Shit in Sheboygan - Wisconsin Road Trip Day 4

SSo, lesson learned for today, I think... Have more defined plans. 

Our day, while fun and amazing, didn't go the way I thought it would. 

The view from our hotel room when we woke up

After our sad night last night, we were up by 7:30, with a lovely start to the day.  Afterward, while we were relaxing, I wondered if it would be possible to pick up our rental SUV earlier than the 10am I'd originally scheduled it for. I called down to the Budget/Avis desk and was told that the vehicle was at the shop for an oil change, but the clerk would get it ready for me asap and call me when it was ready.

We were able to pick it up at 9, which was great, but I still had to return the Penske, so what was my rush? Duh doi, Lazy. Duh doi. I left as quickly as possible to return the truck, and halfway to the car, I realized I'd forgotten the Garmin. No big, I thought... I'll just use my phone's navigation. It wouldn't be me if I didn't miss a turn, so of course the trip to the return place took three times as long because it rerouted me in a weird way. 

Once I got there, I couldn't figure out where the place was (it was inside a mechanic shop). I told the clerk (Wendy? Brenda? She was nice, whatever her name was) that I was returning it, and bless her heart, she reminded me to fill the tank (otherwise, it would be $10 a gallon to fill it up! Yikes!!). 

Once the tank was full, the keys were dropped off, and I picked up an Uber back to the hotel, where Hubby had finished packing up the room while I was gone. We rolled all of our junk over to the SUV and hit the road (after a swooningly delicious "This is the first day of the rest of our lives" kiss from Hubby)!

The plan for the day was to actually go North, first to do shit in Sheboygan, then on to a local cheese factory, into Green Bay, then back down for some fun in the snow. 

We stopped for soda at a KwikTrip (store #879) in Saukville, between the hotel and Sheboygan. I've never been to a KT before, so I didn't know what to expect. When we first walked in, we checked out the snacks and packaged items, which were typical convenience store fare. The other half of the store is where the magic happened... There was a lady - Gretchen - standing there offering samples of their new Roast Chicken and Mashed Potatoes with Gravy. At a gas station. Sure, what the hell. Oh, fuck... they were good!!! I shared a bite with Hubby, but hoarded the rest for myself. 

We ended up having a great chat with Gretchen (and later, Justin, the manager) about Wisconsin and the local area. When she heard we were from Florida, she asked us if what she heard about our state (about Covid, on the news) was true. We explained that people were not dying in droves, or anything like that; that most of what she'd heard on the news was lies and exaggerations. I think we must have chatted with her for a half-hour! It was great, and she was so very nice.

Over in the Magic Side of the store, they had soups, hot food (the aforementioned chicken and potatoes, as well as hamburgers, pizza, corn dogs and the like), a salad bar, fresh-baked pastries, pre-made sandwiches, take-and-bake items, and, of course, a great soda fountain. 

I was blown away by this place. It's definitely a step up from a RaceTrac, and similar to a Wawa, but on a different level. I'm still pretty loyal to Wawa, but KT is a very close #2 contender for Best Convenience Store that we've visited. 

Once we got to Sheboygan, we stopped at the Pennsylvania Avenue bridge to take some photos of the (very frozen) Sheboygan river before continuing on to the Lottie Cooper/Marina area to take pictures of Lake Michigan (1 of 5 Great Lakes visited!)

Sheboygan River

Lake Michigan 

How do I get over to those stairs?

Lottie Cooper Lighthouse

One of the ice machines at the Marina

Obligatory Duck Butt

I found out how to get to the stairs

Stairs Selfie!

I was hoping for more specific adventures in Sheboygan, but I never actually picked anything to do, thinking we'd just wing it when we got here, so after the lake, we actually just ended up scoping out some of the beautiful shoreline houses in the area before making our way north to Scray Cheese. 

The drive north, on Interstate 41, by the way, was amazingly peaceful. Very good roads, very peaceful traffic. Sometimes it felt like we were the only car on the road! Anyway, after exiting the interstate, we drove through random farmland until we got to Scray Cheese. 

There were a lot more turns than depicted on this map

A review I'd read online for this place said "It's a great place if you're in the area, but don't make a special trip" was spot on. It was a tiny place! But it had lots and lots of cheese to choose from. We opted to pick up from fresh cheese curds (so good!) and a small tub of sharp cheddar spread. 

Our next step was supposed to be Green Bay, which we headed towards, but once we got there, we discovered that... well... we really didn't want to do anything. I didn't actually plan any activities in Green Bay, or anywhere to stop, so we kind of just drove around aimlessly (I mean, come on... we didn't even go see the actual BAY). Oh well, I guess. We can say we went. I picked up some snackage at another Kwik Trip, trying their mac & cheese and a corn dog. Sadly, both were meh at best. 

Finally, though, it was time to head back south to the thing I'd been waiting for this entire trip so far - we're going snow tubing!!!! Yes, this Florida-born and Florida-bred girl is gonna throw herself down a snow-covered mountain. Repeatedly. 

So we get to Sunburst Winter Sports Park, in Kewaskum, and... hmmm... it seems not very busy at all. Granted, it's a Tuesday. Maybe not a lot of people want to play in the snow on a Tuesday.

Hello? Anybody home?

Wait...

pulls up Facebook page...

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

They're closed! CLOSED! Their post from Sunday (two days ago) said that the warm weather caused them to close down until the following Thursday. 

So, if you remember, when I was planning this trip, I was so scared that it was going to be freezing. And when we began our trip, I was so happy that it wasn't going to be freezing. So... maybe I should have shut the fuck up and let it be freezing... 

It was also officially the end of the season, too.

Defeated, we headed to the hotel, looking for somewhere for dinner. Once we got to West Bend, we drove around a few miles in each direction to get a lay of the land. While we did this, we got lost and used a random parking lot to turn around in, and found a tiny parking lot for the Ice Age Trail, so with a cry of adventure!, we bundled up and 'hiked' it for 10-15 minutes. 

We only walked part of the little loop at the very bottom

I can't put my arms down!

Afterward we picked up dinner at KwikTrip, and checked in at our hotel. 

Cheese-Stuffed Breadsticks and Pizza Slice (meh)

Oh, lord. They gave me the Jacuzzi Suite! (Backstory, when I reserve hotel rooms, I always make a special request for a room with a great bathtub, because of some random reason - this time I said it was because we'd be skiing all day, and I'm old). I don't understand non-sexy reasons for a Jacuzzi suite... Like, who wants to take a bath in the middle of a bedroom? 

I still took a bath in it, though!

Clean and relaxed, I hopped in bed to tweet and sleep. 

We Have Snow!!! - Wisconsin Road Trip Day 3

After an... explosive... night last night, I awoke to more tummy troubles around 4am. I wasn't really able to fall deeply back to sleep, so I gave up and got out of bed at 7. I enjoyed another bubble bath and then we packed up and left. 

Last day in the truck!

In doing trip planning, I'd wanted to go to the Superman Museum and Gift Shop yesterday, before the hotel, but because of our late start, we got to Metropolis after they'd closed for the night. So our first stop this morning was the Superman statue.

There was a Super Girl option, but... no thank you!

On paper, the Superman Museum sounded really cool, but when we got there, it looked kind of sad, so we just wandered the gift shop a little bit, picked up a magnet and took some photos outside. 

We stopped for gas and snacks at a convenience store, and I was super pumped... They had Uncle Ray's Hot chips! I picked up two of the large bags, AND one of the individual sizes for immediate munching, as well as some powdered donuts for breakfast (unfortunately, they were stale). 

It was cool to see a disassembled wind turbine - they're HUGE!

A few hours later, we stopped in Mahomet, IL for gas and lunch, but unfortunately, the Dairy Queen was Drive-Thru only, and the truck wouldn't fit, so we got back on the interstate and stopped at a Dairy Queen in El Paso, IL instead. Even though I wanted a Blizzard, I also wanted to get back on the road quickly, so we just got easy to eat burgers and ate while we continued to drive north. 

Cross at the Crossroads in Effingham, IL 

Just a few hours after that, Hubby spotted the first snow, that, at first, we didn't even know was snow! We live in Florida... it looked like white sand to us! He turned to me and said "I think that's snow? Is it snow?" But after driving a little further, the white got more and more prevalent, and we knew... IT WAS SNOW!!! 

Is that? Is that... snow? 

I was so stoked! We were finally in the North. (Yes, I'm sure for you folks who live there, this is hilarious, but I've never seen snow in my life, except for once in 1989). 

Oh yeah, baby... that's some SNOW!

We stopped at the Willow Creek Rest Area around 4:30pm, solely to play with the snowdrifts. I made a snowball and threw it at the wall of a picnic pavilion. (Again, yes, Yankees, I know you're laughing.) 

He took so many (bad) pictures of snow

We got into Wisconsin around 5pm, and arrived at the Kiddo's new apartment by 6:30. The girls unpacked the truck while I headed inside to check out the new digs... If you can imagine an apartment full of video game nerds, you'd have a good idea what the apartment looked like. The mom part of me was upset (it was messy and dirty), but the I used to be young part of me let it go, because my first apartment wasn't much better! It wasn't nasty or unhealthy or anything like that. It just needed organization and a good vacuum. 

Welcome to Wisconsin

Once unpacked, we all somehow ended up in the Kiddo's bedroom chilling, and honestly, I think it was what I needed. I was able to see her in her new element, seemingly so much more adult, surrounded by her friends, and they were all so cute together, with a kind of "Sisters from Different Misters" vibe. 

Originally, we were going to take all of them to dinner before saying good-bye, but they'd already eaten and seemed to practically forget we were even in the room. I always hate to be the person who breaks up fun, so we kind of had to catch her eye until she got the point that we needed to leave.

We had happy tears, sad tears, laughs, and lot of hugs, and finally, we had to leave her (dammit... yes, I'm tearing up now). I got in one more hug and then Hubby and I walked back to the truck. Hubby asked me if I would be okay to drive, and I kind of bit his head off, saying, "I'm not thinking about it until we get to the hotel," and put a huge fucking lid on it. 

I never cried at the hotel. 

I feel like I should feel bad about that, but because I cried so much before we left home, and then I had another good cry when I said goodbye, I don't feel bad. She's not dead. She's not gone forever. She's off living her life and being amazing. It's her time to be her own person, and not just my daughter. I said it to her, and I'll say it here... I'm so proud of her for choosing to take this amazing leap into adulthood. She didn't just take a small step out of her comfort zone, she is 1400 miles away from her comfort zone!

At the hotel, we unpacked all of our stuff from the Penske (in every attempt to pack light, we've ended up with 2 duffel bags, a large suitcase, and 5-6 reusable grocery bags at this point) and brought it up to the room with us, since we didn't know how we were going to handle the Truck Return/Car Rental in the morning. It seemed easier in the long run to do this. 

Once settled, we chilled out on our tablets and fell asleep. Our real adventure begins tomorrow!

Like a Ball of Snakes in my Legs - Wisconsin Road Trip Day 2

Last night was a terrible night. The beds were hard. They definitely were NOT queen beds, despite what the clerk said. And to top it all off? At about 11pm, I woke up with the worst charley horse I've ever experienced in my life. Pulling my toes back had no effect on lessening the pain. I ended up sitting up in bed (I don't know why... it didn't help at all), just miserable. It felt like an electric ball of snakes in my leg. Pain ran from the cramp all the way up to my butt. I think this personal hell lasted about 10 minutes before my leg stopped cramping enough that I could lay down again. 

To add insult to injury, I woke up at 6am and couldn't fall back asleep. Already, the cold, dry weather was wreaking havoc with my sinuses, so decided to take a hot bubble bath to get some humidity into my face. Afterward, I crawled back in bed to read for a while, while we both charged our phones and tablets. 

We packed up and left around 9:30, getting gas at the Shell across from the hotel, and picking up a sausage biscuit for me at McDonald's. Hubby was feeling a little better after getting some sleep, but he chose to skip breakfast so as to not irritate his tummy again. 

We're starting to see mountains!

Our first planned stop today was a little town called Leeds, in Alabama. I don't know much about Leeds, but I do know that they just got a new gas station... a quaint little shop called Buc-ees. Oh, yes. Buc-ees. Home of Bucky the Beaver, Beaver Nuggets, and the cleanest bathrooms known to man. 

What I didn't realize is that it only opened a few months ago, so it was still crazy busy. 

I'm coming, Bucky, I'm coming!

It. Was. HUGE. According to Bham Now, it is 53,250 square feet. New Braunfels, TX, holds the world record as the biggest Buc-ees at 66,335 square feet. To put that into perspective, a typical "large" RaceTrac convenience store is about 4,000 square feet. This Buc-ees also has 120 gas fueling positions, spread over three pavilions. 

It's HUGE

I drove the truck around the whole parking lot first, to get an idea of the size of it, and just had to stop at the selfie wall before finding an unobtrusive place to park the Penske. 

Road Trip Hair, Don't Care

Once inside, I was completely overwhelmed... It was crowded like the mall on Black Friday. While I could have picked up a shopping cart (yes, this place seriously has shopping carts), I went with a basket instead. My senses were assaulted with so much to see! There's an entire wing of the store that is random sundries like camping gear, outdoor gear, health & body treats (lotions, candles, etc), toys, souvenirs, and, of course, all manner of Buc-ees branded stuff (shirts, towels, plushies, even a Bucky onesie for adults with a hood and tail). The other wing of the store was your typical convenience store, with chips, snacks, etc. In the middle of the store were multiple kiosks with fresh food, including BBQ, fudge, pastries, and jerky. There were coolers that had sandwiches, salads, meats, cheeses, puddings and desserts. Then there was a wall of soda fountains and Icee fountains, and an entire coffee island with a myriad of syrups and creamers. I was blown away by the offerings in this store - even after being prepared for it! We ended up picking up Buc-ees cheese curls, cheese puffs, white cheddar popcorn, sea salt caramels, and beaver nuggets to try (I'll link to our Snack Review post when I finish it).

For lunch, we tried a regional franchise called Jack's. I'd heard of them from a YouTube series called Bless Your Rank and, for the most part, I agree with Matt about his choices, so it seemed like a no-brainer to check them out.  Hubby and I each got a 3-piece chicken tender meal with fries and a drink. The chicken was nice and fresh, and the crinkle fries were amazing! I don't know what seasoning they use, but they were so freakin' good. Both Hubby and I were impressed and would definitely eat there again. 

After lunch, we got back on the road, headed north to Tennessee. Alabama seemed to go on forever (it took another two hours to get from Leeds to the state line). Once in Tennessee, we hit up the Tennessean Truck Stop for some ice (I still had soda left from our last pit stop), a Tennessee magnet, and some ice cream. 

Crossing the Tennessee River

Any kid from the 80s knows about Space Camp!

Welcome to Tennessee

Now, I have to digress here... what do you guys call this type of ice cream cone? 

In my world - a world in which I worked at an ice cream restaurant - these are called Cake cones. When I ordered ice cream at the truck stop, I requested vanilla ice cream in either a Sugar cone or Waffle cone. She gave me my scoop on a Cake cone. I wasn't mad at it, but when I mentioned it to Hubby, he said that this was a Sugar cone. No, darling... this is a Sugar cone:

It's the best type of cone for ice cream. It's solid, it's sturdy, and it tastes the best! 

Anyway, I ate all that ice cream because it was really freakin' good (but it would have been freakin' amazing in a Sugar cone...). 

Once we got into Kentucky, we turned onto Interstate 24, and wow... what a crappy road! Full of patched potholes, plenty of bumps, it was terrible. I stopped at a Pilot Travel Center to pick up a Kentucky magnet, but I couldn't find any, so we got back on the road. 

The mountains are getting bigger!

Welcome to Kentucky

Ten minutes after we got back on the road, I felt some burbling in my tummy... uh oh. I need to find a bathroom. 

And of course, none of the exits we had coming up looked to be heavily populated. But soon, my body said it didn't matter, and I pulled off into this extremely sketchy BP gas station outside of Grand River, Kentucky. I hauled ass into the store, speed-walking to the rear of the place, passing a random old guy just munching on some gas station pizza, who had no idea what my problem was! I did bad things to that poor toilet. Once done, I picked up a bag of local chips (I don't remember which ones, though) and a Kentucky magnet, then got back into the truck to continue the trip. I popped some ice in my mouth and immediately my stomach burbled again, so I think it was the ice from the Tennessean Truck Stop that gave me the issue. 

South Kentucky Sunset

Much better than last night, we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in - get this - Metropolis, Illinois. The beds were super comfy with great pillows. Ice was hard to find, but once I filled up my bucked, I chilled in bed with Twitter and Redneck Charcuterie (Slim Jims and Cheetos) before passing out by 10pm. 

It weighs on my heart a little bit that tomorrow is the day. It's the day that my baby is officially gone. At some point tomorrow, we'll make it to Wisconsin and we'll unpack the truck and it will be all done. 

I'm not ready. 

Let's Get This Show on the Road (Wisconsin Road Trip Day 1)

 And so it begins! Today is Day 1 of our Epic Wisconsin Adventure. 

I was up at 6:45, so I had plenty of time to deal with Uber. Hubby was suffering from stomach pains. When I left the bedroom, I was surprised to see The Kiddo was already awake, waiting for Jo and Mimi so they could go to breakfast. She called an Uber for me before she left, and he ended up at the house by 7:30am, which was way too early, but after yesterday it's better to be early than late!

I got to Penske around 7:45, and had to wait outside. And, just my luck, it started to rain. Luckily, after about 10 minutes, the Service Technician opened the door early so that I could sit inside, out of the rain. After I got my truck, I headed home (Truck Rental Tip: Adjust your mirrors before you drive away!) My original plan was to back the truck up to as close to the front door as possible, but a 12' truck was harder to maneuver than expected, so we had to leave it in the middle of the yard.

Back in the house, Hubby was still in bed, still in pain. And, of course, I'm still miserable, with migraine leftovers from last night. Once back from breakfast, the girls loaded up the truck and the car. 

At one point, I happened to see that her purse and Nintendo Switch were on the couch, which told me that they were close to being done, and I had to just go hide in the bedroom for a minute and lose it. As I told Hubby multiple times that morning, I hadn't gone over the hill to "this is a great thing for her," I was still stuck on "this is a loss for me."

And, finally, they were all packed. I went into our room to get Hubby (still in pain), and we both had a good cry and then we said our goodbyes. Our "see ya later"s, actually, since we'd see them again on Monday, I guess. 

The Kiddo, Mimi, & Jo

And then she was gone. The house seemed quieter. Emptier. The cat was confused. 

I had one more moment of sad, and then switched into Get Shit Done Mode. Took a shower. Finished packing. All that stuff. Hubby was still feeling like crap, but I was doing a little better (I downed a warm Pepsi earlier, that's how desperate I was for sugar and caffeine.)

It took much longer than expected for him to feel good enough to leave, but eventually we headed out and were on the road by 1pm. 

We drove north to Lake City and then caught Interstate 10 and headed west. After an hour or so, we were in uncharted territory, and I was a little giddy. We were actually doing this! (Granted, differently than originally planned last year, but still...!)

Our first pitstop was a Raceway in Slocomb, at the Florida-Alabama line. There were two main reasons I wanted to stop there. One was because it was right by the "Welcome to Alabama" sign (I originally thought it was in the parking lot, but it was actually across the street), and two was because I planned on getting a big ol' soda from every single place we stopped at. This was no exception. 

The first of many... questionable... photos Hubby took with the camera

However, once inside (and this place was janky), I spotted some chips called Rap Snacks. Hmmm, never heard of those before. I decided to pick them up so we could try them.

Is Migos a person? A group? I'm old, I don't know shit about fuck.

This led to an obsession over the next ten days that I wouldn't have even thought of when I was planning this trip! Stay tuned for more!

Hours into this leg of the journey, hubby is still miserable, which is putting a damper on my day. I'm over in the driver's seat stuffing my face with Slim Jims, potato chips, and big ol' drinks, and he's positively green around the gills. He crossed over to miserable and pissy by the time we got to Montgomery, Alabama, which sucked. I understand that you're in pain, but dude... (it felt like he was verging into Man Flu territory.)

Also by the time we got to Montgomery, it's too dark to see anything fun, but luckily, our hotel was just up the road. Tonight we're staying at a Red Roof Inn. I booked a King Room, but upon check-in, I was informed that all of their king rooms were unavailable. The clerk mumbled something about there being an electrical problem with one wing of the hotel. She gave us a Two Queen room on the ground floor instead. 

Goodnight sunshine

Love Stuff... Um, maybe next time?

Oh but wait, it gets better... I told Hubby to go ahead to the room while I parked the truck, and when I got to the room, something seemed off... Oh, I know what it was; the fact that the room was used!!! Seriously, the beds were both used, there were wet towels in the bathtub, there was trash in the trashcans. What the actual hell? So, I went back to the lobby, and she gave us an upgraded room in "the interior wing" (which actually had an elevator, I might add). This room was clean and turned, and it was pretty, but let me tell ya... those were NOT queen beds. Those were doubles. My fat ass and his fat ass were rubbin' together all night long. I guess you get what you pay for when you get a $50/night room... 

What a crazy long day! Hopefully Day 2 is a little better than today!

Bonus Video: If you're a fan of Safiya Nygaard on YouTube, she and Tyler recently did a cross-country move and vlogged it on YouTube. These two (and their awesome cat, Crusty) are my #TravelVlogGoals! Check it out!