Days Away

Another week has gone by and we’ve (Dad) has cleared a few more hurdles. Dad’s getting tired of sitting around when not exercising and has started venturing out of the house. He’s been walking with the cane and now walks the yard. Last Tuesday he had Karen back the tractor out of the garage. Dad sat down on it and took a ride over to the neighbors house to visit. Sunday Dad decided to climb (side saddle) on the ATV and take a ride around the property. Once on the ATV he decided that it was possible to move his leg over the ATV seat and ride it normally. Afterwards he said it was easier to climb on the ATV now that before the surgery which is the way it should be. The vision on the other hand is a moving target that appears to change day to day. We hope for the best but assume that his vision is not going to change.

Mom & Dad relaxing on the deck.

As I mentioned last week Karen and I have been leaving my parents at little periods of time seeing how they fare and gauging their needs based on our time away. We left them for a full day this past weekend to go see Karen’s parents in Elgin. Karen’s parents flew in from Florida to visit family and friends for a few weeks. Hannah joined us on our trip to Elgin and Karen’s parents look great, it appears they brought the Florida heat and humidity with them. 

Upon our return Mom and Dad appeared to be just great and not miss us at all. The only thing I think was missed was me doing Dad’s PT which we resumed upon our arrival. This week Karen and I will be going away for a few days bicycling in Wisconsin for our 28th anniversary. 

Karen and I left Thursday morning with all of the weather people promising rain all day but we felt optimistic and were going regardless. We weren't gone too long and the promised rain appeared. Karen and I decided to push off the days bike ride, check into our hotel early and spend the day at the Minhas Brewery on a tour. 

Our Arrival in Monroe pre-rain

Last picture of the brewery operations
before I was told picture taking was
prohibited.

The Minhas Brewery is the old Huber Brewery in downtown Monroe. Our tour director stated that they are currently the 10th largest brewery in the nation and we found out that they brew many different beer brands including beer for Costco. The Minhas family is originally from India but are Canadian citizens and made their money in oil. The brother and sister were both in their early 20’s when they bought the brewery and invested 8 million dollars modernizing the operations. They both graduated collage as petroleum engineers but decided brewing beer sounded like a better idea. It looks like business is doing well and they appear to be very savvy at marketing. Across the street from the Brewery is the Minhas Distillery which will have to wait for another day as I can only ingest small amounts of alcohol before I get stupid. The tour is $10 per person and you get one beer of your choice to start the tour, a 5 pack with a beer glass and 30 minutes of open bar at the end of the tour. It was very interesting and well worth the cost of admission. 

How True

The brewery has a beer museum. If you
like history you'll love it.

Very cool and owned by an independent
group

The rain continued to pour the rest of the day and into the night so we hit the hotel pool and hot tub. Friday morning came with promises of dry, hot and humid weather. The local stations were all talking about the heat warnings for the next two days. We loaded up the bikes and started off down the Badger State trail with smiles on our faces and lots of energy in our legs. The miles went by quickly to start and before we knew it we were in Monticello and still doing well even though it seemed as we were constantly going uphill. After the Stewart tunnel we took a break in  Belleville and had some snacks, cooled down outside the library. Shortly thereafter we were back on our bikes pedaling north into Fitchburg. Granted we were hot and getting a little tired but the trail changed from limestone to asphalt which quickened our progress and the rural scenery changed to urban as we got closer to Madison.

Entrance to the Stewart Tunnel. The
tunnel is 1280 feet in length.

Exiting the nice cool air. Getting blasted
with the 90 plus degree heat and humidity.

The city of Madison has done a great job building the infrastructure and promoting bicycle travel. If anyones interested in bicycling and wants to see a city that has done it right go to Madison. The city has made it very easy to navigate from one place to another, to shop, or bike to work. I can see not owning a car if I were to live there. Maybe one day? 

As we arrived and biked by Camp Randall Stadium we were still getting used to the fact that bikes had lanes on most streets and cars and bikes could co-exist on the same streets with no issues other than my mis-trust of drivers. Again it was great! Our arrival in the downtown area seemed to be signal a rain shower but it didn't last long.

Camp Randall Stadium.

We made it to our hotel with only one wrong turn by me and were checked in and showered quickly. We stayed at the Hamilton Inn downtown Madison and loved it. We had a great room with plenty of room for the bikes and a king bed which was like heaven for the both of us. The location is great with easy walking to all areas we were interested in visiting. Maxwell Street days were being held all weekend long and we may have bought a few items if we wouldn't have had to bring them back on our bikes. Karen and I were both starving and were out shopping restaurants shortly after our cleanup. Locals recommended the Great Dane but we ended up at the Buck and Badger, good food at a good price. From what we saw the Great Dane must be good because it seemed there was always a line to enter.

We spent the evening out but were back to our room fairly early for a nice relaxing night with internet, TV and a large comfy room. I woke up to Karen rolling over and wishing me a happy 28th anniversary, couldn't get any better. We both slept great and woke up to watch the morning news and relax in bed only getting up to grab breakfast in the hotel. 

Beautiful State Capital Building

First pay phone I've seen in years. Maybe their
not as progressive as I thought.

After relaxing a bit this morning we decided to bike around Madison to see the area, with the idea we may want to live up here someday. Again it’s very easy to bike around the city with well marked trails and maps. We found some areas we could afford and many that we couldn’t but we still have many areas of the country to explore. We arrived back at the hotel and grabbed a bite to eat at Nitty Gritty, Karen sampled the mimosa’s as we watched another deluge from Mother Nature from the restaurant window. It stopped just as we finished eating for our walk back to the Hamilton and a little nap. 

We woke up and decided to take a walk around campus and found that UWM has quite the large campus compared to others we’ve been on. We walked for well over an hour in the 90 plus degree heat and decided to visit a place that we saw the day before. The Tiki Hut had 2 for 1 Bahama Mama’s and we started out with one each. How can you say no to $3 a drink on a 90 degree heat on a Saturday evening. We had several more as they went down like Hawaiian Punch before I decided to switch to Miami Vice with a 151 topping. Karen stuck with the Mama’s and we sat outside watching the evening go by before we decided we’d had enough to drink. It may had been a better idea to leave one drink earlier but we made it without incident.

2 for 1 Bahama Mama's after a long hot walk. They
went down too easy for both of us.

Had to try their Miami Vice with 151 topping.
Quite good.

Morning did come a bit too soon for me but we ate and were showered and ready to make to trip back to Illinois. The trip back started well and went fine but seemed longer to our butts and muscles than we remembered on the trip up. Storms over the past few days created some barriers to our progress but nothing too bad. This was the first trip that Karen and I have done together over the 100 mile mark and we faired well. We hope to do more in the near future. The state of Wisconsin has really done a good job of connecting the state via the “Rails to Trails” program.

Small obstacle, good thing it wasn't blocking
the whole path.

We needed to get creative to make it
though the jungle of downed trees.

We returned back to Mom and Dad’s and they were doing well, no falls, dad was out on the ATV checking out the back property and looking at trees that fell during the past storms and looking toward other things that need to be done around the yard. They were happy to see us and to double that feeling Karen suggested that we pickup a Dairy Queen ice cream cake to take back. Dairy Queen ice cream cake is good for everyones frame of mind.

We left Tuesday afternoon for Elgin to say goodbye to Karen’s parents as they are returning back to their home in hot and sunny Florida. Karen’s Dad Al told me the temperature was 103 degrees at his house down in Viera. He’s not looking forward to the heat but it will be nice for he and Carol to be back home. That night there was also the monthly retired fireman’s get together at Alley 64 in St. Charles. We had a small turnout but it’s still great to see faces I haven’t seen in well over a year. Thanks to Darrell, John B and Chris for showing up and hopefully and larger turnout for next month.

Hopefully they play good football this year

This weekend Karen and I are going to help Hannah clean her apartment and move furniture around since one of her roommates is moving out and the other roommate is gone for the summer. We’re taking our bikes and look forward to biking a bit and also riding though Iowa City to see the RAGBRI riders go through the area.