A Glimpse of Old Time America

Spent yesterday seeing some of rural Wisconsin.

Cindy drove me out to Plain to visit a cheese factory out there. It was such a pretty drive, every turn looks like a page from a story book, or a postcard. Rolling green hills, black and white cows, pretty little farms with red or white barns, little towns with storybook shops and houses along the main street. Just lovely to drive through.

The cheese factory was small and a self tour thing, but it was interesting and the cheese tasted amazing. I just got some postcards of course!

Then we drove to Dodgeville (great name for a town hey?) as they have a traditional drugstore in the main street of the town that still has a soda fountain. That's a counter that serves home made soft drinks and stuff. It was just like you imagine from the old 50's movies. I had a strawberry "phosphate" (basically hand made soft drink) and Cindy had a chocolate malt which I got to taste, it tasted a lot like Milo, only in thickshake form. I chatted to a man in a deer hunting hat called Bob and the lady behind the counter who I think was Carol. They were both lovely.

From there we went on to Paoli where there was a lovely little art gallery. I particularly fell in love with the hand crafted wooden jewellery boxes. All inlaid woodwork, so beautiful. I would have loved one, but at about $300+ they were a bit out of my price range! Across the street we went to a store that has home decorator stuff (lots of candles, Christmas decorations, pretty crockery, some jewellery and all kinds of lovely stuff) in an old schoolhouse building. Cindy bought me a pretty snowflake bracelet and I picked up a sweet photo frame.

Back to Madison for some lunch and we went to the most awesome diner. It was straight out of the 1950's! They have a website, click here. We sat in a booth, I had an "On Wisconsin Burger" with fries, and then pie and coffee. French silk pie, it was divine!

We had a couple of hours chill time and then we went to see a movie at the local cinemas. Saw "Dan In Real Life" starring Steve Carell, who I had NO idea was so adorable! It's a lovely movie, a gentle comedy with a sweet love story that makes you go AWWW as well as laugh. Go see it!

I do have photos but haven't had the opportunity to upload them yet, so will add them later.