Great American Road Trip Day 3: Badgertown

Today,  was the first official college visit: University of Wisconsin – Madison. With the Cube still sounding like a poor man’s Harley (we have a 7:30 appointment tomorrow morning to get it fixed), we headed for downtown Madison.

In the morning, we sat through the obligatory Admissions presentation and then did a 90 minute walking tour around campus. Here are a few of the sights along the way:

Here is the view from campus towards the Wisconsin State Capitol Building:

This is Bascom Hall; one of the three oldest building on campus and site of the annual snowball fight:

This is Van Hise Hall which is the language building and probably the place my son will spend the most time if he decides to come here:

Here’s Washburn Observatory which I photographed because I thought it was cool

After the tour, we ate lunch on campus and made use of our coupons at the Daily Scoop, an ice cream shop where the ice cream is made by the Agriculture Department. It was excellent ice cream and we enjoyed it greatly. But if there were any doubt about the existence of the Agricultural Department, here’s a photo I took in downtown Madison:

Yes, Virginia, there is a silo in downtown Madison!

I found the whole trip very fascinating. According to US News and World Report, my alma mater, Clarkson University has an undergraduate enrollment of 3,247. University of Wisconsin – Madison has an undergraduate enrollment of 31,289 – nearly ten times the enrollment of my college. My wife and I were discussing this and remarked that in New York, we don’t have very few giant schools. Interestingly, the average class size is around 27 – which I find remarkable for a school this size.

I envy my son in many ways. While I don’t think I could ever go back to living in a tiny college dorm room (which the tour reminded me exactly how small those rooms were), I envy him all of the opportunities that await him in college. I have very few regrets about my own college experience, but I just envy the opportunities and experiences that are available now. Like even considering a college nearly halfway across the country. When I went to school, the guidance office pretty much could only get you information on schools in your region – mostly New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Thanks to the internet, you can find out about any college anywhere.

Now, we’re just relaxing in the hotel room – the wifi seems to be a little more cooperative tonight. Tomorrow, after a quick stop to get the Cube checked out, we’re off to South Dakota!

Happy Journeys!

Mike

 

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The Great American Road Trip: Day Two, or One Does Not Simply Drive Through Chicago

As Day Two dawned, we left Toledo and headed west.  Unfortunately, we seemed to have ran over something that seems to knocked something loose under the car and now the Cube sounds like it’s auditioning to be a Harley.  But once we get under motion, it returns to normal.

We left Ohio and after driving past fields of soy bean and corn, we entered Indiana:

The morning saw us cruise past more soy and corn and drive by the alma mater of Professor Harold Hill:

And before we know it, we were in Chicago (no “Welcome to Illinois” here – just straight – You’re in Chicago):

And now the fun began. My wife had the misfortune of driving and the great progress we made dwindled to nothing as we hit construction and traffic.  The stop and go traffic was great for me to get pictures, not for my wife who had to deal with the noise the car made overtime it stopped and stress of dealing with the drivers who insist on switching lanes when there isn’t necessary space.  But I got a few good pictures of the Chicago skyline:

And finally, the most intriguing shot:

Are we in Chicago or Morder?

I’m going with Morder personally, because I found the Illinois section of Route 90 to be the worst we’ve dealt with so far! We complain about how expensive things are in New York, but we’ve got nothing on Illinois! We must have paid over $30 in tolls (I wish we’d actually kept track) for the pleasure of driving through Illinois.  And instead of doing something sensible, like give you a ticket and pay when you leave, if you don’t have EZ Pass, you have to exit off the highway, pay the stupid toll and then get back on. And you get to do this a bunch of times.

Thanks goodness we accidentally got off when we didn’t need to because we eventually found a park where we could get out and have a nice picnic.  We then circled around forever trying to get back onto Route 90 and finally got on the way.

And we finally left Illinois and made it to Wisconsin:

And we had the enjoyment of more bumper to bumper traffic, this time as a result of an accident.  We finally made it to our hotel and we were all glad to get out of the car!

A great meal at the Great Dane Brewing Company was a great way to end the day.  However, crappy wifi at our hotel has not been any fun.

Happy journeys!!

Mike

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The Great American Road Trip: Day One

Today, we left on our Great American Road Trip today. Here is the odometer at the start of our trip:

And then we started to drive…and drive…and drive…

We left New York and entered Pennsylvania:

and then into Ohio:

We drove past Lake Erie:

And past Cleveland:

It’s the best I could capture while I was a passenger.

And now, here we are at just south of Toledo, just over 500 miles from home.  Tomorrow – it’s on to Madison, WI!

Happy Journeys!

Mike

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To Boldly Go….

The countdown is on for the Great American Road Trip at the Tefft household. Five more days of work (which can’t finish soon enough) and we are on our way to Seattle and back.  I’m intending to blog every day to document our travels and I hope you watch the pages for the riveting details of spending 6 – 7 hours in a car every day :). With content like that, how could you not want to stay?

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

I haven’t done anything yet because we haven’t had vacation yet.  But what I’ve mostly been doing is working my day job…..ALOT. This was the first weekend in several weeks that I haven’t worked at least part of the weekend.

And I’ve been playing trumpet. Twice a week in local community summer bands and the big band group I play in did a concert in the park that is literally across the street from my house.  Couldn’t really ask for a closer gig!

I have managed to catch a few movies this summer. We say  Star Trek Beyond (which I loved – my personal opinion is that it’s the best of the reboots) and today we just saw Suicide Squad which I also liked quite a bit. Truth be told, I liked it much more that Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Maybe it’s a better written and directed movie, but I found the horrible villains of Suicide Squad far more sympathetic; I cared about them more than Batman or Superman.

AND I WROTE!!!

I finally had a couple of free hours on Saturday so I hammered out the completion of a very tough scene. I know what I wanted to accomplish, but I wasn’t sure how. I’ll still have to rewrite it, but I’ve got enough there to keep moving forward.

This is the last update before the trip. Stay tuned for adventures on the road…I’m sure it will be riveting!

Happy journeys,

Mike

 

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