I slept well that Friday morning till 9 or so, and the
Duckies did too, here’s that giant aero-bed we were floating on top of that night:
Jeff was long gone to work by the time I got up, but Leah
came out and made me a big tasty breakfast. This was especially nice of her
because she was pregnant at the time, and was talking about how things were
going with growing a new child and whatnot. We had a good long chat, around 2
hours I think, which was good after not talking to anybody much over the past 2
days.
I left the apartment later that morning after saying goodbye
to Leah. She and Jeff had told me a couple of places I needed to visit in my
remaining time in Minnesota: a park southeast of downtown Saint Paul for some
great skyline photo ops, and a small town on the Wisconsin called Stillwater
that had lots of little shops and places to eat on its traditional Main Street.
Both turned out to be excellent suggestions.
I drove south on I-35E from White Bear Lake for a few
minutes to reach downtown St. Paul:
I had to wind my way along some side streets near the
riverbank to get to Mounds Park, a perfect spot to take pictures of downtown
and the Mississippi River:
That was a good experience! Great, mild weather too. From
Mounds, I drove east in the St. Paul area to get gas at a Superamerica.
Minnesota is a pretty place, it was all very green and lots of trees, but
without being wet and humid. Drier and green is a good combination. It took a
little while to get to Stillwater on Highways 5 and 36 but I knew I’d made a
good decision as soon as I found Main Street, which had materialized out of a
two lane road that ran along the St. Croix River. It was already sprinkling when I got to
town:
Here’s the sign to Wisconsin a few hundred yards to the
east:
I parked the car by the river, and got out on the walkway to
take some pictures of the water and Wisconsin across the bridge:
After that, I walked over to a candy shop called Candy Land.
I bought a few bags of orange chocolates, chocolate gummy bears and other
deliciousness, some for me and the rest for RD and Emily, all for only $8!! I
got back in the car with my candy, and looked up the route to Madison, and ate
candy for lunch. That’s what I call “all right”. Not a very filling lunch, but
it was soooooo tasty!
Most of the driving this Friday took place in Wisconsin, and
Madison is closer to the southeast corner of the state, more than 200 miles
from St. Paul. Compared to the distances driven the previous two days, that was
nothing, but I was clearly starting to wear down, because I struggled to stay
focused and engaged this day. It was nothing against the scenery at all;
Wisconsin looks like what you would think Germany would look like:
Green, forested, rural. That’s the vast majority of
Wisconsin, as there are no large cities between St. Paul and Madison on I-94, they’re
all smaller, like the one where I got a Black Eye at Starbucks. I needed the
boost from the extra shots of espresso, I was dragging. Somewhere along the way
the car hit 50,000 miles on its lifetime:
The road setup in Wisconsin started to get more…northern.
What I mean is, the entry and exit ramps for the interstate were loops in that
area, rather than entering or exiting the highway in a straight line. This was
a good way to test the Infiniti’s balance of cornering ability followed by
power. The car needed to hold grip around the tight curves to maintain speed to
set up a powerful blast onto the highway to be up to speed with the rest of
traffic. I say “needed” because I just love driving fast, not because it was
essential to be going faster than the cars on the road. Once I rounded each
curved onramp, I’d just say “do what you do best” and planted the right pedal
down.
As I got closer to Madison, RD informed me that they weren’t
actually home, and that they were in Fort Atkinson, 30 minutes further east of
Madison. No problem, I thought. I was fortunate to be treated to another
quality sunset with clouds that looked like they were flowing like water across
the sky:
The Duckies had a good view of the scene as usual:
I passed Madison, got off the interstate, and took some
country roads in the dark for a few more turns and minutes until I got to Fort
Atkinson and found the high school football stadium. Yes, it was sort of like
being back in Texas, but with a less intense crowd. It was about 40 degrees
that night, and I was in short sleeves and jeans for some reason. I got into
the game for a small number of dollars, and bought 4 hot dogs for $4 total (I
was starving and felt weak). When I saw RD in the stands, he was happy to see
me, but he did say I looked a little rough. That wasn’t just because of my full
beard either, I probably looked pale as a ghost. The recent slew of driving had
worn me down some, and I was cold and underfed, given that I’d had delicious
candy for an entire meal.
It was really great to get to see RD and Emily after they’d
been gone from Texas for about 4 months. They were starting a new life in
Wisconsin, and were at the game to hang out with some of their high school
students from the church and their parents. I don’t remember who won the game,
but I remember wolfing down the 4 hot dogs quickly and catching up with my
friends while shivering a little in the cool weather.
Once the game was over, we walked quite a ways back to my
car, parked near the entrance of the high school. Emily wasn’t thrilled about
walking that far in the cold, but it paid off big in the end, we squirted right
out onto the main road, and beat a ton of traffic along the way. I took off
pretty fast in the parking lot, and had told RD and Emily a few details of the
trip so far, so Emily immediately said “watch it, this ain’t Nevada!” Point
well taken, I calmed it down after that.
It was a fun drive in the dark back to their apartment in
Madison; we listened to 80’s music along those back roads, including “Take Me
Home Tonight” by Eddie Money, which is one RD used to sing a lot. We dropped
off Emily at a friend’s house where she’d parked her car, and we got back to
the apartment maybe around 10. It was a nice, well kept place, with a lot of
books on some of the shelves. One of those books was Planet of Slums, which I
picked up and started reading (really, I couldn’t put it down) after we watched
an episode or two of The Office. The episodes were from one of the later
seasons, which I think included some office party in the basement with a lot of
ad lib dancing from Kelly and Andy.
I stayed up pretty late reading Planet of Slums, which had
all kinds of fascinating stats about slums and general poverty in the third
world. The McClenagans went to bed around 12, but not before a fun discussion
where Emily was trying really hard to get me to sleep on an aerobed, but since
I’d noticed that the couch looked comfortable, and RD was saying how well he
slept on it the previous weekend, I ended up sleeping on the couch. That
decision worked out well.
Speaking of the previous weekend, our mutual friends Jessica
Hall and Erin Callahan had visited Wisconsin on Labor Day weekend, and had
taken the opportunity to catch up with RD and Emily (more Emily than RD, duh)
while going sailing on one of the lakes and in general having lots of fun being
friends in the same spot again. Props to them for making the most of a
Chicago-Madison trip, even without the Duckies.
I talked to RD about something a lot in that overnight stay,
about how there needs to be a remix of the Lob City remix of the song Rack City
called “Mad City”, in honor of Madison. More on that later. As a homage to RD’s
time in Texas, here’s Eddie Money’s “Take Me Home Tonight”:
Check out that flowing hair, indoor sunglasses and saxophone
raised high in the air. What a masterpiece haha! By the way, the song is infinitely
better than the movie starring Topher Grace, don’t rent it.
And, my homage to That 70’s Show via the blog post title,
the show’s theme song:
Goodnight from Mad City!
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