The Long and Winding Road

Squeaky cheese curds-come and get em!

Friday was Chris's birthday. We took at road trip, at Chris's request, to our neighboring states. The entire trip was built around drinking and eating, by his choice.

Friday: Ate birthday lunch and drank birthday beer at Madison brewpub. Hit the road for Davenport/Rock Island/Moline/Benttendorf areas of Illinois and Iowa. We hit three brewpubs and a martini & cigar bar. The martini bar was cool. There was a great lounge singer to entertain us. Chris had some bourbon and a cigar. I had a chocolate martini of some sort and a cosmo with my favorite vodka (Ciroc).

Saturday: We hit the Rock Island Arsenal, a military base that has quite an interesting history. The arsenal museum was very cool. The base started being built during the civil war, so it was a POW camp where the prisoners helped to build the base. It was interesting to read how Confederate soldiers were guarded by black Union soldiers. You can imagine how well that went over.

Then it was a slow drive down the Mississippi Great River Road. It was a little rainy, but it was still a beautiful drive. We then hit Quincy, IL. We hit one bar (for wings) and one brewpub there. We think there was a prostitute convention in town, because we kept seeing lots of trashy women. But really, Quincy had a lovely downtown and some beautiful, big old houses.

Then it was off to Springfield, IL. We didn't get there til dusk, so there wasn't much sightseeing. All the bars/restaurants we had on our list were in strip malls, it seemed. And they were very family oriented. Bright lights, kiddos running around. Just not what we were looking for. So we found a quiet place that wasn't crowded where I delved into a horrific Springfield tradition: The Horseshoe. CAUTION: MAY CAUSE YOU TO THROW UP IN YOUR MOUTH A LITTLE. The horseshoe is two slices of sourdough bread, open face, topped with your choice of meat (I went for the bacon and tomoato combo), then covered in french fries and drenched in a cheese sauce. I ate all the bread and tomato, but had to leave some of the fries that were too soggy with cheese and the super salty bacon. It was an experience I had to try. It's like the poutine of the U.S. I will never eat it again.

Sunday we just drove home. Oh, I forgot, we had to eat breakfast at the Huddle House. Chris was excited to have his loaded hashbrowns with eggs on top.

That's the excitement in the life of Kim. After last weeks rushed pace, it was nice to slow down for the weekend. I, however, missed some good gardening weather. It's supposed to be nice for a few more days and then drop to average 50ish temps over the weekend.