A Wisconsin Dive Bar

Today was a travel day, albeit a short one, from Rochester to New Salem, communities on either side of Springfield, Illinois. Our habit of late is to enjoy some leisure on either side of the travel. Thus we didn’t plan to have anything worth blogging about. We’d landed in a sparsely populated campground, and were busying ourselves with activity inside the T@B especially since mosquitoes were active, but then Karen popped outside for a quick walk and saw something generally not spotted in campgrounds – a vintage Corvette! The driver paused and asked about our T@B-400 and next thing we knew we were giving a tour. After his departure we began preparing to walk across the road to check out the nearby tavern when David pulled up again in his fancy wheels with Laura beside him and with a gift of some limited edition Smoky Lager. He was hoping to show Laura our little home. One thing led to another and we found ourselves following the Corvette just a short distance and joining them in their private bar in their walkout basement with a gorgeous view of Lake Petersburg. We walked into what they characterize as their Wisconsin Dive Bar decorated on every available wall and ceiling space with neon signs, baseball caps, travel posters, Sinclair dinosaurs, and so much more. We gathered on stools at the bar and not only admired their esoteric collection of spirits of every variety collected from micro and major distilleries far and wide, but tasted a select few as they told stories to enhance the experience. Hopefully we upped the game for them when we cracked open their one bottle of bitters and encouraged them to enjoy Angostura laced libations. A most unexpected and glorious evening!