Friday, October 03, 2008

The Crosse

This weekend, I’m looking forward to going to The Crosse. Yes, I know it’s a bit of a surprise, but I finally decided after living in sin for so long, that I really wanted to get right with the One (and I’m not talking about Obama). It is the end of an era for me. I believe it was Kierkegaard who once said, “Give me salvation…just not yet”. I know exactly what he means.

Alright. I kid. I’m actually going to LaCrosse (La is French for The), Wisconsin. Obama spoke there this past Wednesday. Unfortunately, I missed it (damn hemorrhoids), so I’m going on Saturday to walk where he did only a few days before (will I see one pair of footprints there or two?). Perhaps I will gain some of the great wisdom and judgment he has. If not, at least they have a Fuddrucker's.

I’m going to be picking up two of my best friends on the way there. They’ll fight a bit over who gets to sit shotgun, but such is life. I usually bring some upbeat, dance music to listen to. The forecast looks to be good on this, one of the last relatively warm weekends before Election Day arrives. Imagine how warm we’ll all feel if/when Obama is elected. It will make the winter so much warmer even if you happen to live in Alaska. I don’t know how in the hell this turned into an Obama entry, but whatever.

I just had an apple, the first I’ve eaten in a couple years. Not bad. God sure knew what she was doing when creating them.

For the second half of the trip to LaCrosse, we’ll be driving on the Great River Road which runs parallel to the mighty Mississip.



From there, one can see Wisconsin on the other side (kinda like how Palin can see Russia from Alaska). There are a number of things to do in LaCrosse that aren’t possible in Rochester. For one, brothels are legal there.

Scratch that last sentence. They have a very nice pawn shop there. Since I’ve yet to download a song (this is my 25th reference to that), I get my music the old-fashioned way (CD’s). I’ve purchased a number of good discs for a very nice price over the past year, really obscure stuff, too, like the Fleetwoods, Cat Stevens, and NSYNC. Shanon likes to shop for DVD’s while Brian is a lover of Xbox games. A few months ago, I went there with one of my Members Only jackets on and was so pre-occupied with looking through their stock that I failed to note the half dozen people who gawked and said, “Is this guy for real?”

Next, we’ll either go to Michael Cera’s (“Superbad”, “Juno”) new movie “Nick & Norah”



or to the putt putt course (loser has to vote for McCain). Later, after working up an appetite, we’ll hit my favorite pizza place in the world, Happy Joe’s. As I’ve noted before, the taco pizza is to die for. Don’t believe it? Well, let me put it this way: If I were asked to choose between the election of Barack and continuing to enjoy Happy Joe’s pizza, it would be a very tough choice.

Note: If this post didn't make you chuckle at least once, I don't know what to say.

15 comments:

Rocketstar said...

OBAMA!

houstonmacbro said...

Hey? What kind of apple was it. I have been trying to eat better and I USED to like Apples, but some are too tart, some are too sweet, some are just too mealy tasting ... so I gave up.

The weekend sounds nice. I wish we had better pizza in Houston. We have all kinds of good food, but pizza ain't it.

Enjoy1

Brian Mongold said...

MMM, taco pizza. We have a ton of pizza places in central FL, but I'd love to try that taco pizza.

We have this delicious mom and pop shop called Basils. The owner is the cook and has secret recipes and the sauce, flavorings and taste is unique to any other place I've been to. I'm completely hooked on his Calzones especially. He doesn't have a website or anything and I've even thought about helping his business by making a site for him, but he's pretty old school and seems happy with the loyal customers he has. Mmmm, now I really want a calzone and think I just figured out dinner for the wife and I. She is addicted to Basils too.

Brian

Thomas said...

Rocket, you said it.

Houston, nothing wrong with trying to eat better. I had a Harrelson apple. They’re a bit smaller than the ones typically sold in grocery stores, but pack quite a punch. It was a bit tart, but not too bad. Sorry to hear about the paucity of good pizza joints in your town.

Brian, Pizza Hut and Godfather’s also make taco pizza, but it’s nothing like Happy Joe’s. We also have a mom and pop Italian place in town called Billotti’s. They’ve been around for decades and like Basils, their food is unlike anything else in the area. Enjoy your ‘zone!

Unknown said...

Nice plug with seeing the scenery to Palin being able to see Russia from Alaska. I think the global warming will take care of itself there if she and McCain have their way. Fuddruckers is awesome and unfortunately, they took that out here as well for your favorite, Fridays. "Juno" was good. That's all I'm going to say about it. Once you've seen it, I'll give you my honest review. The "I've got shotgun" is all too familiar.

Thomas said...

PJ, that Palin thing reminds me of the old Who song, “I Can See For Miles”. I actually bought the Who’s greatest hits at the pawn shop I referenced for 99 cents. My favorite song of theirs is “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. *insert Dubya joke*

McCain and Palin appear to be believers in global warming, but I don’t think they’ll do anything about it if it’s going to interfere with their precious tax cuts.

Bummer about Fudd’s leaving.

As far as Michael Cera’s first two movies, I loved “Superbad” (I went to it 3 times and it was my favorite movie of ’07). I was quite disappointed in “Juno”, however. Just didn’t have the laughs I was hoping for.

I remember as kids when Dad said we were off to get some groceries or what not, within 2 seconds, one of my siblings would yell “Front!” followed a second later by someone saying “Middle!” (referring to the space that separates the drivers side from the passenger one).

Timothy Smith said...

Are you talking about 4th street pawn shop? When I was in school I use to hit estate sales and garage sales and unload at the pawn shop. It was a great way for someone with more time than money to make extra cash.

Do they have Red Robins in Minnesota? Hate to say it but their burgers walk on Fridays something fierce. I never cared for the service though, at least compare to Fridays.

Do you remember Giovanni's Pizza in Winona? I worked there for a few years and we had a pretty tasty taco pizza as well. I heard they went under a few years after I left town.

Thomas said...

Tim, it’s actually a newly-opened Pawn America, but I went to 4th Street Pawn quite a bit in the late 90’s (they mostly just sell coins now which is why I don’t go there anymore). Damn, you were quite the enterprising young lad back then, weren’t ya?

It’s funny you mention Red Robin. One of my friends said he went up there a couple weeks ago and found their food to be delicious, even better than Ruby Tuesday’s (which he’s praised to the sky previously).

I don’t doubt their burgers are better than Friday’s. To tell you the truth, I think Outback’s burgers are better than Friday’s, but it’s so dark in there and further away from where we live.

They don’t have Robins in Rochester, but there are a number in the Cities. I’ll definitely check it out the next time I’m up in that area.

Ah, yes. I have many good memories of Giovanni’s. For quite some time, they were my favorite pizza place. I remember they had a commercial in which a group gathered at the restaurant used the hook of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” to chant “Gi-o-van-ni’s Piz-za”. My brothers and I frequently referenced it.

One evening, we ate there and had some leftovers, so my brothers brought it along and threw slices at the windshields of people’s parked cars. This was in the dead of winter, so I can only imagine how difficult it was for the victims to remove the damage.

What I wouldn’t give to have one of their pizzas as a man in my 30’s.

You’re right, they’ve been outta business for quite a number of years now. You’ll have to tell me some of the good stories you have from working as a delivery guy. My brother was a delivery driver for Sammy’s in the early 90’s.

houstonmacbro said...

Thomas I will look for those Apples. I do like Gala, but either I live near a ghetto market or the last crop I had was just bad ... they had a mealy texture.

I've only eaten at RR once. It was certainly better than a lot of chains, but here (in Houston) it gets a bad rap. Not sure why.

I like their fries. (Oops, I am supposed to be eating better, right).

Timothy Smith said...

When I was 19 and had a baby girl on the way I managed more then drove in order to get extra hours. Gios was the best in town as far as quality.

We made the dough fresh every morning as well as the sauce. We also purchased our veggies fresh every morning and most importantly used twice the amount of cheese then anyone else.

Gios was also very cheap, an extra large one topping delivered with tax was 6.31!

We also had "dorm wars" which the dorm with the most receipts at the end of the month had a huge pizza party downstairs with the big screen.

At one point we outsold every other pizza place combined, weekend nights took in over 3,000.

Once they changed management 11 of the original 12 employees including myself were fired.

Only satisfaction I got from that was the place tanked almost immediately.

Lots of stories about that place, I really loved the people I worked with and our customers were very loyal.

I agree that Fridays has the better atmosphere. I have not ate at Outback in years now but they have great wings! I also like that creamy onion soup which should really be called "liquid cheese!"

I like the pizza on the windshield story. It reminds me of this one time the apartments down the road passed a rule that neighborhood kids could not play at the park on their property. We did anyway and the cops were called. We found out all the people living in the apartment voted for the rule so my neighbor thought up a nasty revenge.

We went down late at night when it was uber-cold out and unplugged all the cars that had engine block heaters and laughed the next morning waiting for the bus as a few could not get their cars started.

Now that I am older I realize what a pain this must have been for them but oh well, kids will be kids.

Sarah said...

mealy apples are the WORST.

i picked up my cat in lacrosse.

gobama!

i had fuddruckers today.

those are my random, yet pertinent thoughts!

Thomas said...

You can have fries once in a while, Houston. Eat a couple apples and you've earned the right to ingest about 10 of 'em.

Tim, twice the amount of cheese as other pizza joints? No wonder that stuff was the best in town. I also recall how inexpensive their pies were. And to outsell every other pizza place combined, that is just astonishing. Nice to see you got even with the party poopers.

Sarah, it took you a mere five sentences to tell us everything on your mind. You should be an ad copy writer.

Unknown said...

O.k. You saw Juno as well. Yeah, that's where I was disappointed too. I was expecting much more comedic moments and none really came my way. The potential was there throughout the film. However, I did think the girl who played the lead role did an outstanding job. She appears well on her way. It was more of a somber-laden script to me, and it just seemed to lag several times throughout the film.

Have a good trip to Dairy Country, or should it be deemed that, oh, I don't know. The scenery looks amazing, and I miss those four seasons throughout the year. Also, have a blast and take in what Lacrosse has to offer.

Timothy Smith said...

I have some fantastic pics of Toms hometown from up on the bluffs, the area is amazing and you appreciate it more when you travel the rest of the USA.

Anonymous said...

NOOOOOOOOO don't make the loser vote for McCain!!! You have to off-set the 10 McCain/Rocks for Brains signs I have all over my neighborhood!!

http://images.dailykos.com/images/user/3/electiontrains.jpg