Troll Capital of The World!

Okay, that last post was a tad premature. Turns out I DO have something to write about! :) A couple weeks ago, I did a weekend getaway with L. It's something we've talked about for awhile, but never got around to it. Finally, we decided it was time! Here was the basic plan: We would choose a small, random town in Wisconsin that neither of us had ever been to before. This town would have a crappy little motel (where we would stay), and maybe a restaurant and/or bar. Other than that, we were going to wing it. Now, I know this isn't an ideal "vacation" for the average person, but it was perfect and very "us," so it was a blast.

Originally, we settled on Mazomanie, WI, a small town just outside of Madison, but believe it or not, the crappy little motel we'd settled on was booked. Say what?! Guess that's what I get for telling L, "It's not like people are going to be knocking down their doors," right before I booked it. Ha! Anyway, after doing some careful research, I found another town pretty close by that allowed us to do the same things we wanted to do on this trip. What town, you might ask? Mt. Horeb, WI (aka: The Troll Capital of the World). No joke. We ended up staying in the Village Inn Motel just outside of the "downtown" region. See that photo? That is literally ALL there was to our room. Perfect. ;)

Friday night was lowkey. Relaxed, ate Chinese food, drank a few beers, and went to bed. Saturday was our big day. We got up and got ready, and then headed to Cave of the Mounds, which was about 5 miles from our motel. (Photos below.) Going to the cave was always part of the plan when we planned this trip. After the cave, which was amazzzzzing, we used my GPS to find us some lunch. We ended up here. Despite the name and the suggestive logo, it was actually so much fun! More of a bar than a restaurant, but they had good food. We hung there for a bit and then headed to Botham Vineyards, which was also part of the plan. We tasted all their wines, and much to my surprise, there wasn't a single one that I thought was disgusting, ha! Because it was chilly out, there were no people on their outdoor patio. This allowed for L and I to get a bottle of wine and spend awhile out there all by ourselves. LOVED it. After that, we went back to our motel and just hung out for a bit since we were tired. We grabbed dinner and just spent the evening in the room. The normal checkout time at our motel is 10:00am, but thankfully, the owners were a sweet couple who extended our Sunday checkout until 11:30. The plan on Sunday was for us to sleep in, pack up our things, get some food, and then part ways. (L lives in La Crosse, I live in MKE.) Now, here's what actually happened. We went for breakfast, and on the way, we walked past a bar called The Firehouse. We were intrigued, but it didn't open until noon, so we decided we'd grab a drink there after breakfast and then leave. Welp, long story short, it was an awesome place and we had a ton of fun, so we made the snap decision to stay for the Packer game (a 3:15pm game). We sat outside in their new outdoor patio area that had a TV, and again, with the weather being chilly, we had pretty much the entire outdoor area to ourselves. Awesome! After the game, we went and got some food - I was craving onion rings - and THEN we finally parted ways. It's about a 2 hour drive for both of us, so we didn't get back to our places until about 10:30 that night. Wow! Needless to say, it made for a rough start to the beginning of the week, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. We had such a good time, and I'm already considering the next potential adventure... ;) Enjoy the photos!

Entrance into Cave of the Mounds. Impressive!

My favorite cave photo.

Yes, I'm a geeky tourist. ;)

L taking a closer look.

I mean, seriously, how cool is this cave?!

Me and L on the patio at Botham Vineyards.

Lighting his cigar at The Firehouse!

Yeah, I did that. ;)

After an unexpected thunderstorm, the sun came out. Like this pic!

Remnants of our afternoon.

Kinda fun and artistic!

Okay, this video might need a small description. L knows I'm a big Packer fan, but when I made the mistake of saying Robert Brooks invented the Lambeau Leap (it was in fact LeRoy Butler), he was sure to repeatedly remind me of my mistake. This is his joking attempt to sing Robert Brooks' song "Jump In The Stands" (original here), a song in which he clearly states that LeRoy Butler invented the iconic touchdown celebration. Anyway, get something in L's head and he won't let it go. My payback? Taking this video when he thought it was simply a photo. I laugh every time. :)