Friday, July 18, 2025
Peter and I started our day trip to Beaver Dam on a perfect summer day at 9:00 a.m.
I mapped out our destinations beforehand that would make for an enjoyable time.
We had no trouble finding the Odyssey restaurant in Menomonee Falls where Peter had a veggie omelet and I had a bagel with smoked salmon. We had plenty of coffee.
From there is was all downhill. We seemed to be driving forever, even seeing signs for Green Bay 68 miles. Peter "jokingly" said we should have gone to Green Bay, and that would have been a very good idea. I kept entering Beaver Dam in my phone and it kept shutting down. It seemed to work when I held the phone in my hand with a finger on the screen.
We turned around, heading south. When Peter inquired at a bar how far we had to go to Beaver Dam, the owner told him about 40 miles.
We finally got to Beaver Dam about 1:00 p.m. and found Great Harvest Bakery on Front Street where I bought a loaded potato bread to go with the chicken salad I brought: Peter selected a slice of layer cake. The clerk said Swan Park would be the closest park which we opted for instead of Edgewater Park that had been on my list.
We found a picnic table and arranged our luncheon. It was good to relax and enjoy our salad, bread, kiwi, cheese and crackers with green tea and that delicious layer cake with a hint of mocha.
We drove along roads that gave us views of Beaver Dam Lake with lovely homes along the shore. I'm sure we could have spent more time exploring, since this is such a large lake.
We headed back to the main street to check out any unique shops Unfortunately, we didn't find any; many storefronts looked shut down. We were in luck to discover Nancy Zieman's Sewing Studio, with the newest Bernina sewing machines and enough fabric to satisfy any quilters dreams, plus items to aid in making quilts.
I stopped in a gaming and video store, hoping that the salesperson could help me with the settings on my phone; a gaming person should have some tech skills. I was in luck! He set the phone to not go off while charging, and set my screen time longer. He also looked at Peter's phone, removing his security and setting the time longer.
It was too early to think about dinner, and we did not want to linger any longer. We could get to Von Rothenberg just in time for beers and brats and meet Rudy Mintler.
This time the navigation worked perfectly and we circled around a couple of times to find parking in a very crowded lot and joined Rudy and a few other men at their table. We each had a regular brat and a half-liter of beer.
We did not get good directions getting to my house, missing the turn-off to Milwaukee. We took the Oklahoma exit and managed to find St. Rita Square at 9:00 p.m., exactly twelve hours from when we started.
