Thursday doors…take the higher road

Only one shot this week because what else could go with this??

Welcome back, Norm. I hope you had a wonderful two weeks off, but door-n it, we missed you!

Seen on the bathroom wall at Carr Valley Cheese, Mauston, Wisconsin

Nothing half so much worth doing…

To paraphrase a famous quote from The Wind and the Willows:

Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply taking a road trip. 

Even though the weather was abysmal, as you can see from this one-handed phone photo, my spirits were high as I took to the road towards my first night’s stop in South Dakota.  Illinois had its usual wonderful combination of lots of traffic and toll roads with the rain and construction thrown in just for spice.  I whiled the miles away listening to a book on CD and wishing I could use cruise control.

I make two stops during the ten hour drive.  The first is always a combination cheese and fuel (and bathroom) stop in Mauston, Wisconsin where I stock up on cheese and a bag of fresh, squeaky cheese curds.  It amuses me each year that I buy cheese in a town whose first part of its name, Maus, means “mouse” in German, although the city’s website gives this as the origin of the name:

Mauston’s unique name originally was “Maughs Town,” named after its founder Milton Maugh.

Wyoming 2017, day 1

From our house to Sheridan, Wyoming is about 1,151 miles, just over 16 hours. Once I get there, I have to drive out of town and up into the mountains another 45 minutes or so. But my destination for Day 1 is Mitchell, South Dakota, home of the world’s only Corn Palace.  Are you ready to ride?

I realized this year that I’ve been going to this place in Wyoming for over 40 summers. When we drove from Cleveland, it was an additional 6 1/2 hours, so this drive seems fairly short in addition to familiar. I love seeing the country change, from the farmlands and cities of Illinois, to the more forested Wisconsin, where I make my first stop in Mauston to stock up on cheese from Carr Valley Cheese.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention our other tradition, listening to the BBC radio production of “Lord of the Rings”, 12 hours or so of living in a different, magical place.  Not long after we got married, I found a set of cassette tapes at Half Price Books for $25, quite a lot to us in those days.  I agonized over whether or not to get it for my husband as a Christmas gift.  You know what I decided.  We’ve listened to it every year since, going to and from the cabin.  One year, our younger daughter and I listened to it once on the way out and once on the way back.  We’re now on the CD version and it’s still wonderful.

Road trip!

At long last it’s time for our annual vacation trek to the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming!   It’s a two-day drive, so we start relatively early, once the van’s packed. The coolers are filled with all sorts of goodies, both to consume during the trip and to “import”. Our menu today consists of grapes, cherries, corn chips and bierocks. Bierocks are a type of pocket sandwich shaped like a turnover. I make the slightly sweet dough in the bread machine, roll it into circles and fill with a combination of ground beef, onion, cabbage and a bit of cheddar cheese. After a short rise, they’re baked.  Besides being delicious, they’re also perfect because the filling doesn’t fall out while you’re eating them. 🙂

After leaving Illinois, we head into Wisconsin  into relatively flat farmland.  As we go further, it becomes more hill, wooded, and wild-looking. We make one stop each year in Mauston, a small town that’s home to an amazing cheesemaker, Sid Cook (http://www.carrvalleycheese.com/).  I read about Sid and Carr Valley in the book, Cheesemonger. The author mentioned Carr Valley so often that I looked to see where it was located and realized we drove by the exit every year. Now we make a regular stop there. Deciding which cheeses to get, though, is difficult as there are so many choices and every one we’ve ever tried has been good. (Photos of cheeses at a later date when they’re not being kept in the cooler.)

If you’re from Wisconsin or Quebec, you know about cheese curds, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_curd. Cheese curds are very, very fresh cheese, cut into curds. Ideally, they’re eaten the day they’re make or within several days and besides being tasty, they squeak. 🙂 Needless to say, we buy a bag.

On the road again

When I was growing up, we’d leave for vacation early in the morning when the air was still cool.  The traffic light at our corner was changing, but no one was there to see it except us.  That was always the start of vacation.