THE MAIDEN VOYAGE: Entry #2

We departed Minnesota yesterday from Red Wing (where we had dropped off the cat and spent our first night), heading south to La Crosse. We stopped in Winona to pick up a few supplies we forgot to bring (namely shampoo and deodorant....fuuuuuuuuuck). That was the first time I'd been in a K-Mart since our trip to South Dakota last year wherein the aforementioned mart was the only place nearby to get some new batteries for our CD player.

It was an agreeably pleasant and uneventful drive from there onward to Madison. The XM radio worked just as I thought it would to pass the time. There were only two points of consternation:

1. Sometimes I'd lose my signal if we went under some big trees or next to a big bluff.

2. The DJ on the Boneyard insinuated Ronnie James Dio sang on Headless Cross, thus proving her daft and unworthy of the job.

Once we got to Madison we checked into the hotel and headed out for lunch. 3 years ago when we came here for vacation we ate at a mind blowing Chinese place on a side street near the university area. So we went there again, finding it basically from memory, and had a fantastic meal with tons of leftovers for later. Then we headed back, intending to return to the State Street area in the evening when things cooled down. I passed some time watching the History Channel. The whole time I thought of that Adam Sandler bit on Weekend Update where he's supposed to be a travel reporter but he spends his whole Greek vacation in the hotel. "I'd seen Bull Durham before, but....never in Greece."

We eventually did head back, but most of the stores were closed by the time we got there. We had some ice cream from the Chocolate Shoppe (another place we ate at last time) and walked to the capitol building for some photos. There were a bunch of guys and gals, all with a bad case of the Umbles (stumblin', fumblin', tumblin') from a few too many High Lifes literally playing golf in the middle of the road. No police presence whatsoever but then again this is Sconnie. For some reason the part that made me laugh was that they were actually wearing golf clothes and golf spikes for this, replete with sweater vests and golf gloves.

We headed back after that, intending to get lots of sleep before heading out today. Presently I'm gathering our things for the 170 miles from here to the Windy City.

OH WAIT IRON MAIDEN IS TONIGHT!

O

M

G

And john petrucci