Summer road trip, part 2
Monday, July 2
Colored in another state on the US map in my mind where track of visited states.
Hello Wisconsin.
Serious eye candy, this dairy state. We caught it at it's best; most of America is rocking it's summer body right now, all lush green everything under bright blue skies. We could have just motored right on through, but a state this lovely deserves a few stops.
First we needed provisions: Spotted Cow from New Glarus Brewing Company. This is the beer that even people who don't like beer enjoy. It is an ale with plenty of flavor but it is not hoppy, which makes me happy.
It's only sold in Wisconsin, so we stopped at a Pick 'n Save in Monona for a few cases.
BTW: I just Googled it and it was legal to transport it across state lines as long as we weren't reselling it and we paid all the taxes. So I didn't just confess to a felony. Crossing "bootlegger" off my resume, which is too bad because I think it made me sound kinda old-school gangsta.
Yelp and Trip Advisor both featured great reviews of a restaurant not too far out of our way in Osseo. The Norske Nook (pronounced NOR-ski) is a small restaurant/bakery chain and since we were traveling with a gnome* it felt like a good choice.
Phil got the lefse meal wrap, which is sort of a Scandinavian version of shepherd's pie: roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy. Except instead of a biscuit-like crust there's a tortilla made out of potatoes. He loved it.
I got a turkey sandwich on cranberry-wild rice bread, which was amazing. Clearly Norwegians like to get creative with their carbs and turn everything into bread.
I approve, Norway.
After lunch, we bought a 10-pound chocolate-pecan pie for $35 to-go; dessert to share with our hosts at our next destination. You can't arrive without baked goods if you posted on social media that you stopped at a famous pie joint. I am sure I read that on a Buzzfeed list.
Houseguests who show up with Wisconsin beer and pie are always welcome.
*I may need to create a page just for Gumdrop the gnome.
There were miles and miles of all this summer beauty in America right now.
