Travel Tales

(A recurring feature)

Last week's work trip included a brief stop in the northern 'burbs of Illinois for a visit to HQ. Much of it went something like this - "Hello there! Yep! I still work here! Good to see you again too...uh...ummm...you hard worker you!!"

From IL, I drove up and over to a client visit in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Now I must admit, I'm rather taken with the (not so) mythical Midwest charm. Even the NON-knitters up in the Midwest are Just. Plain. Nice. And don't get me started on the knitters - oy!

So of course, I expected sweetness and light from all those I would come across in the section of Wisconsin I went to visit. However, I must share with you some of the, um, UNexpected things I ran into during my travel to The Cheese (and Badger) State:

Heading north on I-94, I stopped at a HUGE Wal-Mart-esque grocery megastore called Woodman's Markets. Aisle after aisle of all you'd expect in a grocery store, and friendly looking shoppers to boot! All the modern conveniences you'd expect too of course, with one teeny tiny little exception. Woodman's does NOT accept credit cards. Not at all. Cash or Debit or leave. Can you imagine?! Now, I'm not sure I was surprised by this because of where I was exactly, but moreso that this major establishment, a chain I assume, could subsist on cash transactions only! Hats off to you Woodman's. Hellfire for us "pay ya later" fancy pants business types who can't function if the money's not coming from the expense account credit card. As a fine consolation to having to use my personal debit card though, I did manage to find fresh baked oatmeal raisin cookies. :urp: Who said that??!

Some other noteworthy sites along the route:

• The Bong Recreation Area seemed like it was worth a stop. I'll have to plug that into the itinerary some how on my next trip up that way.
• If you can't hit the Bong (Area, hee hee), travel just a couple more miles and rest a while at Mars Cheese Planet. Considering the inevitable allergy-induced coma I would have suffered, I decided to forgo this one too. I also tried to google "cheese + Wisconsin" to give you a link for this one, but I'll let you guess how that turned out.
• Downtown Milwaukee River Walk - no jokes here, this was FABulous for strolling & viewing at night time. I took myself out for a little walk/jog to enjoy the view, and was only a little thrown by the fact that there are points along the way where you're encouraged to run THROUGH the outdoor dining area of some nice looking eateries. I stopped shy of picking up a random water glass for refreshment, and apologized for any sweat flinging into salads, etc. You know, I'm not a complete heathen.

Great city that Milwaukee. Much more of a happening spot than I would have imagined too. I look forward to a trip back there, and I'll let you know what else I uncover.