In recent days, New Glarus Brewing has been tantalizing me on their Facebook feed (and elsewhere) with talk of their new Abt beer. Apparently an Abt is some obscure Belgian style of beer that might also be called a Strong Belgian Dubbel. Who am I kidding? They had me at 'Belgian'. Well, they had me at 'New Glarus' and 'Belgian'. These guys know what they're doing!

As I walked in to Woodman's tonight, I was reminded that I wanted to try some. What reminded me? The case (as in six 4-paks at $9 per) set aside for someone at the front of the liquor department. That's quite a commitment - especially when you consider that it's really meant for laying down in your cellar rather than drinking now.

But who can wait a year, or two or more? Not me. So I cracked one open when I got home. First impression: wow that's a lot of malt! Second impression: wow that's a lot of alcohol! (9.6% ABV, a little more than double that of your MGD). As I sip this gigantic brew, I'm getting lots of fruity qualities (I see that the press release says raisiny. I'll agree). And it's damn good. (These guys say it better than me.)

But it's begging to be aged, so I'll oblige. The alcohol is punching me in the face right now. It needs some time to simmer down, just like that little blue bottle of Sam Adams did. So, I say goodbye to the Abt for now, and shuffle it to that special 6-pak holder in the back of the beer fridge to wait for time to pass... and wait... and wait... Maybe I'll crack one to celebrate TheGirl's high school graduation! (Class of 2016, represent!)

More New Quarters!

So with the end of 2008, the US Mint's 50 State Quarters program is complete. TheGirl is still missing a couple of quarters, but we should find them soon. But did you know what's on tap for 2009 and beyond?

First, it's the DC and US territories program. The DC coin is already out (Viola Zupa showed me one). It doesn't have the slogan asked for by the Mayor of DC ("Taxation without Representation" Go figure. Heh.), but I guess the slogan they used ("Justice for All") could be considered a compromise. Other quarters will be issued for Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the US Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Brings to mind questions of Statehood, but that's another post.

After 2009, they'll be launching their new Quarter Program: "America's National Parks". There'll be 56 differet quarters issued (that's one for each state and territory, plus DC) , 5 per year, so this'll take us into 2021 or 2022. The selection process is apparently ongoing. According to the
website:

"National sites for consideration include any site under the supervision,
management, or conservancy of the National Park Service, the United States
Forest Service, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, or any similar
department or agency of the Federal government. "

So... I'm guessing that means the Apostle Island National Lakeshore for Wisconsin. Not that exciting, but at least we've got something distinctive! Not every state has Federal Site that is visually interesting enough to put on a coin. I mean, you can only have so many picture of forests and rivers before they all start to blur together. And poor Illinois only has the Lincoln Home National historic site. Another Lincoln coin... yawn. Worse yet, Connecticut has a farm, and Deleware doesn't seem to have anything at all! This should be an "interesting" decade for US Quarters.

Now this is gorgeous weather!

Not comfortable weather, I'll agree, but absolutely gorgeous. That pic at right is the built-in from my mini-van on the drive in this morning. Frosty! The observant reader will note that the readout is displaying in degrees Celcius. True. this temp only corresponds to about -10 deg Farenheit. Unfortunatley, I don't have a pic of the temp when I hit the highway... -15 deg F! At my home, by contrast, it was a disappointing -8 deg F. It's the winter version of the lake effect - always a few degrees warmer at home because of the proximity of a Great Lake.


But I digress. My point was that this morning is beautiful. The sky shades from a denim blue westward of overhead to a gentle rose at the horizon (sunrise still being a few minutes away). The air is still , and quiet. Since schools are closed, many people are home from work with the kids, and the roads run free and easy (well, techinically not free, since the Illinois tollway authority extracts a buck from me each day to get to work, but again, I digress). Best of all is the snow. It's too cold for salt to do it's snow-melting magic, so the parking lots are covered with a layer of packed snow. And when you walk on it, it squeaks! It's my favorite sound of winter, the squeaky crunch of o'er frozen snow.

But that's not all! Frost builds up on the moustache after only a minute or so outside. Nose hairs also freeze together with the frost from exhales. It's a curious sensation, having one's hairs freezing together - a brief window into a different world. Further indication I'm a freak? Sure, but what the hell? It's the only weather I truly love!

Green Bay Road

I’ve been curious about the Green Bay Road since I realized I was living near it a few years ago. The original version of the road was commissioned in 1832 to connect Fort Howard in Green Bay to Fort Dearborn in Chicago. Much of the road followed old Indian trails that had been used for ages. It was essentially a road through the wilderness, allowing the military to communicate prior to the advent of radio and telegraph. The military couriers would walk the road on foot, hunting and gathering to sustain themselves on the months'long journey.

Modern day Wisconsin State Highway 31 approximates the trail in my neck of the woods. This road was the major North-South road in Wisconsin for many years. As more settlements popped up along the road, it began to be used for more routine mail delivery, and later functioning as a handy route for immigrants and daily business.

I spent some time searching through the 1838 survey maps of my area, but I’ve never quite managed to pin down the exact location of the road. Unfortunately, the surveyor in Racine county never bothered to mark which road was which on his hand-drawn maps, and mapped so many disconnected road fragments that it’s impossible to glean where the road actually lay. The Kenosha surveyor was much more accomodating, clearly labelling the "US Road" on his maps… which doesn’t really help me any.

But none of this is the reason for my post. While searching online for clues about the road, I learned that there had been a project to mark the historic route back in the late 1920s. The Wisconsin Society of Chicago (hard to imagine the existence of such a club today) installed concrete pillars adorned with brass tablets every couple of miles along the road.

I’ve often watched the roadside as I travelled along Hwy 31 in Wisconsin and Hwy131 in Illiniois, wondering whether this or that blank concrete post might not be the decrepit remains of one of these markers, and horribly endangering my fellow travellers of the highway in the process. ( I really ought to pay more attention to the road when I'm driving).

Last week, I finally found one of the markers. And, as so often happens, once I had the visual template, I quickly located another. I haven’t found any listing of surviving markers online, so I’ll start one here. If you’ve seen a marker, let me know, and I’ll add it to my list. I can’t imaging there’d be many left, since the road is now a 4-lane highway for its entire length. Widening the road would have wiped them out, except where the road’s bed was shifted to one side or the other. But I’ll keep this list updated as I locate them. Heck, maybe I’ll set up a geocache for them!

I find it amusing that these markers once set out to reveal an item of historical interest have now become items of historical interest themselves. And each time I see a marker, I know I’ll think of those crazy mail couriers travelling between the forts along the path, braving hostile natives, wild cats, and physical hardship in order to get the mail through.

List of Remaining WSC Markers:

County ........Location .........................................Coordinates ............Notes:
Kenosha...........Hwy 31 & 108th/72nd..............................42 31.090, -087 53.444.......Photo
Kenosha...........Old Green Bay Rd. & 104th St................42 31.373, -087 53.300.......Photo
Kenosha.......... Hwy 31 & Hwy E. .....................................42 38.364, -087 52.567 .......Photo
Kenosha ..........Hwy 31 & Old Gr. Bay Rd........................42 39.621, -087 52.430........Photo

Racine..............Hwy 31 (Mt. Pleasant Town Hall)...........42 41.889, -087 51.261........Photo
Racine..............Hwy 31 & Spring St...................................42 44.256, -087 53.300.......Photo
Racine..............Hwy 31 & Kinzie........................................42 43.415, -087 50.630........Photo
Racine .............Hwy 31 & 6 Mile Rd..................................***.......Photo

Milwaukee.......Packard Ave................................................................................................


Other Green Bay Road Markers:
Kenosha..........Hwy 31 frontage road................................42 31.976, -087 53.487..........Photo
Wisconsin........periodically throughout Green Bay Road Ethnic Trail............................Photo

Grafton, Wisconsin, Home of the Blues

I just stumbled across some amazing South-eastern Wisconsin history the other day. Apparently, a key blues and jazz record label of the 1920's and 1930's was based out of, of all places, Grafton, Wisconsin! The company was originally based out of Port Washington as the Wisconsin Chair Company. After they branched out into making cases for Edison phonographs, they eventually decided to start pressing their own records, too. They disingenuously referred to the record studios as the New York Recording Laboratories, but they were really located first in Port Washington, then in Grafton. Their labels included Paramount and Broadway.

There's a load of stuff on the web about the company, including this history on Grafton's official website, this story about Grafton's blues fest, and a great collection of labels here, and the wiki article.

Mmmm... cheesy!

Came across these in a vending machine today. Kinda like inside-out Combos balls. Pretty tasty but, with the cheese on the outside, you'll not be letting the kids handle a whole bag of these solo. I think it'd get messier than a bag of Cheetohs in the rain. And that leaves out the whole apostrophe issue, as well. Just who is this '360' to whom these snacks belong? A grammatical mystery, I'd say. Best of all, they're made in Cedarburg, WI. Damn few things in vending machines are made in Wisconsin these days (feel free to prove me wrong in the comments). The structure of these (pretzel core with cheesy coating) makes me wonder if they're using old beadlet spraying equipment to make these. Could be, could be. (BTW, The Girl says the cheesy flavor on these is "very bad" and "leaves a bad aftertaste", so YMMV!)

Corporate Website: CP Twist® - Original Cheese Pretzel Twist