Today I demonstrated in Neilsville, WI. The group I demoed to was very nice. The ride out to Neilsville from Wausau was a nice and easy one past farm after farm after farm. Each one was an iconic looking one with a red barn and one or two silos plus lots of cows. Mile after mile they began to blend together in a sea of green fields and corn stalks.
After the demonstration I headed to the airport from a different direction and I went by the Pavilion Cheese & Gifts. This place was actually the 1964 Wisconsin Pavilion for the New York World’s Fair. At the pavilion there was Chatty Belle, the World’s Largest Talking Cow, and The Bullet, a 1919 Case Steam Engine. The Pavilion itself was an interesting looking building that had gifts and also housed WCCN Radio AM 1330. I originally passed by it, but quickly decided to turn around a little way down the road. I knew I had plenty of time to get to the airport for my flight today. And I needed a good Photo-A-Day after yesterday’s fizzle of a 500th photo. Also if I didn’t stop to see the World’s largest talking cow then Peter would never talk to me again for missing a tacky tourist attraction.
I am now in the Wausau airport lounge having terrible lemonade and mediocre popcorn chicken. I had to buy something to get myself a seat and a table to use to play on the computer. I did have a great dessert from McDonalds that Allison will really like. It was the Take 5 McFlurry. Vanilla ice cream swirled with Caramel and pieces of Take 5 Candy. It was very good. I don’t have Internet access here in the lounge but that isn’t too bad. I’ve prepared my photos and am ready to upload them when I arrive at my hotel tonight around 12:00am (If I’m lucky). I also got to play a little Dungeon Siege II. I checked my bag rather than kept it with me since my flight is the last possible one to catch and I didn’t want to search for a Target for hair gel when I got into Saginaw tonight. I had thought to just chance it and put it in my bag but thought better of it at the last minute.
I am however in a much better mood then I was yesterday. I got all of my set-up completed and even got to post and image. I hope my flights today do not put me in a sour mood.
I have to laugh when I watch people in the airport. Watching some self important Doofus go up to the security line that is clearly closed and barricaded with a sign saying that it is closed is very entertaining to me. Doofus looks at the sign and says to himself, “I am important so that sign clearly does not apply to me.” Doofus then ducks under the stanchion and begins to make his way to the security checkpoint. And amazingly others begin to follow Doofus like he was sent from on high. That is until our, oh so pleasant security force tells Doofus that security is closed and when his flight is called then it will open. Doofus is shocked laughs it off like he wasn’t being an idiot and all goes back to normal till the next self important Doofus comes along.
However when security did finally open it wasn’t ready right away to screen passengers so everyone from my flight just hurried up to wait for one of the security people to arrive to check Ids. Glad someone was on top of it.
I’m now in Chicago O’Hare airport and my flight from Central Wisconsin was uneventful although slightly delayed. It caused me no problems in getting to my next gate for my flight to Saginaw. It looks like Saginaw is East Coast time zone, so that will be fine, I didn’t get acclimated to Central time after only one day. Once I land in Saginaw I am looking at an hour and 45 minute drive out to Bad Axe. We’ll see how that goes. And tomorrow I have a 4 or 5 hour demo starting at 7:00am. But after that I drive back to Saginaw and have the rest of the time to myself, maybe I can catch up with my photos.
I have been cranking away at my latest Kathy Reichs book (#3), Deadly Decisions. Looks like pretty standard fare since the formula seems to be putting someone Dr. Temperance Brennan loves into a potentially deadly situation with a down to the wire conclusion. I should finish the book on the next leg of my flight. Again I didn’t think to take two books with me this week. I’ll have to figure something out for my flights on Thursday or maybe just sleep.
The power cord I bought yesterday worked great and I think someone who travels would be really happy to have this travelling power cord. At least I hope so so that I can sell it when I get home. I may just try to return it too, but I haven’t decided yet. I have all the materials with me so I can re-box it.
Well I made it to Bad Axe however it took me an extra ½ hour to find the hotel. I felt like Charlie Brown in the Olympics themed special where he was out in the lead and ended up running right out of the park. Oh well I am here now. And I just found out that my demo for 7:00am was cancelled and I now have to go in for 9:00am. That works out well for a little sleep for me.
Chatty Belle
The Bullet
The Pavilion
I caught the end of the Who Wants to be a Superhero and during the break between the final decision for the episode and a commercial break there was a preview for the next week and it gave away the person who was eliminated in the episode that I was watching, so there was no point in watching the end. Major Victory and Fat Momma and Feedback are still in the game.
