Door, Lambeau, Waupun and other Unbelievable Destinations!

Our last post was in Early September, so we’ll begin there!

I am SURE I will miss something,  so this is our new rule:

We had a memorial Service for Bob White to attend in mid-September, some doc appointments in Chicago in October, and had promised (threatened) Dad that we’d watch at least the first couple OKC Thunder games with him in Minneapolis.  

It’s not that he wanted our company…to be clear we had a job to do and were under no delusions of anything else! We were to make sure that his Cable package included the NBA TEAM PASS for the year, so dad could keep up with Grandson Chet’s activity.

Anyway, these responsibilities suggested that we’d best stay in the Midwest, so we found a few things to do…

First, we booked some time up in Door county. There, we set up a visit with Ballroom Dancing friends, the Conroys, who have a place near Fish Creek. As always, nice to catch up with folks we don’t see that often…lively conversation, a few adult beverages and an EXCELLENT meal! Or maybe it was lively beverages and adult conversation? Twice, actually as they came to the bus for a Picnic AND we dined at one of their favorite establishments.

While in the Door, in the fall, we were able to participate in the Apple harvest. And by “participate” i mean purchase and eat, not actual work. Dirty jobs, but someone has to do them!

We also visited a local tradition for haute cuisine: Wally’s Weanie Wagon Featuring REAL Chicago Dogs . So real that they prompted us: “Do you want ketchup ‘for your fries’…” The universal War between Ketchup and Mustard continues!

Before leaving the Door, we had a most interested experience. When Liz was growing up in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, her neighbor was a portrait artist named Ingwersen…there was a portrait he had given a print of to the Bialeks because the children reminded him of Liz’s younger Borther and sister. She remembered that he had moved up to Door Country and had a studio somewhere, so she thought to look up that studio. Surely he would no longer be extant, Liz thot. Well, we found the studio, and drove in to visit on a fall Friday afternoon.

As we wandered, one of the apparent Gallery Managers struck up a conversation, and Liz disclosed her connection. The Manager’s eyes lit up… “You’re from Twin Lakes!!!?!” “I AM SURE JIM WOULD LIKE TO SEE YOU,” she said! “Hold on one sec,” and she went inside the adjacent home.

Clearly, Ingwersen was still extant!

A minute later she came out of the house and said, “C’mon in!” “Jim apologizes for not coming out, he’s relaxing in his chair since the personal trainer just left!!!”

So we met 96-year-old Jim Ingwersen and Liz and Jim talked for about a half an hour about things they both remembered so many years ago. He invited us to come the next day, when he hosts live music at his farm/Gallery. We did come back, and he took us on a tour of his farm in a golf cart.

We now understand that Jim was instrumental in creating Land Preservation trusts in Door county, to preserve some of the old farms and spaces from development. Our friends, the Conroys, told us Ingwersen is quite a legend in Door Country for that reason as well as the art he has been creating for most of his 90+ years!

After leaving Door County, we decided to visit a spot that MAY get us banished from Chicagoland forever more…LAMBEAU FIELD, home of arch-enemy and rival to the Chicago Bears…the GREEN BAY PACKERS. To this day, it hurts a bit when I realized that we gave $75 to the Packers to help them continue their dominance over the hapless Bears.

I also can still see the shadow of the hand stamp the employee managing the turnstiles put on us… There is apparently a Special ink for Bears fans used to stamp the Packers logo on our hand; ostensibly to record that we had paid our admission in case we stepped out for non-Packers Air, and wanted to come back in. In fact, it Burns…It Burns…and its pretty permanent! And I did NOT notice said stamp on the hands of any of the other, presumably Packers Fans, visiting on that day…

As we walked through the facility, the tour guide struck up conversations with us…there was some friendly ribbing about Bears fans in the house. Turns out another on the tour was a Minnesota Vikings fan. In a quiet moment, I discussed with him that we would normally be required to hate each other (as the Vikings and Bears are also rivals), but surely we could agree to join in our collective hatred for the Packers?! He agreed.

The tour itself was really interesting, including the unique history and ownership of the franchise and the field and the town they are ensconced within. I may hate the Packers, but with some respect.

Next, we made a brief overnight in greater metropolitan Waupun Town, Wisconsin, where BluebirdBrain friends Sally and Al Fink reside. We had A WILD TIME in Waupun, WI. I am not sure I am really allowed to describe it as what happens in Waupun really SHOULD stay in Waupun.  But what fun would that be?  And, what is it about the folks who own both farms AND Bluebirds, anyway! 

Sally and Al set up some lawnchairs just outside their garage, and a beer found a way into each of our hands. Their driveway sort of curves downhill and towards the right. Al provided a ball-like toy that was particularly enjoyed by the dog, Crockett. Not exactly a ball…it was spherical on the bottom with a bump where Crockett had torn off the handle-appendage. The goal of the wild game that ensued was to attempt to roll this mishappen ball-with-a-bump down the curving drive all the way to the bottom, after which Crocket would be encouraged to retrieve it so the next competitor could try to exceed the distance achieved by the previous one.

This could have gone on for HOURS, if there wasn’t a Wisconsin Fish Fry to attend. Grateful for that, because if we had spent any more time at it, my cardiologist might have had to get involved, what with all the energy and excitement expended!

We made a stop back in Chicagoland to attend a Memorial for Bob White. I have posted previously about Bob and his enduring friendship over the years … Barb hosted a celebration that included 285 of Bob’s close friends…and its not hard to imagine he had 285 close friends, whereas in contrast I can only be certain I have pissed off 285 people in my life. We had the honor of sitting at a table with some of the Teachers Bob worked with or who worked for him when he was a Principal in the Buffalo Grove School District. We learned a whole lot more about our friend Bob, and miss him more than ever…but we know we are in good company in that regard!

During our time in Chicago, we had the unique opportunity to see the Aurora Borealis from the reasonably dark skies of Illinois Beach State Park. And that seems a reasonable spot to break up the road into manageable segments.

More in the next post!