The Great Road Trip of 2017......Part Thirty One/Day Twenty Two

Part One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eight of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Nine of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Ten of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eleven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twelve of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Thirteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  
Part Fourteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  
Part Fifteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Sixteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seventeen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Eighteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Nineteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Twenty of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Seven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Eight of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Twenty Nine of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Thirty of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

We headed out from the hotel in Wisconsin bright and early, only stopping for gas.

I saw these bags of rock salt at the gas station.  Funny how it's out in early August?

Went into the convenience store and found a couple more of those weird Snickers bars......

Then we passed "The Cheese Hut"(in Wisconsin of all places!lol).  Went in and they had fresh cheese curds(you haven't had a good cheese curd if it doesn't squeak when you bite it)and I picked up a nice aged cheddar too.

Me with my cheesy loot.

They also sold Gas, Beer and Sandwiches......

A sign on the highway for Baraboo.  Do you know that this city was the original Winter Headquarters of the Ringling Brothers Circus?  They now have a Circus Museum there and hold Circuses(is that a word?...it looks funny).

I always chuckle when I see the name of that Casino.  It reminds me of what happened in college when you drank too much. lol

"Drive Like A Boss".  Yeah, you tell em man!

And then we hit Illinois.  Not my favorite place by any means.  But it was then where my cousin(and then, fellow blogger)Sonya Ann lived so we made a stop to see her, on purpose, even though it meant staying in Illinois. ;-)

We got to her house and found she was nursing a baby squirrel(like feeding it with an eye dropper, etc.) that either fell out of a tree and/or was abandoned by it's mother.  I don't recall now.

That night we just chilled with Sonya Ann and her then hubby(aka The Asshole).

The next morning Sonya and I drove to the local Goodwill to do some shopping/browsing.

Saw these auto dealer workers along the way, on strike. 

I could have gotten a great deal on this recording of the music from a Waltz and Polka Mass.

Oh well.....

A card game called "Senior Moments".  Hmm.

Another game called "Men are Pigs".  The cover art on the box was disturbing.

A mug with a purple "Leave Me A Loan" monster on it from a local credit union.

I should have scooped up these rainbow string lights but didn't as there was nowhere to test them.

Saw Cousin George in the Goodwill.  Hey George!

Saw this very bad parking job on the way out of the store.  I think they got two tires in the actual parking spot. lolz  I see people here in Louisiana park in the crosshatching ALL THE TIME.  Not only are they possibly physically handicapped but mentally as well. ;-)

An actual photo of one of Sonya's cats, Harry.  He was a sweetie but usually hid when we were there so this is a rare picture of him.

Sonya gave me some homemade jams.  Yum.

When "The Asshole" got home from work we all went over the border to Wisconsin for dinner at a retro-type diner.

Sonya next to "The Asshole".  I cut him out of the photo. ;-)

Lots of memorabilia on the walls.  And check out this cool 1950's/1960's boomerang tabletop on all the tables.

The plates of food were ginormous!  I think I had a garden salad, liver(sorry Anne!)with onions, mashed taters and some steamed veggies.  Hubs had a meatloaf special which was more gravy than anything else. lol

I forced Sonya to have her picture taken.  We have both lost weight since this photo. 8-)

The next day we took a field trip to Woodman's, a big ass grocery store with an almost as big liquor store.  Hubs walking toward his Valhalla. lolz

Funny name for a Rye Whiskey....Yippee Ki-Yay.  And look, what a deal!  Buy TWELVE bottles and it will only cost you $56.40 per bottle.  Yikes!

Some beer or liquor have funny names......."Drunken Sailor" an Irish Whisky.  What do you do with a drunken sailor?

Then there's a Japanese Whisky from the House of Suntory.

This makes me laugh and think of the scene from "Lost in Translation" when the Bill Murray plays a has-been actor character who is hired in Japan to shoot a commercial for Suntory.....

                                

Hellboy Hell Water??  Man that looks scary!

How about some "Punk Ass Cat" IPA beer?

Or let's get "Scurvy"?  Umm, no thanks.....

Wicked Bad Ass beer.  What's with all the bad ass alcohol??

                                     

Weekend @ Louie's beer. lol

Justin Blabaer liquor??

WTF.

"The Asshole" had to go to the ER for some reason(he tried to lance a boil in his throat or something)so Hubs and I were on our own for dinner so we went to Culver's.

I got a "concrete" and a salad.  After dinner we went back to their house and chilled until they got back from the ER.

The next evening we met Asshole's parents at Portillo's for dinner.  I don't get why they all rave about this place but it's ok.

I'm always happy to spend time with Sonya but this was an awkward visit due to personal issues.  But if I am near where she is I'm glad to see her.  I wish she lived nearer.

FYI-that baby squirrel didn't make it. 8-(

The next morning we headed out to another destination.

Sluggy

Our Trip to IL....Part 3 The Musical, History and Booze Weekend

 Despite the drinking binge of Friday evening and a night spent on the bed dubbed, "The Crippler", I was up early and feeling good.

Den was up early too and hard at work in the kitchen making a yummy breakfast with which to spoil us guests.
An egg, bacon and roasted red pepper with basil croissant sandwich?

Yes please!

Then it was off to explore Sonya's town.
We went up to the town's Historical Society Museum housed in an old town school building.

Hubs contemplating how much worse his current eye condition treatment might have been 100 years ago on this medieval-looking torture device.

A vintage dentist's set-up.  Open wide for that drill........

And yes I am a smart ass if you haven't noticed yet.
They had a display of hand painted porcelain china as a large national deluxe china factory is near this area and still in operation.

These vintage hand painted plates were on display with antique photos of the women who painted them.  I thought the plate on the left in this photo was amazingly life like.....that bug painted onto the plate was so realistic and I told everyone within earshot about this.

A second, closer look and I saw that the dead bug was in fact a dead bug laying on the plate.
I guess someone needs to tidy up the displays a bit sooner than later.  ;-)

After a leisurely poke around this small but jam packed museum(bonus points it was FREE!)Den took us up to Woodman's over the border in Wisconsin.
I kept telling Hubs about this Liquor Valhalla and he was eagerly anticipating this excursion.

And Woodman's did NOT disappoint!
Hubs took a good hour to make a decision about what to buy.

And this time I came prepared and had money put onto my debit card(Woodman's only takes debit or cash, no credit.)just for this visit.

Another great thing about Woodman's(besides the prices and the variety of beverages)is that sometimes if you buy stuff you get free stuff with it.

Eldest son wanted some MN made beers and Woodman's had a Deal on them-Buy 2 packs and get a free block of cheese........

Good beer and local cheese.  What's not to love?!?
I ended up with 2 blocks of free cheap for 4 packs of beer and I got to tick Eldest Son off my Christmas shopping list.

After coming home to Sonya's we sat and chatted the rest of the afternoon and Den worked his culinary magic and made us a feast for dinner.
Pot Roast with mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Corn and Butternut Squash.
Mmmmmm....

More talking and imbibing followed well into the evening.

Another night on the "Crippler" and I was still doing fine.
Sunday morning Den again cooked up another great hot breakfast.  I was feeling rather spoiled and loving it!

Sonya Ann and I went up to CVS later that morning since Den was not feeling great(a sore throat and maybe the beginnings of a cold or flu)so we went to get him some cough drops, throat spray and soothing drinks.
I had an old CVS cash card with about $11 on it so it was as good a time to finally use that.

I could really get use to drug stores like this in Illinois........

My view down the liquor aisle at CVS.

I even found some bottles of liquor on clearance.
What is not to love about a sale on alcohol and using an old CVS money card to get it for free?!? lolz

Back home to Sonya's to get Den his sick supplies so he could rest comfortably for the rest of the day and recover before he had to return to work on Monday morning.

About 1 pm Hubs headed off to have an adventure at the local library.
Sonya had found that her library was hosting a Drumming Circle on the Sunday we were visiting so Hubs put this on his agenda.
Hubs drums.

Sonya and I went for the experience too, just to sit in the back of the room and spectate.
Well only 3 people including Hubs showed up for the activity so the leader of the group(behind Sonya in the photo below)coaxed us into service to participate.  She had brought extra drums and other noise making instruments, I don't have a clue what they are called, so Sonya Ann dragged me into the circle and soon we were joining in and whacking on musical instruments along with the rest.

Who knew we were so musical, right?
We may have totally embarrassed ourselves but with only 5 people there(and no recording devices in use)we are ok with it.  I think Sonya Ann found a new side of herself she didn't realize she had.
Not the ballsy "let's crash this party" side but the artistic "I can hit a ribbed gourd with a stick" musical side.  We practically fought over that ribbed gourd and stick thing and who got to beat on it......

Before we broke off and left there was time for a group selfie to commemorate the experience.

On the way out of the building Hubs noticed advertising in the lobby for other activities/group meetings, including one called "Chess and Cookies".
Hubs is a long time chess playuh and who doesn't like cookies?

The next week or so I kept hearing Hubs talking about maybe it wouldn't be so bad an idea to retire to Illinois near this library.
Sorry honey but that ain't happening.....

Us three "Artistes" did some shopping afterwards.
I had Kohl's Cash to use so we hit Kohl's.
I didn't buy these Chicago Bears growlers but found a couple of other things for Christmas presents there.........

We also hit a nearby Dollar Tree.
You can pretty much find the same stuff in all these stores nationwide but I did find a pair of readers in purple they don't have at my local DT.

How do you like my big purchase?

We saw this barn-like building on the way home from shopping.
I thought it was very odd to find advertising for Rock City in Northern Illinois......

Turn out that Rock City is also a village in North Central IL so this could have been advertising their love of Rock City IL rather than the tourist attraction in Chattanooga TN.

Den feeling as bad as he did still insisted on cooking dinner Sunday night.  I feel bad because I didn't get a photo of what he made but I was too busy stuffing my FACE full of the Barbecue Pork Sandwiches he made.
The poor man was standing outside in the cold with his charcoal grill smoking a pork butt to make this meal.

But it was so good I had seconds!

I had thoughts of asking Hubs if we could adopt Den but then decided not to, because that would mean since Sonya Ann and are are cousins that she'd be married to her adopted cousin.....or something like that.

Yeah, I am nice like that......


Sluggy