Wisconsin Trip 2009

Why Wisconsin?

Traci and I attended a fundraising scholarship dinner dance hosted by her sorority (Delta Sigma Theta). As we examined the items up for bid in the silent auction room, one item among the gift baskets, artwork, and clothing really captured our attention. It was listed as a "Week in Wisconsin". Neither Traci nor I knew anything about Wisconsin other than a lot of cheese is produced there. However, we are so bitten by the travel bug that we placed our bid. It turns out we were the only bid for the item; hence, we bought the trip. Fast forward 10 months and we were on our way to Wisconsin. We were extremely excited to have my mother join us on this new adventure. We had not vacationed with her since our Alaskan cruise in 2001.

Rollin' Like Rock Stars

We were running a little behind schedule as we headed for the Philadelphia airport Friday morning. Adding to the anxiety was an announcement on my car radio indicating a huge traffic jam due to an overturned tractor trailer. Fortunately, I heard the traffic report in time to use an alternate route to the airport.

Our Midwest Airlines flight itinerary was to fly 2 hours from Philadelphia to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where we'd change planes and make the 20-minute flight from Milwaukee to Madison, Wisconsin. We boarded our flight and pushed back from the gate on time but what seems to have become the norm when flying out of Philadelphia these days is that we sat on the tarmac for an hour with about 20 other planes waiting to take off. As a result, we pulled into the gate in Milwaukee in just enough time to look out the window and see our connecting flight heading to the runaway to take off - without us! More...