Wisconsin

I found the transit centre easily enough, it's tagged onto the Citibank building. Walking down the platform the train looked ordinary enough, albeit two floors. I got on and it was set up a little differently to other trains I had been on. The bottom floor was as per usual, the top floor was split down the middle by a space for people to walk down through on the ground floor. There was a row of single seats each side of the top floor and a stair case to access each side. It means that the train carriage doesn't have to be another foot or so higher but you still have the benefits of extra seats on the top floor. The conductor just reaches up through the gap to check the tickets of the passengers on the top deck. All these details are for Scott, but I am a sad individual because I noticed. How do you know if you are becoming a train geek?I sat on the top, I was hoping to see something of the countryside. Unfortunately there wasn't much countryside to see. It took about thirty minutes to get out of Chicago and then the train seemed to be serving commuter communities. Then of course it was completely dark at 5pm!


I took the train to the end of the line, Harvard. Even though I knew where I was going and that I was riding until the end of the line it was still a bit concerning to see the train pretty much empty before we got to my stop. I got off in this rinky dink town with the tracks running down the middle of the street. Heidi was waiting for me at the end of the platform, she hasn't changed a bit. She ushered me to her car and we were off to Milwaukee, she had to go into the city for a bridesmaid's dress fitting. We caught up on each others news on the drive, Heidi still drives as fast as possible! On the way into Milwaukee Heidi pointed out some local landmarks, like the Harley Davidson factory. I hadn't known they were made in Milwaukee. We got lucky and were able to park right outside the dress store and ran on in. The bride, Rebecca and another bridesmaid, Chelsea were already there and Heidi was hustled straight into a dressing room. The dress was a lovely grey chiffon affair and looked really nice on Heidi. It took a little bit of time to get things sorted, but that's normally the case with these things, then we hit up a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. The food was really good and cheap, the beer went down smoothly too. We headed out fairly early as Heidi had to drive back to Clinton. Rebecca kindly invited me to the wedding!


I was planning to spend a little bit of Friday day out and about in Heidis town but it didn't happen. Although I woke up at a decent time I spent all day in Heidis apartment updating my blog and uploading photos. I also tried to work out where I would go next, but that didn't go very far. I am having a real hard time planning stuff!!This has been true since I did the Golden Week hitch hike to Kyoto last year. That trip went so well that I cannot motivate myself to plan now and I should, if for no reason other than to save money. I watched a couple of movies as I did my admin stuff and then repacked my bag and put it downstairs so we could make a quick getaway when Heidi got back from school. We were going to spend the weekend at her parents house in West Bend.
Heidi ran into the apartment exactly when she said she would, we loaded the car and it was off to West Bend. Her sister Jamie was bringing her boyfriend Tim home to meet the family, so the house would be fairly full. I finally got to meet Heidis parents, Linda and Gordon, who are both so lovely and welcoming. We didn't sit down long before we headed out to the local golf course for a fish fry dinner. Apparently there are a lot of Catholics in Wisconsin and having fried fish on Friday is a big tradition. Since I am not one to buck tradition I had a fried fish supper with potato pancakes. Good food. We headed back, I was going to have an early night but got sucked into "Say yes to the dress". What can I say, I have no resistance to bad American T.V., but it did mean that I got to say hello to Tim when he and Jamie got back from the airport.
Saturday morning was great, we had a big family breakfast around the table and it was really relaxed. The perfect start to the day. Heidi and I headed out with the family dog,Annabelle, for a short walk and I finally got to see some Wisconsin countryside. Then the excitement continued with a visit to the grocery store and my first visit to Dairy Queen to pick up an ice cream cake for Tim. It was a great cake, it had a cow on it with "Welcome to Wisconsin". We headed home and everyone settled down for a nap, I think this is a Bartlett family tradition! I read a book. Dinner was another family affair, with some great wine and local beer. Afterwards Heidi very kindly let me beat her at pool and darts. And as if that wasn't enough games for the night we all ended up playing Trivial Pursuit. I am sad to report that Heidi and I lost, but it was a close thing and Tim and Jamie only won because they had a sports question to finish and we couldn't answer any sports questions!
On Sunday we headed back to Clinton, dropping off Tim and Jamie at the airport on the way. I wasn't feeling terribly active and neither was Heidi, I think. We went to the "Piggly Wiggly" grocery store and stocked up on snacks so we could watch the Wisconsin football game. Wisconsin were expected to lose but surprised Heidi by winning. We had Italian food delivered for dinner and had an early night. Heidi very kindly drove me to Harvard to catch my train the following morning, it was an early start as she had to be back in Clinton to start school at 07.30. I was sad to say goodbye to her but happy that we had gotten to hang out together. And who knows I might just return for Rebeccas wedding.
I left Harvard and noticed their water tower. In the west a lot of towns have the town initial carved on a hillside, in Wisconsin there are no hills so the towns build water towers and out their names on those. Harvards declares that Harvard is the home of milk day, that's enough to make me want to return!