first stop: acoustic cafe in menomonie. chai latte and a pumpkin muffin. nice corner cafe, pretty pottery, death cab for cutie playing. menomonie is on soomeone's list of top 10 small towns. i'm not sure why. pleasant town, small downtown. a branch of the university of wisconsin is here in the downtown. and on the edge of the downtown is the lake. beautiful blue lake. but it's pretty quite for 10am, not much happening in this town. the shops are unexceptional.
next stop: cippewa falls, lucy's deli. this is a happening place at lunch time. great find in the downtown. place your order at the counter, lucy's famous tuna melt, get your number and go sit down and wait. i sit outside on the sidewalk with my bike. there's only one couple out there. air temp is a little cool, but that's okay. a storm has chased me from menomonie, but hasn't caught me, yet. i was hoping to weather it while eating lunch. i was inspired to do a little sidewalk cafe sketch. first sketch since week one.
a lot of the towns on the rivers are located where falls were. i guess because the need to portage made a good place to stop, eat, etc., as well as transfer of goods. but all of the towns: little falls, chippewa falls, minneapolis, they no longer have their falls. only dams are left and the thing that gave them their name and identity have been replaced.
next stop: ten miles out of town, the yellowstone cheese and ice cream shop. it's the middle of america's dairyland, what would it say if i didn't have some homemade ice cream. made from milk produced 200 yards down the road. double scoop of black raspberry and cookie dough in a waffle cone. Hmm, rich, creamy, and totally guilt free.
last stop: it's 6 o'clock, over a 100 miles into the day, and i'm looking for a place to stop. this night will be camping by permission or gorilla, whichever works, though in wisconsin there are not too places that aren't part of a farm. so i'm looking for a nice house to stop at and ask for some lawn space. i hesitate at a couple, pass a couple that look very inviting, and then i see it: that pabst blue ribbon sign on top of robin's nest, 'where all the good eggs come'. and there's a nice lawn area to the side. in wisconsin, all the house's have well kept yards, mowed, and fairly large. perfect for accommodating a tent off out of the way.
did i mention that this bar is in the middle of nowhere? and the first one i've really seen like that, unlike montana where it was fairly common. robin said i could camp anywhere. after i set up and changed, i came back, had a couple of leinenkugel's, 'the pride of chippewa falls', and a cheeseburger with fries. i sit, half dozen people come and go, and no one seems to notice. don't even get much conversation out of robin. oh well, i stumble out to the tent at dusk and enjoyed a good night sleep.
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