Day 2: Milwaukee and Traveling

Milwaukee's motto ought to be: "Milwaukee: it's better than you think." We drove into town through the industrial area, so initially, I was pretty skeptical. Run down buildings, factories, warehouses--really not so pretty. But our first stop was a coffee shop called Alterra. Their buildings are in a similar vein as McMenamins here in Portland: convert old historical buildings into cafes.
The coffee was good, and it turned into literally, been there, saw it, bought the t-shirt. A really cool t-shirt. We loafed around town that morning, hoping to pick up Margaret early in the afternoon. But, alas, still no flight. Poor Margaret!
But Milwaukee was pretty cool, after the industrial area was passed through. Old, Victorian-esque homes; very pretty near the lake and surrounding the university. It was good food for the imagination. The last nine months or so, pretty much everything has been feeding my imagination. I have no idea why I've been feeling so inspired and excited lately, but I'm definitely not complaining.
The art museum is right on the lake, and was designed by some famous [Spanish?] architect to resemble a bird taking flight:






That morning, we briefly explored the Public Market, where I bought the requisite bag of Wisconsin cheese curds:





I kept on exclaiming in amazement at the snow and ice everywhere:






















So then Joel had to copy me:














Our final Milwaukee stop was Kopp's Frozen Custard. Frozen custard, to those of you not in the know, is a very rich, dense, eggy version of ice cream. According to Joel, Kopp's is the best:
He was right, it IS good, even though I'm not usually in the mood for frozen treats in 30 degree weather. I opted for vanilla, figuring it would be best to taste it first in its purest form. Mmm. Kopp's itself was kind of a strange mix of the ultra-old fashioned (workers in cute 50's-style uniforms) and the ultra-modern (stainless steel everything):
Here's a photo of the lady who started it all. I think she immigrated from Germany. Sorry the photo is blurry.



















Still no Margaret, but it was getting late, so we decided it was time to hit the road:














We drove through Indiana














and Michigan, stopping in Flint at a diner for dinner.
It was traditional in the sense that our waitress had attitude, and our choice of cheese consisted of American or a Swiss version of American. The building, however, was too new.

Finally, we entered Canada. Unfortunately, our car got searched, but fortunately, it was no big deal. They found a chew toy in the back seat that Joel had bought for his dog in Milwaukee, and seemed a wee bit suspicious. "Do you have a dog?" they asked. Well, duh. Joel's answer of yes satisfied them. What would they have done if he said no?
After the border, I looked at the gas gauge, and pointedly asked if we needed to buy gas. "No, we'll buy some later."
But, THERE WAS NO LATER FOR MILES AND MILES! Just rolling farmland. We would exit, search through what might be a town, but discover that all it consisted of was four houses but no gas station. This situation was getting desperate. Finally, running on fumes, we found one with three gas stations listed. We found the first one. Hmm. Closed (it was 11:30 at night). We found the second one. CLOSED. Uh oh. Finally, we asked a kid leaving a Tim Horton's if ANY gas station was still open. "Yeah, 711." We found it, heaved a big sigh of relief, and filled up the tank. $72.00 CDN later, we were back on the road.
I started driving with no navigator. Joel fell asleep. We saw Toronto from the freeway. Where is the goddamn exit? Uh oh. We had passed it 60 kilometers earlier, quite possibly when Joel was still driving. Joel wakes up, whips out the map, and guides us to our youth hostel. 2:30 a.m. (two hours later than expected), we arrive at our Toronto Hostel and fall asleep.