On Friday, the back seat of my car was strewn with the remains of half-eaten food: part of an apple turnover, a bite of something called a Blarney Stone (a sweet cake lathered in frosting and rolled in crushed peanuts), half of a pizza, a plastic container full of barely sampled spaghetti (minus the meatball)—the
Last week I found a cheap room in southwest Wisconsin, less than 10 minutes from downtown Dubuque, in an area rife with supper clubs. If you aren’t familiar with the concept, supper clubs are part fine dining experience—what was considered fine dining in the 1950s, anyway—and part neighborhood tavern: you can savor a juicy steak
I have a hard time writing blogs while I’m on the road, because my days are packed from dawn to dusk. Yesterday, for example, I ran around Dubuque for about 10 hours checking out another church, 5 more B&Bs, some shops, and a library. By the time I finished dinner, it was 8:30 and my energy level was near
NOTE: The Red Lion closed in September 2011. Sorry. You missed it. As much as I’d like to keep a place like the Red Lion Pub to myself, I just can’t. You need to know about this place, and you need to go there. Now. The Red Lion is located on Wisconsin’s Great River Road
I meant to post this last week, but a nasty stomach flu knocked me out of action for several days. On to the blog... On my last visit to La Crosse (Wisconsin), I went to a bar called Players with a couple of long-time friends. Players is neither flashy nor unpleasant, sort of a working
When I visited with the Prairie du Chien (Wisconsin) Chamber of Commerce last week, I learned that the old courthouse has a jail/prison/dungeon in the basement that is sometimes open for tours. I got the name of a contact in the local historical society who had led tours in the past. I called, but he
