Life and such: Day Three - Chicago to Austin (MN)

Not a lot of driving, but also not little, yesterday. We got up and got out at 10. Sadly, I forgot to double check mom's preparedness. We eventually got a call from Mary saying that mom's slippers and a pair of glasses had remained behind to keep her and Sybil company. Sigh. She will mail them to a friend who shall henceforth be known as "She who wants not to be named" where they will wait for our arrival.

First stop, gas station. I only got a couple of gallons because the prices were exorbitant! Glarg even! But that was enough to get us out of town. That took a little while because traffic was heavy for some reason. I wouldn't have thought traffic would be heavy on a Saturday at 10ish leaving Chicago. Maybe a lot of people were heading out of town for the day or weekend. Who knows?!

Eventually, we got clear of urban-ness and found a relatively inexpensive gas station. Yay! Isn't driving scintillating? (One thing I would like in blogger, is emoticons. Hello, are you listening blogger people?)

I had decided to stop for a decent lunch since it wasn't going to be a marathon driving day. I picked a place in Madison Wisconsin and invited a friend to meet us there. Never heard back from her. Maybe she doesn't check Facebook as obsessively as some people. Or get notifications on her phone from Facebook. Whatever. Oh, maybe she doesn't like me anymore and hasn't bothered to de-friend me. Or maybe it isn't about me at all. Then again, it is my universe, so isn't everything about me? Hmm?

Great Dane Pub has four locations in the Madison Area. I chose Eastside as it looked close to the Freeway. It was - just no exit there - which I didn't know, but of course, the GPS did. It took us on a nice side road excursion to get there. Mom was worried, as usual, that we were not actually going to find the place. This worry is partially based on fact - a while ago, I put an address in the GPS and the address turned out to be wrong - ending us up in the middle of farm country, not at the movie theatre we thought we were headed to. This, though, has been the exception. Yay GPSs!

The pub reminded me a little of a Jillian's or a place along that line. Not as big, but the same sort of feel. A little bit of everything - a pool table, bar, dining area. Two stories tall, nice view fromt he second floor. Mom and I sat in a booth and had the lovely Tia as our server. I love mid-West accents! Anyway, mom had a hamburger - actually an apple bacon Gorgonzola burger that looked really good! I had a tuna salad with sesame encrusted seared tuna. Yum! I also has a taste of one beer, and four sample glasses of four other beers.

All the beers were tasty, which isn't always the case when a brewery makes 12 beers. The first taste I had was their Belgian Style quad, which was highly alcoholic and rich and malty! Yay! I also sampled four beers: Scotch ale was good for the style - malty and a little thick and syrupy the way I like it; two porters, both good but not that different from each other; and an Imperial IPA that was good but not great. All in all, a satisfactory experience!

On the road again, we looked at the sights. Well, mom looked at the sights as I drove along. We passed a nice rock outcropping - nothing like what we will see in the South West, but nice anyway. Later we spent some time driving along and across the mighty Mississippi, which is even mighty this far North. Mom was impressed and oohed and ahhed quite appropriately. This sort of thing makes the trip a success in my book. The drive took a little longer than I thought it would, but we did eventually arrive in Austin, MN (where Mary G spent some of her formative years apparently).

Our Rodeway Inn is very pleasant. Seems like it has been recently renovated. All the motels are a lot more expensive than they were 10 years ago when I drove around the country. I hate money. (Ok, money, if you are listening, I don't really hate you, I just think you are avoiding me for some reason, and that is frustrating. Come to me and I will pass you along gratefully!) I had a pleasant chat with the fill-in desk clerk - gathering intel for our foray into the booming (24k people) metropolis of Austin (MN).

We headed to Walmart first - to get some supplies - replacement slippers, some sticky stuff for mom's toilet seat (more on this in another post) and some chapstick. Then to Torge's (pronounced Tor (hard g) Gees)(short of Torgenson - the owner's name apparently). It was a sports bar. Beer! And food. The food was simple and surprisingly good - we had smothered chicken with a baked potato, salad and an extra side of Onion Rings. I had two beers - a Nordeaster Grain Belt - no one knew what style it was - I thought it tasted like an Oktoberfest or maybe a dopplebock, turns out it was an amber. Our great server, Becky (Jo), suggested a Crooked Tree for my second beer - an IPA that was decent. Becky was great and she listened patiently as I regaled her with beer knowledge, some of which might actually be correct! :)

Great Day Three!