It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, that the success of my odyssey is very dependent on the health of my beloved FJ, Baby Blue. We’ve had our moments — such as when I had to replace a broken windshield, and a couple of times when my immobilizer system has gone haywire and killed my battery — but for the most part the FJ has been rock solid reliable. Well, that’s why I bought a Toyota. Just a note on…
Milwaukee, Wisconsin is the home of Harley Davidson motorcycles, so I decided to visit their factory museum for the afternoon. Once you get through all the construction and detours on the highways, the museum itself is actually quite easy to find, and if you’re not sure you’re in the right place, this imposing entrance will take away all doubt! By the way, admission is $10 on Tuesdays, and double that the rest of the week. Very coincidentally, I was there…
I had been told by a friend that there was a guesthouse at Holy Hill National Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians, and I thought that sounded like a very pleasant place to stay while I visited Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I couldn’t get them on the phone, so I took a chance and showed up at the monastery office to check availability. Unfortunately, half of the guesthouse was being renovated, and the rest was booked up, which I suppose was not unexpected in the…
I’ve developed a habit when visiting big cities of staying somewhere outside the city, and only venturing in after rush hour in the morning, and that’s the pattern I followed with Chicago. I stayed the night before at the Indiana Dunes State Park, waking up in the morning to this view across Lake Michigan. If you look very carefully, you can just see the tallest buildings of Chicago on the horizon, about an hour’s drive away. I don’t think I…
I was almost done with my visit to the lovely city of St Louis, Missouri, but there was one other famous landmark that I wanted to see while I was there — the Anheuser-Busch Brewery, home to Budweiser beer. Please realize that I like a good beer… but I don’t consider Budweiser a good beer, unfortunately. But it’s famous, and the Budweiser Clydesdales are kind of awesome, so I thought it would make a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. If you’d…