Road Trip: Milwaukee

[acmespaceship]

In which the Milwaukee Bears and the Cincinnati Tigers play under a retractable roof, e_m_b  and I avoid Summerfest by the skin of our teeth, and Leon's flavors of the day are butter pecan and raspberry.  When you get to Mars, order the potato salad.

IN THE DEAD of summer, when the humidity and the yard work start getting to you, there's nothing for it but to provision the car with Coke Zero and go bombing up Route 41. 


Every Chicagoan knows Wisconsin begins at the Mars Cheese Castle.  Which had never been a castle, but rather a cobbled-together maze of add-ons to a classic roadside cheese market (those of you who have never been to Wisconsin will have to trust me on this).  Until this summer.  They've built a damn castle!  Bright and clean with lots of room.  What a shame.  They still make a fine grilled ham & cheese and they still sell all the cheesehead novelties a reasonable person could want.  Also a sausage shaped like a Miller Light bottle.  The checkout lines were enormous so we left without buying cheese curds.  Which I believe is only a misdemeanor, not a felony, and only if the state police catch you.





The Construction Gods were kind until we hit the repaving project just south of Milwaukee.  Threading through the war zone on I-94, we realized we had no plans for mid-afternoon.  Zoo or lakefront?  Way too late did we see the sign directing us to Summerfest parking. 

This is the genius of a 3G Kindle.  We are too cheap to pay for a data plan.  Amazon provides free cell service on the assumption that most users will only buy books and not, for example, Google Summerfest to find out who's playing at 1:30 Saturday afternoon.  To our relief, we discovered there ain't squat scheduled at 1:30.  Fearlessly we braved early traffic, squeezed north and avoided both tour buses and a promotional blimp.  In another hour we would have been doomed.  Never one to pass up a blimp shot, I had to settle for shooting out the car windshield.

It's a lovely drive on that stretch of Lake Michigan.  We watched a man and woman, covered in expensive spandex, riding bikes together until she, riding behind the guy, peeled off down a side street.  Half a block later, he turned around and noticed.  What a brilliant way to break up.  So long, sucker.

A little driving, a little walking, an interesting culvert in a park overlooking the lake.  A small corner of my brain is always, always herping.  Could there be frogs here?  How about a snake?   But nothing.  Then it was time for our pilgrimage to Leon's Frozen Custard.  Yes, that is raspberry custard with hot fudge.  Sue me. 



Finally, we entered the Land of Tailgates.  The only fully-planned part of this excursion was Brewers tickets for a 6:00 start.  As a recovering Cub fan, I stand in awe of the clouds of bratwurst smoke that hover over the car lots at Miller Park.  And I say that cornhole is a fine game, easy to comprehend and unlikely to cause injury no matter how many refreshments are involved.  I admire the Sausage Racers, who must be putting up with a lot of wiener jokes this season.  But I wonder: Is it morally correct to roast sausages over charcoal and eat them, only to cheer them a few hours later as they race around the warning track?

Inside Miller Park they sell a pulled pork parfait, layered with mashed potatoes.  A masterpiece of fan dining.  E_M_B went off in search of one, but couldn't find a vendor.  They probably don't offer meat parfaits to the plebians in the upper-upper-upper deck.  We settled for a brat and a dog.  I figured there'd be a photo online, and there is.  I stand in awe again. 

This was our first trip to the new stadium.  I was hoping for rain so we could see the roof close, but it was a clear and beautiful night.  It was Negro League Tribute Night.  Charlie "Whip" Davis, of the Memphis Red Sox, and Johnny "Lefty" Washington, of the Chicago American Giants, threw out ceremonial 1st pitches.  Lefty still coaches kids in Chicago, more power to him.  Milwaukee and Cincinnati players wore throwback unis and latecoming fans were perplexed as to why the scoreboard showed the "Milwaukee Bears." 



Above is Shaun Marcum looking all throwbacky. Yes, once I was inside the stadium I wished I'd hauled the big camera along and not the point & shoot.  I also wished I'd sold the car and bought a telephoto lens.

Sellout crowd of 43,000. Close game, tied 3-3 since the 2nd inning.  What excitement in the bottom of the 9th when the leadoff batter singled, a throwing error sent him to 2nd, and a sacrifice fly got him to 3rd!  Then ... um... well, the Brewers stranded runners at 3rd and 1st and the game slouched onward to the top of the 10th.  Oy!  As I said, I am a recovering Cub fan, and yet I don't think I've seen a team fall apart on defense like the Brewers did in the 10th.  Game ended 8-4.  Half the crowd had abandoned the park by then.  No crying in baseball.  Grumbling and cussing, yes, but no crying. 



We got lost trying to find an entrance to southbound I-94.  We always do.  Not lost exactly, since we know where the lake is, and we can make our way back to Leon's if necessary.  It's the entrance ramps that get lost.  We stopped at a truck stop for caffeine.  The cheese castle was dark, abandoned in the night like a ghost ship.  At this hour you must carry on without cheese.  I imagine that, somewhere behind us, a bicyclist is lying alone in his bedroom, wondering where she went.  Maybe she went with these guys...

Comments

[mia-mcdavid.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a blast! I saw your msg about Mamas and PAPAs, think it's a great idea. Do you still have the participants list? I don't...we are coming down for Windycon FOR SURE (Frank Hayes!) so that might be a good time to distribute?

[acmespaceship.livejournal.com]

Windycon! Brilliant! I can check old issues to get a definitive-ish list of participants. It'll be a couple of weeks until things settle down enough for me to get notices out, but it'll happen.