I love Wisconsin. It seems as though there must be some ordinance that requires all farms to repaint their buildings annually. They all seem so picturesque. I was able to get out a few time with sketch pad and camera and have plenty of reference for future sketching and painting, but most of our time in Wisconsin was spent just catching up with our son. It was such a good visit. We laughed a lot, explored projects together and cooked up several meals, had wonderful Mexican food and made it to the Farmers Market.
Jason’s house, a classic.
Since our last visit Jason has carried on with his renovations and his house and garage is amazing. He has made his garage into an amazing makers space. His three car garage now has not only a place for his 4Runner but a room for his 3d printers, computers and such and a full wood working and mechanics areas. This is a jealous father speaking here, he has also completed a fantastic music room and had a very complete hobby center/workshop in his basement. Since we were last here he renovated his home office as well and made it into just an amazing space. He even custom built a motorized standing desk that is beautiful and very functional. Nice job Jason. Jason was in the middle of doing a creative brief for a local business and I had the great pleasure of butting in and telling him how I would do it.... We actually got along quite well, I like working with Jay.
On our way to the farmers market
Every Saturday in Madison there is a huge Farmers market on the square around the capitol building. Being in Wisconsin at harvest time it was filled with goodies. We found a baker right off and had breakfast goodies. There was so many fresh vegetables of all types, and mushrooms and fresh meats and cheese, lots of cheese. Harper made a lot go friends as we walked the market, Harper always makes friends.
A quilt from the show. . . so many lovely quilts
Carol had quite a good time attending the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show in Madison. She went two days and was exhausted each day - coming back full of great ideas and had a couple of bags of quilter stuff. I am so happy that she got to this show as finding inspiration is always a boost. Some of the images she shared was just beyond imagination.
At the farmers market
Our time went by way too fast and it was suddenly time to move on. It is always a sad goodbye when we back out of his driveway for the last time. A quick stop at there Dunkin' Donuts on out way out of Sun Prairie and we were heading south toward Lincoln, Illinois and a quick visit with my older brother Dan.
Harper gets a Pup Cup at Dunkin
The drive was uneventful as far as driving goes. We rolled along at the speed limit listening to an audio book - this time we have a new character to learn about, yet another amazing assassin that is actually a good guy. It is always heartening to find out that so many hired assassins are actually good guys. It was a short three hour drive and soon we rolled into Dan’s. Dan came out and met us at the car, as Harper was very excited to stop and started barking to celebrate. The day took a turn. Dan seemed a bit out of sorts, just not himself. He said he had been having dizzy spells and his head was spinning. We sat and chatted in his living room of about an hour and decided to go get some Mexican food at a restaurant Dan recommended. I had to steady Dan as we walked to the car... this is not right. Now my older brother is one of those characters that is always full of great stories and good humor, this was not what we were seeing. I was bit worried as was Carol, Harper didn't seem to notice. The Mexican restaurant looked to be a promising place for supper, and the staff was super friendly. We sat out on the patio so Harper could join us, ordered drinks and chips and salsa. Dan was quite suddenly feeling much worse and started sweating profusely, almost projectile sweating. I suggested we get him to the ER immediately. He relented, reluctantly and I helped him to the car after chatting with the staff who would not take a penny for the drinks. Amazingly the hospital was about a block away. I got a wheelchair and rolled Dan into the ER where he was in some real distress. Dan had a lot of fears that he was having a stroke, but after an hour or so and many tests (ekg, CT scan and others) the doctors came to the conclusion that it is an inner ear issue, vertigo. After resting and all of the tests he was feeling marginally better, the sweating had stopped and Dan was discharged. I had a prescription to fill but it was Sunday afternoon and the CVS pharmacy had closed about 10 minutes before, of course. Dan was still having some dizziness when we got home but less. We sat in the living room, and had the football game on and chatted - within about an hour Dan's sense of humor returned, he was less dizzy and seemed to be my brother once again. Something had changed for the better. By the time we went to bed Dan was completely back to his old self. In the morning I took the prescription back to the CVS and found out that it was the exact same thing as Dramamine -- the pharmacist recommended I buy the over the counter version. I ran a couple of other errands before returning. Dan was still doing better, still having a few dizzy spells but nothing like the day before. It was difficult to say goodbye but our time had come and we were back on the road.
The house I grew up in, with several renovations…
Decatur, where I grew up, was right on our way south from Lincoln so we had to drive by the old house where I grew up. This was my first time back in about 20 years or so. The old neighborhood seemed so small. It was a quick nostalgic tour of my home town, we even stopped by to check out the apartment we lived for a year after I got out of the Navy. The neighborhood had deteriorated from a comfortable urban neighborhood to a run down place where you wouldn't let your kids play outside. Once out of Decatur we continued south toward Paducah, our destination for the day.
Walking the tracks in Macon, Illinois
Interestingly there seems to be no direct route south so the GPS took us about 10 miles south then 3 or 4 miles east the south again then east again then .... This went on for many miles down narrow county roads with corn on both sides or corn on one side beans on the other. The farmland of central Illinois has a beauty of its own, and driving through as we did down the long straight roadways build that appreciation. I am so glad we took this route and for the most part, avoided highways/interstates.
Lots of back roads, the perfect way to travel.
We even found McKinney's Western Wear store - claiming to be the largest western wear store ever... I bought a few shirts . . . they had my size which is amazing and I do have a fondness for western wear. Repressed cowboy feelings I think.
Saddles in the Western Wear shop
An hour or so later we crossed through Ohio River and entered Kentucky. The river was a bustle of activity as it is a commercial highway with many towboats and their barges moving up and down the river. Many years ago we passed under this bridge in our boat on our trip around the eastern half of the US - fond memories indeed.
Bridge over the Ohio River, undergoing repairs
Or goal was to meet up with our friends Van and Andi and due to to some incredible good planning, or just dumb luck, we arrived in the same parking lot within 4 minutes of each other. We picked a grocery store randomly as we will be staying in an AirB&B for a few days, and needed supplies. Things sometimes just work out. We shopped, found the AirB&B and settled in for the evening. We had a lot to catch up on and pizza around the fire seemed just like the thing. What will today bring?
