Day two had a goal of meeting up with an old colleague, Lee Abrams. He is up there as one of my favorite people. We worked together at XM when the company was fun and mission-driven. Perhaps it’s the nature of the music entertainment industry, or it was just the moment in time, but this is still one of the better gigs I’ve had inventing new broadcast content and delivering it with cutting-edge (for the time) technology and devices.
One of our most memorable stories we like to look back on with nostalgia is not my proudest or responsible, but it does make for a great story. It involves a plane, George Strait, lots of alcohol, and a rental car. Read it on Lee’s old blog site – just try not to judge me too harshly, we all survived. http://leeabrams.blogspot.com/2008/03/travelogue-george-strait-tip.html?m=1
Lee is an inventor, a futurist, with a brilliant mind for media. He is now focused on launching his consultancy: http://www.leeabramsmediavisions.com/
After lunch it was time to continue to motor west. Heading to Wisconsin before staying the night someplace in Minnesota. I found a place rumored to have an excellent burger and cheese curds. Do I ”need” cheese curds… No… But when in Wisconsin I don’t think they let you leave without adding it to your order.
So this place is called Monk’s – it’s been around a while (and I love old authentic local restaurants). It was good and if it were any place else it would have been excellent – however Wisconsin has this thing called the Dells. Not sure if you’ve ever heard of it or been there, but it offers elite-level people watching.
You see, the Dells would be Wisconsin equivalent of Ocean City, MD. A little trashy, lots of fun for people who like places like this, with tons of ticky-tacky shops. A family destination for sure.
COVID has either delayed the season-opening, or maybe it doesn’t kick into gear yet. But you can tell this is a madhouse of people during the summer. Speaking of COVID, this part of the U.S. is strangely immune to the virus; I walk around with my ”east-coast” facemask, and people look at me as though I am out of the ordinary. Anyway, the folks here could not have been nicer
On my way through town, I stopped to take a picture of this seemingly famous All You Can Eat spot – it was closed, but again, I just imagine the people watching as hordes of families queue up for the Lumber Jack Meals!! Yum!!!
Having made it out of Wisconsin, my final goal for the day was to make it as far West before it got too late, which ended up being Rochester, MN.
I didn’t have any KOA reservations in hand, and I had this odd Ozark fantasy of sleeping overnight in a Walmart parking lot. Yes, it’s a real thing that people really do, intentionally – not just reenacting Wendy dealing with the death of Ben with copious amounts of Vodka (Ozark spoiler alert).
So I chickened out the glamorous Walmart scene and found a Town Place Suites with charging bays out front. At this point, it was 10.30 PM, and I just wanted someplace reasonably safe to sleep. So I converted the car into my makeshift tent and slept under the annoying glow of the street lamp above me (God damn glass roof). I would have had a nip of whiskey to tuck me in, but was afraid that if the police came by to check on me, it might have been a problem for my brother (the attorney) to deal with.
Well, that was day two – day three is a run for Deadwood, SD – stay tuned.
8230 Mile Furlough Inspired Road Trip 