Klondike Days in Eagle River WI
True or False: The days following August 16, 1896, when George Washington Carmack pried a gold nugget from the bed of Rabbit Creek in the Klondike area of the Yukon were collectively referred to as “Klondike Days”. (This page may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you click through […]
Madison’s Capital Brewery
Several times before, I’ve mentioned that May is a great time to embark on an adventure! I like the month of May, cold as it sometimes may be here in the Midwest. May brings back a verdant green to the landscape and chases the harshness of winter blues back to the depths of one’s memory, […]
Stevens Point Brewery – Point Beer
The most difficult part of driving north into Wisconsin is extricating one’s self from the tangle of traffic and urban sprawl west of Chicago. Once that has been successfully accomplished, the remainder of the journey is relatively painless. Oh, except for the portion around Madison north to the Dells area. This time our destination is […]
Leinenkugel’s Brewery in Chippewa Falls
Every year – actually twice per summer – I would pass the sign for Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. But I never found a reason or the time to stop. After all, I am on my way to go fishing, much farther to the north. This year, however, was different. I found out that there was a […]
Kentucky Bourbon Trail
Bourbon Trail The Kentucky Bourbon Trail is a group of 18 distilleries in Kentucky that offer tours and tastings of bourbon whiskey. The trail is a popular tourist destination, and is a great way to learn about the history and production of bourbon. In 2008, we embarked on our own trail in Kentucky and not […]
Breweries
Breweries The Midwest is home to a vibrant and diverse craft beer scene, with hundreds of breweries spread across the region. From small, family-owned operations to large, award-winning breweries, there’s something for everyone to enjoy. (This page may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure about affiliate links.) Touring breweries is a great way to learn […]
Kentucky – More Than Just Caves
As an introduction, allow me to enter just a bit of background about Kentucky. The state name seems to have either Iroquois or Shawnee origin, perhaps meaning “meadow”. Numerous phonetic spellings from that heritage, like geda’geh, kenhtà:ke, këhta’keh or even Ken-tah-ten, make it somewhat easier to see where the spelling of Kentucky came from. But […]
History of Bourbon
Let me begin by telling you that I have been personally responsible for the perpetration of a significant falsehood for many, many years. Not on purpose mind you. I think that I probably made the same mistake as many others who didn’t know the “whole truth” either. Seems as I was always telling people that […]
Wisconsin Rapids & Nekoosa, WI
Another trek – would this time take us to Wisconsin Rapids and the area roads that are now known as The Cranberry Highway. For this excursion, we left the suburbs of Chicago just before 2:00 PM on a Friday afternoon and headed north on Interstate 90-94. Just north of Madison, Wisconsin we turned onto State […]
The Little Red Berry That Could
Maestro – a little geology music, please. Perhaps… something from Jurassic Park? OK, here we go… Once upon a time, long, long ago – about 13,000 years – in a land not so far away, the last of the Wisconsin glaciers were retreating to the north. What they leave behind is sandy and acidic soil […]