The summer is falling.

I woke up cold last night, and I slept like a rock after that.  Good sleep is the only thing I like about cold weather.

Well, maybe that and those mornings when it's just cold enough that you know you're alive.  I love those.

I wanted to post photos from mini golf and such...but work has me there quite often because one of the girls is on vacation.  So I'm out of time.

Maybe tomorrow.  I get off at 2.

Out

As I've said, our trip to Madison was an adventure...and adventure with some parts I'd never care to relive.

When we got to Madison and pulled off of the interstate and into the parking lot of the hotel we had booked, I'll admit, there were doubts.



The building was dated and the lot itself was in sad shape.  Add to that the fact that there was very little in the way of lighting in the lot, leaving two women to trudge through the dark alone to go check in.  They'd said there were only two people checking in when they booked the room, and that meant that Robb and I had to stay in the car and laugh about how maybe the inside of the motel would be better.

On first glance, it didn't seem too bad.



The first thing I noticed was the filthy window.  But I'm guessing second floor windows aren't super-easy to clean.

The bed looked okay.



But then we started looking around.  I guess we all felt like we didn't want to touch anything or sit down, so we were trying to figure out why.  Well, strike one came in the form of cracked, water-damaged walls and stained carpet.  Strike two was on the little table in the room:



There was some sort of pill that hadn't been cleaned up.  Now...the presence of drugs in our room was disconcerting enough, but if they didn't even wipe the surfaces clean, what else did they skimp on?  My unclean bed alarm was in the red.

I didn't even want to open that can of worms...and Robb and I were going to be sharing the fold-out couch bed, something that isn't exactly easy to clean, so I wasn't even going to LOOK at that!

We wandered into the bathroom, and I looked for the number one deal breaker:  pubes in the tub.  Bingo.  That was it.  Doubts confirmed.  We were leaving.  We were out $50, but it would be worth it for the peace of mind I'd have getting the hell out of there.  And upon leaving we saw this:



Well...that makes sense.

So we called and drove around and finally found a room that cost us $100 after Robb's government discount.  When we walked into the lobby and saw the huge cushioned ottoman I knew it was going to be okay.



Clarion Suites!  Our savior.  In my joy, I created this comic:



I love those birds.  You may have to click it to see the text bigger.  It reads from right to left...

And we slept hard, got up for our HOT, delicious complimentary breakfast, and headed on towards our day.

The rest of the day was a whirlwind of exploration for Robb and I including:

Dragonflies...



bookstores and spicy Chinese food from Chin's, ski shops, hot college guys, beautiful vistas...



A tour of the capitol building...



and a scene right out of a porn in which Robb and I wandered out of a clearing in the woods and onto the UofW rowing club lounging half-naked on the docks near their headquarters.  Holy cow...

It was kind of an amazing day, really.  We walked more than six miles, I'd say.  I really fell in love with Madison.  It's a gorgeous and interesting city.

When the girls were done with orientation for the library science program, we headed off to Ehlenbach's Cheese Chalet.



One-and-a-half pounds of cheese later, we set off for home, only making one stop.  This is something I've always had on my to do list, but I've never been with anyone who was brave or willing enough to go through it with me.  After we did, though, we all realized it was not as scary as any of us thought.



We visited an off-ramp porn shop. 

I'll just say one thing that sort of sums up the whole trip:  It was cleaner and less scary than our hotel room.

Out