June 26, 2008

A Brewers Game, A Bloggy Meet-Up and a Tribute

We left for Milwaukee on Friday morning, and let me tell you — packing for two people with no help is a recipe for madness. Add to that an obsessive-compulsive checklist that Doug left for me, full of last minute instructions on how to lock the house up was enough to drive me to drink. It’s as though he thought I’d never gone on vacation.

I frantically ran around shutting windows, locking doors, making sure the oven and straightening irons weren’t left on, and doing one last double check that all the lights in the house were off. The day before our departure, my parents called to say they’d pick us up between 9 and 10 a.m. They were 40 minutes early and I wasn’t ready. There were dishes in the sink for goodness sakes! Thankfully my mom stepped in to help me and we were on the road by 10:30.

Traveling in a mini-van with my parents and younger brother is chaos. Dawson decided he wanted to play musical seats, because he didn’t want to sit in the back row by himself. I don’t know how many times I yelled, “This van is moving! I’m not unbuckling you! Sit back! Stop leaning forward!”

Dad, a former semi-truck driver, knows Wisconsin highways better than most residents of this state. He had his faithful maps tucked in the console and decided to take “the leisurely route” to our hotel in West Bend. We traveled through cute little towns like Wild Rose, Wautoma, Green Lake and Princeton (flea market/antique capital of Wisconsin). When we got to Princeton we saw this:

Flooding

and this:

Fox River Flooding

So much of the downtown area was flooded, water was crawling up to the back doors of the downtown buildings. It was fascinating and tragic at the same time. Sandbags everywhere, trying to push the flood waters back. So much devastation in our state. While not as drastic as Iowa, it’s still pretty sad to see this happen.

We stopped for breakfast along the way and to my surprise and delight, Dawson ate entire (huge!) pancake. He must have been starving from all the riding in the car we had to do. We finally arrived at West Bend at about 2:30 in the afternoon. Dawson and Poppa (my dad) went swimming and I stayed in the hotel room to keep Mom company. She was feeling sad, thinking about Mr. Jones’ passing.

That evening we went to the Brewer’s Game. We were sort of sad about going because Mr. Jone’s wouldn’t be with us, but we knew he wouldn’t stand for all this “carrying-on” as he would say. So, I e-mailed Maureen from Wisconsin Mommy and she happily accepted my invitation. I was honored and grateful. We had a great time, even if the Brewer’s lost. We talked about our kids and gas prices and summer fun. It was awesome. Here we are, just as the game started:

Later in the game, out of the corner of my eye, I caught this:

Our friend Chris called the Brewer’s hotline and got this tribute to post on the Jumbotron scoreboard. It made our night. It was a great way to celebrate Dick’s last Brewers game. We’re certain he was there in spirit.

When the game was over, we went back to our hotel room and crashed. Well everyone else did. I had to suffer through SOMEONE’S snoring. More on this to come! Stay tuned.