Latest Trip to Dubuque

Recently returned from an overnight getaway to Dubuque with sister, Dawn. Started with lunch at Decatur Dairy in Brodhead. Grilled  cheese sandwiches, Diet Coke, and a bag of fresh cheese curds to take on the road. Then off to Dubuque along picturesque Highway 11, over the Mississippi River into

Iowa, and checked in to the Julien Hotel. 

First off, down to the whirlpool/pool for a relaxing

soak in the whirlpool and invigorating couple of laps in the pool. Next, a relaxing nap. Then onto dinner at the Woodfire Steakhouse inside the Diamond Jo casino. Delicious, and served by our favorite waitress, Michelle. Awesome tenderloin steak, served with asparagus spears and an iceberg wedge salad with blue cheese dressing. A delicious fudge brownie dessert with sour cherries and ice cream, which Michelle comped on, since we were celebrating our escape from the Oscar apartments.

Next, we went into the casino, where I found a $10 blackjack table, and Dawn played a $5 blackjack machine.  I won $68 and cashed out, while Dawn broke even on the machine. While at the cash out window, I saw a man take a $1,000 advance on his credit card, presumably to play at the craps table. Guess he was feeling lucky.

We left, and went back to the hotel room and to bed. Up the next morning around 7 a.m. I got dressed and went down to the lobby for coffee, giving Dawn the room to herself to get dressed. She met me in the lobby and we took the car over to the Sunshine Family Restaurant for breakfast. Denver omelet with American fries, toast, and coffee for me; ham and cheese omelet, hashbrowns and coffee for Dawn. We saw our favorite waitress who has been there for years, and she remembered us, too, and waived to us. Amazing. We had not been to the Sunshine in probably a year or more, and she remembered us.

From there, back to the hotel where we packed and headed home. We made a stop at McDonalds in Brodhead, where I had a fish sandwich and an orange drink, and Dawn had a fish sandwich, cheeseburger and fries.

Then back to Madison and to our apartment. All in all, a lovely getaway.

Ishnala and Ho Chunk Casino

 Just got back from an overnight outing, complete with dinner at Ishnala, gambling at Ho-Chunk, overnight at the Ho-Chunk motel, and breakfast at Paul Bunyan's in the Dells.

First, dinner at Ishnala:

Arrived there about 5:00. Place was packed. (Sister) Dawn and I had to wait 1.5 hours for a table. Had a couple of Old Fashioned cocktails to pass the time and sat outside on one of the decks overlooking Mirror Lake.

For dinner, I had twin lobster tails, wedge salad, and baked potato. For dessert, key lime pie. Dawn had a beef filet with deep fried shrimp and au gratin potato. All delicious. Service was superb. Neither of us had been to Ishnala in years. Our dad, Howard, used to occasionally tend bar there when it was owned by the Hoffman brothers, whose photos are still up on wall just inside the entrance. 

Next stop, Ho-Chunk Casino, where I played blackjack at a $10 table with live dealer. Wanted to take a break from the blackjack machine. They say the odds are the same, but I am convinced the machine is rigged. I cant tell you how many times I've stood on 20, and the dealer gets 21. I won $20 at the table. Dawn played the machine and broke even on her $20 buy-in.

Then onto our room, where we promptly went to bed, tired and full as a tick from the dinner. Up at around 8 a.m., got dressed, and head to Paul Bunyan's for breakfast.

We both ordered the standard all-you-eat breakfast, which consists of scrambled eggs, sausage links, ham, fried potatoes, biscuits with sausage gravy, pancakes, donuts, OJ, and coffee. All very delicious. This was a trip down Memory Lane for  Dawn and I; we hadn't been there for probably 40 years. The place hasn't changed a bit. The gift shop had plenty of Wisconsin Dells crap, including rubber tomahawks and beaded moccasins. What a laugh. I'm sure the Native Americans don't find it funny, however.

From there, the drive home along Highway 12 was very pleasant. We got home around noon. What a pleasant outing this was.

Returning From Panama

 Panama Canal cruise with sis-in-law Julie ended when we docked in New Orleans. By this time, I was sicker than a dog. We had a reservation at a Hamption Inn in the French Quarter. We had arranged some activities, including a tour of the new WWII museum which was quite interesting. There was a display of artifacts from the Enola Gay bombing expedition, including Paul Tibbets' wristwatch. Actually it was only one of the wristwatches that Tibbets owned (Bulova), and I doubt it was the one he wore during the bombing run.

We walked around the French Quarter, and I limped along as best I could, not wishing to burden Julie. At night, back at the hotel, I asked Julie to pick up some soup for me. The next morning, I sent Julie on her way to the airport, and I set out to find an urgent care center. There, they set me up with an albuterol inhaler to ease my breathing and did some tests, and the news came back: I had pneumonia. They gave me some prescriptions which I obtained from a Walgreens. I then checked into a hotel at the far end of the French quarter. It was a little cabin I had all to myself. I laid down and proceeded to watch MASH on the TV.

My symptoms grew worse. Finally, at about 1:30 a.m., I called 9-1-1. I told the dispatcher I needed to go to the hospital. I told her I would be waiting outside the hotel and asked her to please tell the ambulance not to run the siren, that I would flag the ambulance when it arrived. I hastily packed a bag with a few essentials and waited for the ambulance that arrived in about 10 minutes.

They set me up with an IV, loaded me into the ambulance and asked which hospital I wanted to go to. I had no idea, so asked them to take me where they thought best. They took me to Tulane Hospital, which was affiliated with Tulane University, the way UW Hospital is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin back at home.

The hospital set me up a room that was at the end of a long corridor, far away from the nurse's station, so any call on my intercom took a long time to receive service. Blood draws, and a couple of Dr. visits, confirmed what I already knew: I had pneumonia. The food was awful, so I phoned an order to a Subway across the street I could see from my window. I don't much care for Subway, but it was better than the swill they were serving me.

I still had my suitcase back at the hotel, so I called the owner and asked him to cab it over to the hospital, which he did (at his own expense) but the lady at the front desk would not send it up to my room. Don't they have volunteers that do such things? Apparently not. Finally, one of the nurses took pity on me and went down and got it for me.

The following day, I was released, given a couple more meds, and told to contact my regular doctor when I got back to Janesville. I called an Uber to take me to the airport. This was a couple of days before Christmas. I went to the Delta Airlines terminal and asked them to please get me a flight to Chicago, that I would be happy to be strapped to the wing if that's what it took. I got a seat, and the ticket agent even gave me a break on the price as a "medical emergency." I arrived at O'Hare at about 11 p.m. and caught the last ALCO bus to Janesville, arriving at about 2:30 a.m. Sister Dawn picked me up and drove me to the apartment we shared, whereupon I fell into bed and slept for about 12 hours.

The whole experience has soured me from ever returning to New Orleans. Other than the French Quarter, there really isn't much to see. It's a poor city, with lots of run-down houses with poverty almost everywhere. Beggers in the French Quarter pestering you for change so they buy a bottle of cheap wine. Pawn shops on Canal Street selling Rolex look-alikes. No thanks. Too many other places to go.

2020 The Year that Wasn't

Jeez, 2020 started out so "normal" in many respects.

Social distancing? What is that? What do you mean, no toilet paper? Doctor Fauci? Who is he, a new character on Star Trek: Picard?

Anyway, back to the start of 2020. I made the move from the Janesville apartment right after the New Year to new digs in Cottage Grove (Drumlin Residences or DR for short). Lost about 200 square feet in living space, but gained heated underground parking, elevator access, and about 100 square feet between 2 storage units, one in the parking garage (8 ft by 8 ft) and another small storage locker on the 3rd floor where our apartment is. Plus, all new appliances, including full size washer/dryer in the unit. Apartments were built in 2017 and we were literally the first tenants in this particular unit. Dawn and I loaded up my Prius to the brim with wristwatch material and took it down to Tom Harris auctions in Marshalltown, Iowa, around January 6 -- overflow of stuff that would not fit into the 8x8 storage locker which I had converted into a workshop of sorts complete with shelves for storage. I even managed to rig up some outlets for overhead fluorescent lamp fixture, polishing machine, and ultrasonic cleaner. The trip to Marshalltown, Iowa, with a night layover in Iowa City at the Graduate Hotel was very enjoyable.

Cruise buddy Julie and I went on a back-to-back Royal Caribbean cruise starting Jan. 24 and did not return until Feb. 3, and we had a wonderful time sailing around the Caribbean without a care in the world. Wuhan China by this time was already reporting an outbreak of some mysterious "pneumonia-like" disease that was particularly deadly. But news was relegated to the back pages, and I was blissfully unaware, as I'm sure most Americans were. After all, in a country of 1.4 billion people, there is always some kind of epidemic roaming about. So, waiter, please bring me another vodka/cranberry, and by the way, when is the next tray of hot shrimp rolls come out?

Back home now, Dawn and I enjoyed some leisure time and even took a little "retreat" down to Dubuque Iowa on the 26th of February for an overnight at the Julien Hotel, a nice steak dinner at the Woodfire Grill, and a little gambling at the Diamond Jo. We felt a little celebration was in order to mark the successful move.

On Feb. 28, Dawn and I went to Toby's (a popular Madison bar/restaurant) for a Friday fish fry. We were packed in there like sardines, at times three deep at the bar drinking Old Fashioneds shoulder to shoulder with other patrons as we waited for our table. Dawn got seriously ill about a week later with cold/flu symptoms. Myself about four days later. My cough was bad enough that I went to the doctor and got some codeine so I could sleep at night. I think this was our bout with Covid 19. Although at the time, we thought it was just a particularly nasty cold. Looking back on it today, I think how lucky we both were that neither of us ended up in the hospital, especially with no effective treatment at that time.

March 15, a Sunday. This was our last sit-down meal (without masks) at Moy's Chinese Restaurant in Elkhorn. After that, restaurants started folding like falling dominos, and the panic runs started in the grocery stores. It was at this point that the reality sank in that this was going to be serious. We started watching the nightly network news again, which we had tuned out for a while because of all the negative news about President Trump and his antics.

On Wednesday, April 8, I took one of my last trips to Cashton to see Joe Hochstetler, my watchmaker. I took one of my buddies along, Chris Vandall, to see Joe's operation. On our way back, we stopped at the Corner Pub in Reedsburg for lunch. We each got a steak sandwich and had to eat it in the car. I called my long-time friend, John Beth, who lives in Reedsburg. He informed me that the Pub was essentially closed except for takeout, and that he wasn't playing organ there until further notice, which ended up being the rest of the year.

Back home at DR, the management decided to lock up the community room and mandate face mask while traversing any public area of the apartment building. This also effectively ended access to the barbecue grill out on the patio that adjoins the community room. I really have missed limited access to that room in 2020, because it was a nice escape when feeling a little claustrophobic in our apartment. It also ended all parties and social gatherings. Neither Dawn nor I are big party-goers, but it's nice to gather once in a while, especially if DR is providing food and drinks!