On the Road Again
Since re-joining the age of technology yesterday we’re all about as happy as a tornado in a trailer park, to quote Mater from the Cars movie at least. The boys now have something to watch that isn’t a SpongeBob DVD, Kelly can talk to her mum again and I have the internet finally. Today is a good day.
The irony of it all? After waiting 5 days to have it all connected we are off to Madtown (Madison, the state capital of Wisconsin) for the weekend to see the University of Wisconsin Badgers play the Northern Illinois somethings. Sure, I could have Googled their moniker but with the Badgers leading 28-0 just 4 minutes into the 2nd quarter I decided not to go to too much trouble on their behalf. (That last sentence was added post the original writing of this entry obviously.)
Getting to Madison was something both Kelly and I wanted to do at some point on this trip but going on this weekend, when the Packers weren’t playing wasn’t Kel’s idea of good timing. The idea of a non-football weekend, the only one on the schedule mind you, was more appealing to her I must say. Thankfully, the chance to see University life, a packed stadium all in red and one the best Marching Bands in the country won out in the end.
We set off this morning just after 930, in time for Luc’s nap which worked perfectly. Taking the truck on our own, 2 and a half hours away, on roads and highways we weren’t familiar with was a little daunting. The excitement of seeing everything on the way though was something we were both looking forward to.
We drove south via Kaukauna, Appleton, Neenah and onto Oshkosh. We were hoping to stop at Oshkosh to split the drive a little but with Luc still asleep we couldn’t really see the point. We continued through the little town of Rosendale and into Waupun where we finally made our stop. Kelly and I were starving, Ben was ready to stretch his legs and Luc was now awake and very ready for a change of scenery.
We stayed at Culver’s for alot longer than we thought. The food was delicious, the staff were fantastic and the restaurant was warm. That, I think was the key. It was bloody cold outside and just getting from the restaurant back to the car was a trip in itself. It was no more than about 45 degrees (7 or 8 Celsius) but the wind made it feel a whole lot colder than that. It was blowing so hard I could feel the hair being torn from my scalp. It didn’t stop us (me) taking tourist snaps of course but we certainly didn’t stay outside for any longer than we needed to be.
After this, the trip seemed to fly by. We hit Beaver Dam (love that name), Columbus and Sun Prairie in what seemed well less than an hour and drove into Madison at around 2 ‘o’clock. Wary of the unfamiliar, big city streets we ventured down town to check out the Capital Building and State Street. Madtown is beautiful, almost picturesque and the history in some of the buildings we drove past was great. It would have been nice to spend a little more time there but this was just a whistle stop unfortunately.
From our little cross town venture we went shopping at the East Towne mall, met the friends with which we’ll going to the game and retired to their farm in Poynette for some pizza and what we were hoping would be a good night’s sleep.
