Our Trip to IL.....Part 4 PTSD, Old Stuff & ERs

Monday and Den went to work although he felt like crap still.
So what did Hubs, Sonya and I do?
Why we went off on an adventure north to Wisconsin to an Apple Farm/Destination called Apple Holler.

This was a Pick Ur Own Apple Orchard/Farm with Fall activities for the kids, Pumpkins, Animals, etc.
They also have a fresh bakery, a gift shop with food/drinks and a restaurant.

Of course we couldn't find the entrance once we got off the interstate and made a big circuitous 5 mile drive around the place before finally finding the entrance.

The place was packed with cars and school buses full of little kids and I had a brief PTSD episode in the car before we went into the restaurant.
You see, when College Boy was in Kindergarten I was a classroom mom for his class and had to chaperone a field trip to a local to us place just like this one.

I had to watch 5 little 5 year old boys on that trip and one of them was totally out of control.  2 of my little charges spent half the day tracking down ADD Boy and dragging him back to the group with me. ADD Boy was climbing on buildings and ended up in the fenced off area with some animals(wasn't suppose to be in there of course).  All those little kids running around took me back to that bad, bad day.....

Anyway, after I got over the flashback, we wandered around outside and waited on Sonya's mother in-law, Donna, to arrive.

The plan was to meet here for lunch in the restaurant and then us gals would go off thrift store shopping for the afternoon and Hubs could drive back alone to Sonya's house for some quiet downtime.

The restaurant was cute and country-ish and we sat out on the enclosed porch and stuffed ourselves.

Here's a photo from across the table.......

Donna insisted on paying for lunch.  That was so sweet and totally awesome!

We wandered around the bakery and gift shop for awhile.

I have no clue why I took a photo of this jar of pickles. lolz

After lunch we bid goodbye to Hubs and went off in 2 minivans to hit the Goodwill Circuit in this part of Wisconsin.
Hey, we were in the neighborhood so why not, right?

We had a devil of a time finding the first store as it was hidden behind and to the side and down a hill from a Walmart.  But we persevered and finally got there.

I think I bought a few things(including 1 of the items in the Giveaway this month)and some books.

These aren't all the books I got in IL/WI at the thrift stores and a couple I got other times/places but this is what I was working through in November.  Missing are a biography on Cole Porter and a book I finished before we left Sonya's house.

I found a set of interesting music cds of music from the War Between the States Era.....

While in the second Goodwill Store we hit Sonya got a phone call from Den.  Still not feeling well he had left work early and gone to the clinic.  They were sending him to the Emergency Room as his throat was almost closed up! Donna gave me a lift back to Sonya's house and Sonya hightailed it to the ER.

As it was dinner time Hubs and I went down the road for a meal at Culver's.

If you have to have fast food, Culver's is the way to go.  I sure wish they had these in PA.
I had Hubs get me a "concrete" for dessert but he came back with an XL one and I could only eat 1/4 of it.  Seems a shame to throw out good ice cream but oh well......

Sonya came home a couple of hours later with Den.  They had to scrape an infection in his throat, sent him home until the next day and put him on a myriad of pills.
Hubs went with Sonya that evening to an all night pharmacy that they had to call the meds into since it was in a bad part of town.
What a guy........

On Tuesday Hubs and I made an excursion into Wisconsin.
We hit some bad traffic heading north....

But soon hit the state line........

We hit the Sprecher's Brewery gift shop for a few things but Hubs didn't want to buy anything until after we had lunch at their restaurant a few miles north of the brewery.

So we went a couple of miles into downtown Glendale Wisconsin to the "mall" for lunch at the Sprecher's Brew Pub Restaurant.......

"Mall" is a misnomer.  It's really a shopping district downtown with not much parking(outside of the parking garage which we didn't see until we were leaving the town).  Hubs dropped me off at the restaurant and I waited outside for him to find a place to park and hike back to where I was.

Hey! What's that across the street?
A Vera Bradley store......I was tempted to take off for it but I resisted.

I hung out with Rooty the Griffin instead.......

The parking was metered so our leisurely lunch wasn't so leisurely.
We did have time for some drinks however........

Why oh why did we get this fried cheese curds appetizer?!?
By the time we chowed down on those I was full!

But I still had a cheese curd topped burger to eat, not to mention the side of beer cheese potatoes.......ugh.

Hubs had a duo of Wisconsin sausages and a jalapeno cole slaw.

OMGosh.....I got a quarter of the way through that burger and had to fly the white flag of surrender.
I don't think I've EVER said it's just TOO MUCH CHEESE before until now. lolz
So I just ate the meat outta the sandwich.

We waddled back to the car in a cheese coma.  After another stop at the brewery gift shop to actually BUY things this time, we hit the road back to IL making a quick stop at the outlets in Pleasant Prairie WI.  I wanted to check out the Pepperidge Farms outlet there.  The skies opened up and I stood out in a lightning storm waiting for Hubs to notice me on the curb and come pick me up in the car.  He must of been playing with his phone though and I ended up running to the car before a bolt of lightning took me out.

A strange massive inflatable at a car dealership seen on the way back to Sonya's house.

Later that day we found out that the infection Den got started at his dental cleaning.  They must have nicked his throat during his appointment and by Monday the infected place was so big it was closing up his airway.
Yikes!  I don't blame him if he never wants to go back to that dentist!!
He was on meds the rest of the time we were at their house which cut down on the amount of drinking that went on. ;-)

With Den on the mend by Wednesday and back to work Sonya and I had some "girl time".  Hubs took a trip east to visit an Indian Museum by himself and Sonya Ann and I hit the road to check out her personal thrift store circuit.
Yep, SA has all the thrift shops scoped out in these parts.

I lost count but I think we hit 5, or was it 6?,  of them that day.

This was one of my intriguing finds....an entire collection of Princess Diana calendars for every year for 15 years. All new and unused?!
Why people, why???

Just one of the innumerable Goodwill's we went into........

This penguin platter/tray was cute........but not something I needed.

We even hit a Salvation Army store.  We only have Salvation Army stores here and no Goodwills.  In IL SAs are a sad, sad affair......dark, dirty, overpriced and ramshackle.
The Goodwills on the other hand are well lit, organized and have good prices.

We even hit one of these thrift stores where the merchandise(and prices)were a bit more upscale. Unfortunately I didn't find anything here that met my needs.

Soon it was time for a late lunch and Sonya Ann took me to Portillo's.  She kept raving about this place so we did lunch there.

I had a really nice salad with chicken and Sonya had a soup and sandwich plate.  Next time(and you know, there WILL be a next time!)I need to try something Italian.  The smells in that place were amazing....

I got another couple of photos of Sonya Ann.  You know she REALLY detests having her picture taken but yah, I just keep torturing her....lolz

Smile SA!!

That's better....

So she returned the favor and took my photo outside.

And then we had another "selfie fail" in the wind........I think you can see a booger hanging outta my nose.......*snort*
And we can't even blame the drinking on this fail! '-)

After lunch we walked around Hobby Lobby.......

Aha! Santa's elves are pervs......

Ribs on a bbq grill ornaments........

I couldn't get this sock monkey hat on my big fat head, no matter how I tried but that didn't stop me from having Sonya take my pic in it.

And nothing says "Christmas" like a little chainsaw hanging on your tree..........

Unless it's a shotgun shell wreath and a rifle..........

We had a blast just poking around in stores and talking.
That night Hubs sprung for take-out pizza(and a sub for SA)and we just hung out.
So ended Day 7 of the trip.

Sluggy

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