent all sorts of items to her aunt and uncle to decorate the cabin for her 50th birthday. It was kind of a belated surprise but lots of fun. She of course thought her aunt and uncle did all of it and you know me, I played right along with it until she called and talked with them. I had to come clean. It is a very nice place and is not ruffing it by any means. Food was needed so we headed down to the local drinking hole the Blacksmith's shop. All of us had chicken is some sort of way but not Kris. She bucked the group and opted for liver and onions. I have to tell you that four of the six of us like liver and onions and so samples were had. The liver and onions were awesome!

We headed back to the cabin and all of us were so tired we were all in bed by around 9:00pm...wow!

We are back

We are back home from vacation. It went VERY fast but was a lot of fun even though the weather was cool.

I will give a full report in the up coming days.