Sluggy's Solo Road Trip.....Part 3...IL to WI

Monday Den had to return to work so Sonya Ann and I were on our own to get into trouble.

So what did we do?

We went thrifting.
I found a few things.....a book and this interesting item......

A most excellent buy.....

We also got lots of clothes, Sonya Ann found some good buys for her whole family.  I found 2 l/s shirts for #2Son and a thermal nightgown for me, all marked $3.99.

But Sonya had a nifty coupon for 25% off plus since she's on their list or something so we got an additional 5% off after the 25% was deducted.  This made our finds even better!

I picked up these Picasso plates too.  I thought they were neat and might make good eBay fodder.....if not, I'd like to keep them......

Then I wandered over by the glass case where they keep the "big ticket" items at Goodwill......sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it?, having big ticket items at Goodwill. ;-)

I saw this box over there......

Do you see that it's priced at $19.99.
Yikes!  Kind of expensive for Goodwill, huh?

But you'll notice the box also says "Longaberger" on it.
Hmmmm......

Now some of this Longaberger stuff is pricey and goes for good money long after it's manufactured.
My mother had some Longaberger baskets given to her by her friend that I inherited.  I am not "into" baskets per se and certainly not into Longaberger baskets so my plan was to sell my mom's baskets.
Well, of course, after researching the baskets my mother had left me, they were not worth selling. 
Sigh.
So they are still sitting in my bedroom closet.

Anyway, I saw that name on the box so I had to take a look.
It says this is a Collector's Club piece.....so you know they weren't produced in vast numbers like their ordinary baskets.
And here is what I found inside the box.....

It's a replica of an old fashioned beehive "skep".  Before wooden framed beehives, keepers kept their colonies in wicker or straw skeps. 
It sits on a solid wooden pedestal and has a metal top with a bee on it.  There are metal silver/pewter colored bees on wires that you can attach wherever you wish on the basket.  It's hand signed inside and dated 2010 and comes with the Longaberger tag still attached, another tag that was in the box and the original box and cardboard packing.  It's never been used from what I can tell.

Now I don't know what this cost new at retail and I had no clue if it was worth anything now and valued by collectors.

But......all yellow stickers were 50% the day we were at Goodwill, so it was suddenly only $10.
And the 25% off coupon plus additional 5% off made it a $7.12 + tax deal.
I thought it was cute and if push came to shove and it didn't sell on eBay I'd actually display it and enjoy it.

Sonya brought up eBay on her phone for me but we couldn't look at the closed auctions to see what these sold for, if any had actually sold.

When we got back to her house and on my laptop, I was bummed to see I would be enjoying those Picasso plates for years to come(lol), and pleased to find a closed auction where one of those Longaberger beehive baskets sold in late June for $160 or so.
Sweet! 8-)))
(More beehives have come onto eBay this Summer and the price has gone down but still enough to make it worth my while to buy and sell there.)


After sifting through the junk fine quality merchandise at Goodwill it was lunch time and the place Sonya wanted to take me for lunch was closed on Monday so we found this little Chinese restaurant.  Not crowded, nice inside and the food was good.
Chinese restaurants are often a crapshoot but we rolled snake eyes on this one!

After she got some food in her Sonya was more amenable to letting me take her picture.....

And then her true colors came flooding out.....

I got a great fortune cookie fortune......

 

 

On the way out we took a selfie......

 

 

Geez, am I really that short!?!

We went back to Sonya's house after our late lunch.
It was time for some liquid refreshment and I popped the top of this pineapple flavored hard cider.....

I give it a thumbs up!

Then I staggered wandered out in the backyard.

All this talk about how Sonya Ann has a black thumb is bogus.
Look it what she grew this Summer!
Maters....

A whole bed of tomato plants and nary a one was dead or dying.

And her herb bed next to the backdoor was just bursting with dill and basil and other green things.
She really has a very nice gardeny backyard....much better than mine, but that's not saying much. ;-)

I wandered back inside because we had to find a deal for dinner.
I went to Restaurant dotcom and found a place down by where Den grew up.  Went to their website and saw they had a Steak Dinner special for $9.99 on Mondays.
Ding! Ding! Ding!  We have a winner!!

When Den got home I gave him the bottle of Hub's latest home brew that I had brought.  I filmed his tasting of it for posterity......




Once DJ got home we were on our way to the restaurant.
I knew we were in a classy establishment when I spied this fine art over the bar........

 

 

Poker Dogs.....the mark of a fine eating place.


Here's a shot of our table while most of us were in the restrooms.
Notice the bar to the left and 2 video poker machines on the right.

Sonya spent the whole evening waiting for those 2 people to vacant the poker machines so she could gamble.
They only got up to get change from the change machine on the wall or to get another drink at the bar.
Poor, poor Sonya.....she was stuck with our sparkling conversation all evening.

Soon our steaks showed up.......Mmmmmm.......

We left stuffed to the gills and between the Dinner special price and the gift certificate this meal didn't break the Bank of Sluggy!

As we left the restaurant I convinced everyone to pose for a group shot to commemorate our evening.
I got this shot of the Sonya Ann family.....

Sonya Ann took a selfie of all of us.....

Well some parts of some of us got into that shot! lolz
I never noticed before what lovely lips Den has..... ;-)

After that fail, Den took this group shot.......

This is a rare photograph indeed.  Everyone is smiling.  Even DJ!


This Dog & Suds was next door.   I have been promised a meal here the next time I come through this part of Illinois.

My question is....."What's a Texas Tuesday"?

On the way home Den drove us by a couple of houses in the neighborhood he grew up in.  I didn't get a picture as I was in a steak coma but he lived in some nice digs as a teen.

We kicked back at Sonya's house and knocked back a couple more drinks.


Tuesday morning I packed everything up and we attempted to load up the Sonic.

The Sonic which spent most of the time here on the front lawn.

I have to say that packing the car was like Sonya said, "a game of Tetris".
She must have been an awesome Tetris player back in the day because we fit most everything in the trunk.

There was time for hugs and one last selfie before I shoved off for points north. 
I had an awesome visit and I look sad that it was over already.

I got onto the Interstate heading to Milwaukee, WI.

Traffic wasn't bad, even though Sonya said it would be.
I cruised right into this place.......

Sprecher's Brewery

I stopped here for this.......

Really good Root Beer.
And I got Hubs and #1 Son some of their beer offerings.

3 rooms of gift shop with really good prices.
I even got a free 12 case of root beer when I bought X number of beers.

 I didn't have time to take the Brewery Tour since I still had about 5 hours of driving ahead of me this day.

I picked up some Root Beer Brats and Root Beer Mustard.

Both were wonderful!
But I have to say those brats were a PITA during the rest of the trip since I had to keep them continuously chilled, no matter where I was staying--house or motel.

This was an interesting novelty item--a Styrofoam cooler shaped like a car engine with slots for beer/soda cans on the sides so you didn't have to open the cooler to get a drink out and could keep other items cold too inside.

Loved this sign in the window of the gift shop.

I ended up buying 3 cases of soda and/or beer.  Luckily an employee used a hand truck to wheel it out to my car, but then I had to figure out how to fit it all in this tiny car! lolz

And do you like my new T-Shirt from Sprecher's?.....

Within an hour I was back on the highway and heading into the Great White North.

The skies were threatening rain off and on most of the day.  Rain clouds now....

Blue skies later......

This was the whole day.

I stopped after an hour of driving in a tiny town to get gas and something to eat.
Tiny town with grain elevators and a drive-through liquor store across from the gas station.
Now that's progress.....

My driving lunch--a protein shake(nasty and chalky!)and a leftover English muffin egg sandwich from their breakfast offerings.
$7+ for this....geez!

Only in this part of the world(or Pennsylvania)would you see a sign like this.  Too bad I wasn't stopping near here. So sad I had to miss the Polka Days.

 

 

I drove and drove.....and then drove some more.
I drove through Fond du Lac.
I drove through Osh Kosh and saw an outlet mall with an Osh Kosh B'Gosh store! lolz
I drove through Stevens Point.
And I finally got to my destination, Wausau.
Fortunately for you I didn't take any more photos while driving.

But here a picture of my friend Blanche's cute little house where I stayed for 3 days.

I met Blanche through a group of online Beanie Babies collectors.  This group had 2 conventions back in 1999 and 2000, outside of Minneapolis and outside of St. Louis, respectively.
Blanche came to the Minnesota gathering in 1999 as she lived outside of Minneapolis back then and that's where we met.
She sent an open invitation when she moved to Wausau to come stay with her.
I bet she didn't think I'd actually get the nerve to drive up there and see her. lol

Well I did. ;-)

Blanche had plans to meet up with her daughter and her family at Texas Roadhouse and treat us all to dinner.
Her family was lovely as she is and we had a good meal.

I about fell into bed at 9pm I was so worn out.
So ended Day 6 of my trip.

Until the next installment,

Sluggy