On the Road to Milwaukee

I know I forgot to tell all of you that, on the way home from church yesterday, we swung through Ft McCoy. It was interesting to see, but the best part was that Darrin walked us through a new building that will soon be his office. What fun!

Today started slowly for most of us. We wandered up and out at different times, but were all greeted with coffee and my favorite plates.. Read the red plate and you will know why. Vicki shared a piece from "Hugs for friends" so we had tears with breakfast. The oranges smelled so very inviting and tasted good. Then, we had a casserole made with eggs, cheese and hash browns... and pumpkin cheese bread... oh so gooooooooooood. We lingered over breakfast as long as we could and managed to get some pictures taken. The deck is Darrin's achievement ---- for Vicki, of course. It was fun to share their lives for a little while, the landscaping that they've worked so hard on, the new deck, Darrin's job, Vicki's volunteer work with hospice, family stuff, church stuff. It was nice to see them so settled, but still missing our St Mark family a little as we miss them. Vicki sent us off with a care package. and lots of hugs and a little emotion --- it was good.

We headed East towards Milwaukee.. Earla finally saw her first clothesline with clothes hanging on it... We were beginning to think it might be a lost cause. No clotheslines in Iowa or Minnesota. If we'd gotten through Wisconsin without seeing one, it would have caused serious sadness. There was also a "Quilts" sign in the front yard so, of course, we had to investigate. The quilts were beautiful, and in the back room of an Amish home. We managed to restrain from making a purchase.

After some nuts and bolts and water and a few more miles, we decided we might need some coffee. We stopped at a JoBee O's and went in. The smoke drove us back and we noticed the sign on the door that read "We do not support a state wide smoking ban". Really? So, we tried a sandwich shop. As we were using the facilities, we could hardly think, the music was so loud. And, a large group of teens paraded in. We decided that this was definitely not for us, and headed across the street to a convenience store for coffee. And, we were on the road again.... Highways 21 to 73 to 16 to I94. On I94, with a few zigs and zags, we accepted that there would be no more back roads today. I94 took us into Milwaukee. We had good directions and found the ferry dock easily... Then, we decided to find a hotel nearby -- not so easy. We drove a little here and there --- very nice drive parallel to the lake, but we were fairly certain that we were getting further and further away from the dock, so we decided to stop and ask where we might find a hotel. We were pointed towards Wisconsin Avenue. Once on Wisconsin Avenue, it was most apparent that we were in downtown Milwaukee. I tried to call Holiday Inn to see if they had something near the docks. They did, but when I asked for directions, I was put on hole forever! About that time we went by the Doubletree. We looked at it, thought it might be a little pricey, continued to hold and finally stopped to get our bearings. I hung up on Holiday Inn, called the Doubletree, asked if they had a room and, finding that they did, we swung around and here we are. You may have guessed that our patience was just about as thin as it could get at this point. We thoroughly enjoyed the warm chocolate chip cookies that they handed us at the front desk, and went for wine - and a little dinner. We had salads with our wine and came back to the room. We have played one more game of Scrabble. Earla is still ahead in number of games, but trust me, this will be a fight to the finish. We are off to bed so that we can enjoy the ferry tomorrow.