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Archaeologists are not unlike truckers. Exploring Minnesota and Wisconsin's oddities, scenery, culture, back roads, and eateries helps keep me sane.

25 April 2009

Rosie, Wheels, and Ed Gein

The week in Waushara County ended with minimal fieldwork completed because of snow, then thunderstorms, and I won't be getting back there anytime soon. Shame, because I made some crackin' new pals.

Rosie is this wonderful lady who leads a yoga class at the hotel two nights a week -- free for hotel guests, I've NEVER encountered that before with all my traveling. I've been spoiled, I don't want to go without it! Yoga classes are something I always want to be involved with, but can't because of my constant traveling. What a teaser. And Rosie was great, a real ass-kicker! She made me stretch in ways I haven't tried since high school cheerleading (most people can't picture me as a cheerleader, but yep, it happened and I liked it). The other ladies in the class were great too, it's always fun to banter with people while traveling. They're always so curious about what I do. I definitely liked an idea that one of them came up with: Make people who throw litter out their windows do community service collecting road kill. Wisconsin cut road kill pick-up out of the budget... combine that with small scale road projects requiring us to walk ditches, you've got weeks of summer fun. Ughsome (I'm borrowing that word from Chris).

More crew joined us on Thursday, but only a small posse of us managed to get out and about on Thursday night. We tried out Christiano's Pizza on Hwy 73. Great pizza, but I was pretty blown away that they didn't serve any alcohol. Not even 3.2 beer! I've been in a lot of joints around Wisconsin, but I'm blanking on remembering another pizza place that didn't serve beer. I'm told there are some, and it's definitely true but doesn't seem right. Beer and pizza just go together. But, because there was no beer, we were inspired (well, more so me, but thankfully the others were up for it!) to find another local establishment for a quick drink. A place that had caught my eye earlier in the week was Billy B's on Hwy 73 (everything in Wautoma is on 73 for the most part). Just a small brown building with a fabulous red neon sign and some Harley's parked out in front. I wasn't disappointed. There weren't many patrons at first, but it filled up a bit after while. The bartender's name was Wheels, no doubt a biker nickname. He was a bit kooky and got more than a few smiles out of me. He was sassy and very generous with the high-5's. Bottles of Spotted Cow were only $2.50, which alone makes the place worth a return visit. It reminded me of the taverns I visited while growing up with my dad in the tavern business. The bar stools were upholstered with vintage orange pleather, matching the plastic ashtrays. Wheels decided to test us on the juke box, and after being pleased with the first 7 selections, kept feeding us dollar bills to play more. He'd also crank up the volume and tip his drink up every time time he was particularly pleased with a selection. It was very satisfying to have people coming and going, complimenting our selections: Dylan, Cash, CCR, Zeppelin, Petty, Patsy, etc. I think they were surprised us bunch of youngins' didn't choose from the at least three Nickelback CDs in the box -- we all know how I feel about Nickelback.

Susan fiddling to The Devil Went Down to Georgia


One "downer" of the week was learning more than I ever really cared to know about Ed Gein. Our project area reached into Plainfield, where Gein committed his crimes of murder and grave-robbing. You know Ed Gein, the one who inspired Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Silence of the Lambs, dressing up in human skin and all that. I don't feel the need to go into anymore detail about his life, there are plenty of other sites about that. Anyways, we figured out where his family's farmhouse was, which was burned down a few months after he was arrested. We chose not to go to the location -- too creepy. Some bad energy just doesn't need to be messed with, and something was telling me to stay away from there. We did, however, go to the Plainfield Cemetery to see where he was buried. Jeff managed to find the spot, running around in the freezing rain. He was buried in between his mother (who's body he dug up) and his brother (who he probably killed), and his mother is buried next to his alcoholic father. There's no marker because it was stolen, but later found and returned to a Waushara County Museum -- not open until after Memorial Day. It looks like people try to mess with his family's markers though. His mother's had been knocked over previously, and his innocent brother's was quite off-center. Creepy. And the rain stains on the markers made them look more creepy. CREEPY.



It's thunder storming like a mo-fo tonight, so I need to take this to a lighter note before I freak myself out. Looking at my photos reminded me that Jeff had a pretty hilarious episode of spilling his coffee. As he correctly pointed out, I helped out Susan and then I went for my camera, leaving Jeff to fend for his coffee mess on his own. But I ended up with this great photo, with Jeff in his "biker fieldwork outfit". The scene of the hilarity was the family restaurant in Plainfield (at CTH BB and 73) during one of the storms. Who could ask for a better second breakfast? Two eggs, three pieces of -quality- bacon, and homemade wheat bread toast for $4. Bottomless coffee if you want it. God, I love small town Wisconsin.



This week's tally:

Hometowns of serial killers: 1

Days when it snowed: 2

Days when it stormed: 2

Days it hit 80 degrees: 1

Artifacts: Pfft.

Evenings of shredding with Jillian Michaels: 3

Nights of recovering in the hot tub after shredding and yoga: 2

Viewings of Cabin Boy: 1

Days of quoting Cabin Boy: Un-ending.

Dollar amount Wheels gave us for the juke box: $6. Or $8?

Number of Apple Pie shots: 1 each

The best profiterole dessert in Wisconsin: Farm Market on Hwys 73 and 22 -- try it!

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