Along time ago my best friend was a car fanatic… still is. His dad saved up and bought a Ferrari… when turned 16 he drove a classic Triumph Spitfire. Me, – my childhood is for another day, but I learned a lot hanging around with his family. I learned such things as electric drills work a lot better when switched to “forward” not “reverse.” I learned a little about cars in general, but I never considered myself a “car guy.” In 2005 I bought my first MINI. In 2006 I bought my second. While not a car guy, that was something I liked about the car, the owners were diverse and you didn’t have to be a car guy to be a part of the community. Most people don’t talk look down upon you if don’t know anything about cars and they even talk to girls like they have brains. Since then I’ve done been evangelical about the MINI and the community that surrounds it. Last weekend Sue and I headed north to Road America to watch the MINI John Cooper Works Racing Team. We’d been there once before for MINI takes the States in 2008 and Sue was able to drive a parade lap. This weekend it was time to watch the experts.
As with many adventures it started off with stopping along the way at some favorite places. Fair Oaks Farm for lunch and Albanese Confectionery for Gummi Bears. Fair Oaks Farm is a place we talk about going to for more than an awesome grilled cheese sandwich, but usually we are on our way to someplace and are on a schedule. Albanese has changed over the years, but still make amazing gummi bears of different flavors which allow us to buy one flavor instead of a mixed bag. My favorite they stopped making as a bear- peach, but they still make as rings. Once we crossed over into Wisconsin it was a stop at the Mars Cheese Castle to see if there was anything we needed for the rest of the trip. Once we were done stocking up there we headed through Wisconsin. Making a list of things we want to do the “next time” we are heading this way. So we will be heading back to the land of cheeeeeeese and brats and beer.
We arrived at Road America and stopped to get our bearings for the next day of racing. First goal find the MINIs. There are times when I wish I was a bit more outgoing. while I go various places, I tend to hid in the shadows and just lurk. This was the case the entire weekend when we got anywhere close to the MINI John Cooper Works Racing Team tent. We kept our our distance. mostly because they were busy. They were doing car racing things, with tools and stuff and we didn’t want to bother them. You’l find that this is my mantra, “You have more important things to do than deal with me.” Sue shares this feeling, so unless we are invited to join, we tend to sit back. The last time we were at a race, we were with friends who knew everybody. We looked around for people we may know and besides the bad of the whole thing (who was busy being in charge) we saw no one we knew so went on our way.
This was not just a weekend for watching cars go around a track (or a small portion of a track since we could see the entire track. It was also just a time for adventure, which tends to mean consulting Atlas Obscura or Geocaching to see what strange and interesting things might be around. First of all- we were shocked that Road America had no geocaches, or Adventure Labs. it made a little sense since it was “America’s National Park of Speed” and no caches are allowed at national parks, but was it really a “National park”? we couldn’t find anyplace to get our National Park Passport stamped, or get one of those coins they now sell at the gift shops… Hmmm… One thing about Wisconsin, I discovered was a lack of just random caches. Sure there were a lot of large statues of cows… but while perfect places for a cache or an Adventure Lab stage, there was nothing. That said we did find some cool things and some great caches.
We stayed south in the larger town of West Bend. For geocachers this is a known place, home to the West Bend Cache Bash- which we missed by a week or so. This means that the place was full of various caches and after dinner on the first night we decided to start with an Adventure Lab on Main street dealing with the murder of Signal the Frog.
Have I mentioned I like Adventure Labs? Unlike Geocaches that sometime require special tools, and bugs, and spiders, and climbing through thorny bushes, adventure labs are location based and only require you to answer questions from clues in your surroundings (for the most part). These make me happy and I highly recommend if you want to start geocaching, start with Adventure Labs- yes, there’s an app. As with geocaching it will take you places that only locals know about and you’ll learn about the place you are visiting from a different perspective.
So we returned to Road America the next day and watched the TC class race. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a race. While we sat watching turn 14 and the home straight a lot was happening elsewhere causing yellow flags, red flags, puce with lavender spots flags… Being from Indiana or watching auto racing on TV I am accustomed to a race being so many laps… the Indianapolis 500 is 200 laps, The first car to complete 200 laps, wins. These races were all timed. So after a certain amount of time the white flag came out signaling one more lap. The other thing was there were multiple classes of cars racing at the same time. To simplify each class allows cars with certain specifications to race, it could be engine size, wheel base, weight, drivers who owned dogs. Cars with similar specification raced together to make things fair. The MINI Coopers raced in the TC class, the BMWs raced in the TCX class. While both were on the track at the same time the track was long enough and the distance between them enough at the start that for the most part they didn’t get in each others way- for the most part. The crashes (no one was harmed in the making of this blogpost, although some cars definitely needed some help) tightened up the field and actually there was some concern that the race would not get finished. The race was extended into the lunch break in order to give them enough time. it did not give us enough time to get to the podium to celebrate the MINIs that had finished.
Seven miles away from Road America was Johnsonville. For those not from the midwest Johnsonville is known for its brats. That would be German bratwurst sausages, usually the staple for football tailgating (or so I have been told). I guess enough people have stopped by the small town and factory and found nothing that it was decided by some marketing people, it might be a good idea to have something out there for them to find. Pretty much a visitor center filled with all things wisconsin, and especially Bratwurst. The crowning piece was the last work done by famed artist Robert Indiana sitting outside. Now to say the actual town was small would be an overstatement. We decided to try to find lunch and there was one building that had am empty ballroom/beer hall that reminded me of a VFW. and an even smaller diner that was packing things up about an hour before close. we got some sandwiches to go, but could tell, even for a Saturday, they weren’t expecting, nor did they really want anyone coming in. Not that they weren’t nice, and friendly (this is the midwest after all) but you know they were hoping to close early and go enjoy one of the last days of Summer- who could blame them? We took the rest of the day for adventures and finished off the Signal Murder Adventure Lab along with a walk about Regner Park which was amazing. It did start to get hotter and hotter as the day wore on, not making Sunday look that appealing.
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday… We had one race to go and decided to sit in Turn 5 and watch- fortunately there were not issues and it was a clean race. MINIs took first and third with (I think) a Hyundai getting second. We celebrated with the crowd the MINI victory and then started the drive home… with help help the holy guidance of WAZE, patron Saint of directions. This is the midwest, and this is road construction season, So after a quick detour back to Johnsonville, and then to Port Washington for a Web Cam cache we needed some guidance and we weren’t the only ones. I started to note that we were basically in a conga line of cars making some interesting turns through neighborhoods and realized that we were all using WAZE to get past whatever blockage there was on the interstate. While people complain about AI for a lot of things, having something be able to look at the big picture on the road and navigate you through so you avoid sitting in a car standing still for an hour… I did alter from the divine plan one we had made it through Chicago and WAZE was directing on some roundabout way that would save me a whopping 2 minutes.
We had a wonderful adventure and as I noted to Sue, the cool thing was it was Sunday and I wasn’t anxious about school the next day. I had some things I needed to get done, but most of it didn’t have any random element to it, so I could handle it. I have missed these little Adventure Days the we used to do – some might call them “One Tank Trips” or something simple escapes. We used to do these more often and then adulting got in the way. That and we realized that in a few cases we would go just to buy stuff we really didn’t need. Now we go to just experience the world we live in. We’ve got a few more of these on the calendar for 2023- should be fun.