Dust In the Wind (Making the Corner)

 It looked to be a relatively short drive to Mark & LeeAnn’s home and the rest areas in Iowa are the best in the nation. I stopped at the Grant Wood rest area on the I-80 and was entranced by the art and beauty displayed there. I am putting a link to an article on the Interstate Art rest areas of Iowa...do yourself a favor and put them on your midWest bucket list.

Iowa Interstate Art






Most of the covered outdoor tables at the Grant Wood rest area had a quote tastefully done in cutout metal sheets, hanging at one end of the partial picnic table enclosure...I found this one from Tennessee Williams particularly appropriate for my trip.







So, I’m pretty sure some AI embedded within either Google Maps or my phone noted that I was about as far away from home as possible on this trip and it was time to have a little fun with the human. Since traveling time is the most effective time to “have some fun” with the Traveling Loafer, I’m pretty sure that I was directed on a multitude of County roads & bypasses (and I sure a couple driveways) taking me through whatever wilderness still existed in Southern Wisconsin as I blazed the trail (literally in some cases) to Burlington. (I do hope that farmer’s wife wasn’t really attached to that huge petunia plant spreading out into the road.) In all fairness, it was a beautiful day, I had no real time schedule other than reaching Burlington before dark, and it was quite a scenic drive...so, no worries...😎

I arrived at Mark & LeeAnn’s with plenty of daylight left to spare. LeeAnn had fixed a great dinner for us and Mark had Leinenkugel's Creamy Dark beer in the refrigerator...yes, it was a fabulous day! We had a lot of fun catching up with each other and talked pretty far into the night. The next morning we had a good walk around Honey Lake and then went into Waukesha for some pottery clay (LeeAnn is quite an artistic potter of unique and wonderfully quirky pieces!). My old classic iPod had finally bitten the dust on this trip, so we also hit Best Buy so I could pick up an MP3 player of some sort. I’m not really sure the young salesperson knew what I was talking about (Oh My God! I am a Dinosaur!). Finally did find an older sales rep that showed me to their little museum section of music “devices”. I’m pretty happy with my SanDisk Clip Sport Plus, 16 GB MP3 player except it’s so damn small, I’m afraid I’ll lose it in my shirt pocket.

After drinking nearly all their beer and enjoying lots of tasty foods, I needed to head up to Madison to spend a couple days reliving my memories there with Susan. After a couple of good hugs from Mark & LeeAnn, I fired up DOC* and turned the tires Northwest to Madison, Wisconsin.
*(Prius Hybrid Drive...PhD...DOC  - pretty easy to see the naming logic here and we’d had a lot of hours riding in the car with nothing else to do...)

Pretty short driving day and there was a very nice walkway system from my motel into the capital city. It was early afternoon when checked in and since it was a very pleasant day, I walked into town. Immediately went to the Capitol building and was only able to walk around it. Madison had been having quite a few active marches (Black Lives Matter) and as usual (unfortunately), some people had decided breaking windows and damaging store fronts was part of the protest march concept. The result was that when I arrived in town, most of the shops had been boarded up and the Capitol building was closed to visitors. On a good note, most of the sheets of plywood had been painted with wonderful murals and dedications. Although saddened by the visible damage and obvious recent strife in the city, while walking around the area, I wandered by the Great Dane Pub & Brewing Company...and it was open and I was thirsty. Masks were required to enter and you were allowed to remove them once you had been seated. It has a really wonderful classic pub “feel” and I chose to sit at the bar. I was able to taste a few beers and finally selected their Black Earth Porter to quench my thirst. The bartender and another employee were very friendly and since I was the only person at the bar...very attentive. They asked what brought me into town and I told them about meeting Susan here, our travels, the Capitol Pee, and that I was bringing one of Susan’s glass memorial disks to place on the campus grounds. As I was getting ready to leave, Sean, the bartender, told me he’d comped my beer and was touched by my story. I was really impressed by the people and the Great Dane Pub. It was a no brainer to choose to stop by again tomorrow and have lunch (and another beer).

I walked by the Zoe Bayliss CO-OP where I met Susan in the fall of 1969. It hadn’t changed a bit while the main U of Wisconsin campus was much, much different than I remembered. Lots of newer & bigger buildings and halls...memories were all I had of a lot of the campus from the two years I spent here. Susan was on a scholarship to the U of W and was living at the all girls scholarship dorm Zoe Bayliss.
A bit of trivial, yet important history...The girls of Zoe Bayliss had decided that the beginning of the semester needed a party and in order to have a party, they needed to get a keg of beer and drum up some college boys. Drinking age for beer in Wisconsin was 18, so getting the keg was no problem...the boys however needed to be lured in. They chose several girls in the house for the task that were quite attractive and not shy. Out into the neighborhood they went, asking any unattached boys they met to join them for a beer at Zoe Bayliss. I was staying a block away in the YMCA and followed a cute little blond back to ZB. She immediately disappeared (off to gather more males I later found out) and I was left sitting alone in the main room. As I was sitting there, yes, still alone and thirsty, Susan appeared and asked if I’d like a beer...instead I got a bolt of lightning through my heart...and the start of nearly 50 years of being constantly with the love of my life.

Walking home my first afternoon back in the Capital city since 2009, I passed the Madison Ice Arena...a huge building enclosing an immense public ice skating arena and ice hockey rink. At the time, the line of cars wasn’t related to a sporting event, it was a lineup for Covid-19 testing...the stark sign of change in our daily 2020 lives.

Back into town the next day, I stopped in at the Great Dane Pub for lunch (Brat & Bacon Pretzel Burger with fabulous fries to die for!). Having another awesome, hand pulled, Black Earth Porter to sip & enjoy really capped off a memorable lunch in a memorable pub, in a memorable town.  Yummmm!

Note, that even though air conditioned at the Great Dane
Pub, my beer was rapidly evaporating...Thank goodness for taps!

Also found out how to store wood for a WFO pizza place in a large city.

After lunch, I walked up State Street from the Capitol building and found an appropriate place to put one of Susan’s memorial glass disks.

One of Susan's glass disks was placed below the shrubbery
(by my umbrella at the little circle marked SHS).

I buried the disk and then sat there for a while looking down a grassy slope towards the Capitol...the Perfect spot...placed on the campus where our journey began, looking at one of our most meaningful stops on the almost incomprehensible Capitol Pee quest. I'm sure there will be a future post on that particular adventure that was begun/dreamed up in August of 2000, then coordinated, and completed by Susan in March of 2011...with me as the official photographer documenting each visit...of course outside the ladies restroom. 😉


On my way back to the motel, the clouds opened up and I found shelter under a building overhang (along Lake Monona's North side) for almost an hour watching an awesome thunderstorm light up (and drench) Madison. I sat & thought about my wonderful days here in 1969-1971 as well as the new memories I'd gathered in these few short days. As the rains came down, I remembered an old Hawaiian saying that noted Rain was Mother Earth's mixed tears of sorrow seeing you leave the islands and tears of joy for knowing you.
I know I was experiencing tears of joy & sorrow from the heavens to have a part of Susan returned to Wisconsin. I also shed a few tears of joy reflecting on the nearly 50 years we shared and how we truly lived our lives fully entwined in our love & deep friendship for each other.

Lake Monona, looking across to the Capitol building, colorful murals on plywood window
covers, Zoe Bayliss where we met, and fabulous fare at The Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co.

I am one lucky man to have had Susan Helen Stansbury in my life for all those wonderful years.