Wisconsin is very far away! And a really long drive! We left at about 2pm Monday the 3rd, and arrived in Rice Lake at around 9pm Tuesday 4th. We stopped half way in Lebanon, Indiana. The only hotel at the half way mark that allowed big dogs was the Comfort Inn, Lebanon. I left behind my bottle of Watkins Vanilla shampoo and Aloe & Green Tea body wash, so some housekeeper is smelling nice now >:-| Yanno, the Comfort Inn I worked for required their housekeepers to turn in *anything* left behind by guests, whether or not they figured they were ever coming back. They usually call for it once they realize they’ve forgotten it! It should be hotel policy worldwide to keep things in a lost and found for at least a month after departure!

Anyhoo…rant off.

From Lebanon we drove to Rice Lake, which is in the north western portion of Wisconsin, and 1083 miles (or so) from here. We stayed at the Super 8 there, the only hotel in town that allows dogs. George and Bruno behaved surprisingly well, and didn’t terrorize any other guests. Though they did give a quick bark 2 mornings when someone was going out at 4am! Our room was on the end, right next to the exit, so there was quite a bit of traffic. They got used to it after a couple of days tho thankfully. But boy were they just bored all week! The poor things didn’t get much chance to play we were in the car all the time. :-(

On Wednesday we spent some time driving around town, checking in at the Chamber of Commerce, the local Police Station and the local newspaper company. I walked the dogs along the lakeshore while James and the Franchise Regional Manager went into City Hall. It’s a very pretty little lake, and it was still frozen. The dogs went in a bit, but I guess the water was too cold, even for them. They were very confused by the skill of the ducks to walk on water tho! ;-)

After we ditched the FRM, we walked around town some more, just to check out some of the shops down Main Street and to exercise the dogs a bit. We stopped into Dairy Queen (there’s one in every town in the Midwest it seems!) and some of the folks inside just had to come out to see the dogs. They’re very popular and love the attention.

The entire following day was spent in the car driving around north western Wisconsin and portions of Minnesota, checking out other Domino’s franchises that are also for sale. The FRM at breakfast promised a 6 hour day, which turned into 12 freakin’ hours in the car! >:-| The dogs were exhausted and wondering why we were torturing them, and James and I were not much pleased with the FRM either. That’s just too much and very hard on the buttocks after a 1000+ mile drive up there in the first place. But he wanted us to see other options, because Rice Lake isn’t doing all that well, and no one is convinced that it can be turned around. Apparently it hasn’t done well in about a dozen years. Previous frans tho have been caught dealing drugs, and subsequent frans have all been “hands off”, and in small towns that doesn’t always work.

A couple of the other available franchises are in suburbs of the Twin Cities, and are fast growing into large-ish cities themselves. We were impressed with the new shininess of the stores themselves, and they’d be pretty much turn-key making us money as soon as we walk in the door (assuming the entire team doesn’t quit that is). But I don’t think James would be happy in those towns, he doesn’t like “big cities”, and would be miserable. Rice Lake has a little of the “best of both worlds”, and is only 2 hours away from Minneapolis/St. Paul. I can survive in a Small Town, better I think than James would survive in a Big City.

We just need a business model that would turn around the store in Rice Lake. Or we may lose our shirts. And more.

On Friday we looked around for houses that are for sale, spent some time with a local agent and then drove around on our own. There’s one 5 acre hobby farm with a pond that would be good for the dogs, but its kind of isolated, 6 miles outside of town, with the nearest neighbour barely within shouting distance. Which is both good and bad IMO. Other homes we looked at either didn’t have a big enough yard or were just too darn close to an active gravel pit for our liking. We’ll have to keep looking. We may end up living at the KOA for a few weeks until we can find a house. I don’t think the Super 8 will suffice for more than a few days. The dogs need better in/out access. *sigh*

There was still some snow on the ground after their last storm a couple of weeks ago. Just the piles where the plows had put it at the edge of parking lots and whatnot. The dogs weren’t quite sure what to think of it, they’ve only seen at most about an inch of snow at a time, and we never get enough here to pile it anywhere. They’ll enjoy next winter, that’s for sure! And I may be able to talk James into getting a snowmobile for us to have some fun too. :-)

This is all assuming of course that he doesn’t change his mind again and we don’t end up in the ‘burbs of Minneapolis, or somewhere else entirely. Me, I don’t much care really, as long as I get a decent kitchen with a dishwasher, and a sizeable yard for the dogs.

Speaking of dogs, we were grocery shopping yesterday and the dog catcher told us there’s a 2 y/o male Saint at the shelter. If our house was just | | that much bigger! But alas, even just one more may collapse this floor, so we did not go to see him. I hope he finds a good home with a nice family who treat him well, with good food and a shady place to lay down.

Here are some pictures of our trip. I didn’t take many really as it was more work than pleasure.

Bruno, admiring himself in a mirror in Lebanon


George, asleep in the back of the car, somewhere in Indiana. I think.


Strange rock formations in Wisconsin. Somewhere near Madison. I think.


Blackbear, the Dashboard Pirate


Bruno, getting ready to say Hello to tollbooth operator, somewhere in Illinois


Somewhere in Kentucky


Self portrait


Getting bored, just trying to stay awake


This is actually pretty good, if I do say so myself!


And another


These were all taken with my HP M415 5.2 mp digi cam, in a moving vehicle (except the Bruno in the mirror one). There was a point somewhere in Kentucky that I wanted to get a shot in the review while I was driving. But my camera was in my bag at James’ feet and he was asleep so I didn’t bother.

Now why is it that I’m not allowed to sleep while he’s driving, but first thing he does when he asks me to drive is fall asleep? :-p Rotton Dark Lord! Hmph!  ¶ 12:00 PM