On Scheduling Mishaps
Monday, May 18, 2026
Oconomowoc, WI
Outside the Game:
In my defense, it mostly wasn't my fault. But we'll get there.
I had a fantastic night's sleep after pulverizing my lower back in the hot tub all evening. I was actually up a little late to go to the hotel breakfast, which was an amazing spread of hot food that I indulged in to my personal limits.
As I was staying over again here tonight, there wasn't the regular do-si-do of finding a new hotel and checking out, so I just showered, had a quick lie-down, and got ready to go out into the world.
I stopped to get gas before driving into Milwaukee proper and discovered that with all its faults, at least my car didn't need much gas. But I did have the starter problem yet again, but angried my way through it again.
I took the short drive into the state capitol, marred only by the constant roadkill lining the sides of the road like a slaughterhouse. Once in the city proper, it took a couple of spins around the block before I found my first destination, and then a couple more spins to find a space on the street because the parking lot in front of the museum was expressly not for the museum.
And that first stop was the Bobblehead Museum and Hall of Fame, because I had to. As you enter, you get a spiel from the attendant and sit through a small movie, and then you can wander around the bobbleheads to your heart's content. There is also a contest to find a Wando bobblehead, but I never found him despite giving it a half-hearted effort.
The museum is full of the expected sports bobbleheads, but there are whole areas dedicated to politics and pop culture, and movies and the like. There were several bobbleheads that I personally owned that I didn't think I'd find there, but there they were on the shelves. They apparently get most of their stock from donations, and who knows, I may leave some to them in my will: a bequest of art to the people.
The young attendant gave me some suggestions on what to do in town, and as I was telling him about driving between various games, he told me to try out the Roadside America Website, which lists all the wacky roadside stops that your parents would never stop for when you were kids, and I endeavored to use it the next day when I was driving back into Illinois.
My next stop to kill the afternoon was the Milwaukee Public Museum, which I had visited in the early 80s and never since. Again, I was unable to find the parking lot for the museum until I took a lap or two, and eventually entered the claustrophobic confines of the parking garage, driving under low ceiling past endless, vacant "compact car only" spots before finding a regular spot toward the back, fully lost in the gloom and low overhead.
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| "A Sense of Wonder" |
I eventually found my way to the entrance, bought my ticket, and made my way inside. I was immediately greeted by the "Sense of Wonder" exhibit, which replicated what a Victorian museum display was like, and I was smitten. They also had recreations of various European houses and old Milwaukee streets and businesses, which I also greatly enjoyed. But there were even more fun dinosaur exhibits, and the upper floors held old-school diorama animal and cultural displays that really evoked something. One note of progress was that a complete Native American exhibit of dolls had been removed due to repatriation under a grave goods act.
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| "It belongs to them / Let's give it back" |
It was lunchtime, and I was starving (having only gotten some candy at the "Old Milwaukee" store), but I was scared about the cafeteria being mobbed by the scads of school groups that were in the museum with me. One employee said they all ate in their own lunchroom, so I went down and was pleasantly surprised to find the cafeteria nearly deserted, allowing me to grab some lunch while I sat and rested.
I went into the butterfly exhibit to frolic before walking around to any remaining exhibits before heading out. It was the first moderately hot and sunny day since I started the trip, but I decided to brave the elements for a short-ish walk across the river to the statue celebrating the largest cultural hero of Milwaukee, Arthur Herbert Fonzerelli, standing perpetually with two thumbs up at the edge of the river that goes through the center of downtown.
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| Aaaaayyyyy! |
I walked back to the car park, hugging the shade, and I decided to call the ballpark to see when gates were opening that night to determine if I needed to rush back or not. The confused woman on the phone patiently explained that they had just ended a homestand and wouldn't be back for two weeks.
A panicked quick retrieval of their schedule on my phone showed me the issue: The team had their away games in a brighter, more prominent color than their home games, which is so opposite and completely wrong that I don't even have the time to go into how this wasn't my fault. So not only did I get a speeding ticket, I'd have to come back to this tourist trap next year to do it again.
sigh
I went back to my hotel, catching some construction traffic on the way, and had a nice, big, well-deserved nap.
I decided that karma wasn't working for me today, so I made a lazy night of it. I purchased some food downstairs to cook in the kitchen in my room and then went upstairs to settle in with dinner, re-check all the remaining dates on my calendar, file some paperwork, and just lie around on various surfaces catching up on podcasts and deciding on the back-half of my week.
I called my mom, took a shower to wash the failure and sweat of the day off of me, and then went to bed early.
The Accommodations:
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| A modest en-suite dinner |
I was at the Staybridge Inn again, spending more time than I expected or wanted, with a mocking view of the stadium outside my window.
For the two-day span I had, this was probably the best I could have expected, all things considered. It was a roomy and comfortable room where I could have dinner and wallow in my crapulence.
The only letdown was a pack of union trainees took over the pool area that evening, so no more luxuriating in the hot tub all by myself.
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