Labor Day - 2010

Normally, on Labor Day, I am celebrating the end of the summer season and looking forward to a cool, comfortable autumn. Not this year. Instead, I decided to buy a new used vehicle. My 2001 Chevy TrailBlazer had 106,300 miles on it and was beginning to look and feel tired. Although, I had just had it professionally detailed, hoping to get a better value as a trade-in, and it looked spectacular.

I had spent several hours online doing vehicle research - figuring out what I wanted, what I would need to spend, and what my 2001 should bring. I printed out three vehicles that met my needs. By just a few days, I missed a great deal on one of them (a 2007 graphite gray two-tone Chevy TrailBlazer with very low miles). So, I found an equally nice one (with just a few more miles) and set up an appointment to take it for a test drive.

I met the salesperson, Kevin Gilbert, at Brookfield Pontiac GMC around 9:00 AM. We took the red jewel tint two-tone out for a test drive. Of course, I had to stop at Rick's so he could check it out, too. By 11:45 AM, Kevin and I had negotiated a satisfactory deal and I was on my way, anticipating picking up my beautiful 2007 TrailBlazer the next day.

I must thank Kevin Gilbert for a stress free car buying experience. Fortunately, unlike many used car salespeople, Kevin treated me with the utmost respect, and made my car-buying experience a pleasant one. Now there is a salesperson I would not only go back to, but would recommend to my friends.  Thanks, Kevin!

Those of you that know me, won't be surprised to hear that my new jewel red and silver two-tone Chevy TrailBlazer has been named. Meet Rosie! Now Dora, Rosie and I can begin our explorations!

Rosie - 2007 Chevy TrailBlazer

 Good-bye 2001 Chevy TrailBlazer! You served me well.

 

Scoping out Galena

Saturday, Sept. 4, was one of the most beautiful summer days so far this year - very low humidity, a too blue sky with fabulous fluffy cloud formations, sun, good friends, and a trip to Galena, Illinois. The four of us set out around 9:00 AM on Labor Day weekend. Traffic, surprisingly, was not too contentious - especially west of Madison. The scenery in the western part of Wisconsin is picture perfect - rolling hills, pastures, livestock grazing, bright red barns, and that too blue sky. Along the way, Linda gave us a brief history of how Galena protects itself from possible flooding. First there is a very large berm. If that doesn't work, Galena has built a 12 foot wall with very heavy steel gates. In fact, you pass through those gates when you enter the city. I almost felt like I was entering a less glitzy version of OZ.

Being Labor Day weekend, and Galena being a tourist attraction, there was nary a parking place to be had. We drove through the entire city, even looking behind the main street. We ended up parking clear on the far side of town. As soon as we all got out of the van, we must have heard our stomach's growling at the same time because all four of us chimed, "Let's go to lunch!"

A friend of ours had recommended an Italian restaurant, Vinny Vanucchi's Little Italy. She said the garlic bread is amazingly good. OMG, she could not have been more accurate. The garlic bread is not only all you can eat, but it totally surpasses Mamma Mia's (formerly, my favorite garlic bread). After stuffing ourselves on great Italian food, we rolled out of the restaurant and began scoping out the town for a possible Learning in Retirement special event trip. Every other storefront seemed to be an eatery of one kind or another. We visited several of the gift shops, stopped to taste (and of course, purchase) some wine made with Illinois grapes. Trolley tours of the town are available almost every hour on the hour, too. Linda was enticed by the fabulous smell of caramel corn, so we had to check it out. Here we found (and sampled) caramel corn of almost any flavor you could think of. I bought a bag of Maple caramel corn -- delicious!!!

Around 4:30 (just when our feet were about to fall off) we headed home with great information and great memories of a wonderful end to summer.

Since I forgot my camera (and we have not yet figured out how to get the pics we took with Carmen's phone off of the phone) the pics below are from the Internet.

Downtown Galena

Vinny Vanucchi's Little Italy

Galena Flood Gate

Click here to see a picture of the Galena Flood Gate

Celebrating the First Day of School 9/1/2010

What do you do on the first day of school? Well, as a retired teacher, you join your other retired colleagues for a scrumptious breakfast at the Original Pancake House on Bluemound Rd. Oh, yes. Ten of us enjoyed great stories and laughs, celebrating the fact that we did not have to begin another school year.