All Over Wisconsin and A Stop in Minnesota

Kenosha, WI was another stop that became a favorite spot along our way. It was a lakeside community sitting right on Lake Michigan. We had a great hotel on the water and could tell the town was really fun. Like a said in previous posts, we were lucky to have super-warm weather so we spent a lot of time outside. Our hotel was teamed up with the Anytime Fitness in town which meant that we had a FULL GYM at our disposal finally! I headed out the first day there to workout along the water with the girls. They had intense leg workouts and we did a short run and abs...it was good. Toward the end of the workout most of the girls headed back while Katie and I continued running further along the waterfront until we started hitting mansions. We are talking legitimate HUGE houses that sat right on the lake. It was awesome to see how people up there were living and some of the cool architecture of the homes as we were able to walk around more and talk. That evening we went to Villa d'Carlo, an Italian restaurant that was HEAVILY decorated for Halloween still. We had a great meal and discovered that this place is in a constant state of decoration, whatever it may be for. It was super fun and we always enjoy each other's company.

The next day in Kenosha I headed back to the gym and then had lunch with the boys at a cafe in town. Finally Tavis and I went for a walk to find Lou's Barbershop, where we were planning on getting straight-razor shaves. This has become one of my favorite ways to just relax and sort of pamper myself in the manliest way possible. Ha ha!!! Lou's was awesome. We sat around with the old men in town who were just chilling out to talk and hear stories, etc. We also enjoyed the Kenosha Natural History Museum where Tavis and I learned all about wooly mammoths and their history in this area. I was so impressed with little Kenosha! When we went back we met up with one of Katie Reid's friends who came to town and then to the theatre where we had a good show. One thing on tour that is always interesting is to see the different theatres around the country. This one, for instance was covered in nice wood panelling and had to small balconies on either side of a thrust stage. There was a pulpit-type platform in the center booth for our stage manager...just kind of bizarre in a great way!

Whitewater, WI was a fairly uneventful place since we were only there for a day. It was nice out, though, and I had a good day with the guys going to the gym, walking all around town and seeing the Victorian houses and enjoying lunch at Jessica's diner. Later in the afternoon me and Tavis took a short run through town to Trippe Lake (yup...that's the actual name) before the show that night on a college campus.

A few of the cast members had been looking forward to Grand Rapids, MN for a while because of one reason: Judy Garland. This was the birthplace of the singer, one of the icons of popular and theatre music and one of the greatest movie stars of our time! Our hotel again had a membership to Anytime Fitness, which we took advantage of, and our first day we headed to Target and to see "Morning Glory" at the movie theatre across the street! Dinner was at the Sawmill Inn Restaurant, which we couldn't possibly pass up when we saw the giant spinning blade made out of neon lights! Ha!

The next day we went to the Judy Garland Museum right next door to our hotel. It was fascinating to walk through Garland's career and see so much footage of performance and so many artifacts. After learning so much more about her, we continued into the home where she was born and walked around some. At the end of the tour in a different part of the museum is the doll museum where we spent approximately 3.8 minutes before turning around. We had a show to do, though. When we were waiting for our transportation, they were running late... surprise. Suddenly a small bus pulls up and we check to make sure he was there for us, which he was. We became slightly concerned when the bus continued its route to pick up another passenger and we learned that this was a city bus. The car company had messed up and ended up having to get the city bus system to stall everything and come pick us up to get to the theatre! Oh my word.

Getting caught up,

Tripp