Spring is finally here! The winter tires are off and what’s that horrible noise? The tie rods? Uh oh! And I need new tires? Sigh… I’ll get out my credit card.

So, Bessie was a little slow getting into the swing of things this year. Anthony and his trusty MINI, Radcliffe, were there to save the Spring Drive (for me at least). We met up with the Milwaukee Minis for a quick drive to the Jelly Belly Factory. We patiently waited for the Chicago club amongst paneled walls of sweet, sweet jelly beans. Then, a quick, twisting drive along the southern border of Wisconsin. And for this trip, I navigated. Yes, me! The girl who’s very bad with that who left/right thing. Amazingly, only the oddly turning roads were our downfall.

After our jaunt through the countryside, Anthony and I made a quick trip back to Milwaukee for a Flickr photo walk starting at Sobelman’s. At the end of this photo set, you’ll see some photos that are hopefully somewhat artistic that I took with my tiny camera. Enjoy!

View the Adventures of Radcliffe…

Four cheese factories, one custard stand and a lot of fun was the agenda for the Cheesy Country Drive & Tour. Tosh and I enjoyed our weekend drive through the country with the Milwaukee Minis and friends. On our adventure, we sampled cheeses from Henning’s, Vern’s, Widmer’s and Cedar Valley. Since a girl can’t live on cheese alone, I had chocolate custard to go with my grilled cheese sandwich at Gille’s Frozen Custard Drive-in of Fond Du Lac. View photos…

Finally, our last installment for our South Dakota Journey! For our last day, we decided to take it easy, hobnob with some famous people, seek out the strange and unusual, and dine in a junkyard.

Our day started with roaming around Rapid City seeking out oddities from RoadsideAmerica.com. America sure is a strange place! Afterwards, we went to downtown Rapid City to see more strangeness in Art Alley. Is it Graffiti? Is it Art? You decide.

Downtown Rapid City is also home to many, many Presidential Statues. You may recognize these statues from the local Presidential Soda bottles. Wandering around, we tried to name as many as possible without looking at the brochure or the plaques. My knowledge of useless trivia really helped for once. How many Presidents can you name?

Downtown is also home to Sanford’s Grub & Pub, restaurant/junkyard. Don’t worry, it’s sanitary. Their food was marvelous, their menu extensive and their atmosphere not to be missed. Special thanks to the lady at the Presidential walk tour office!

To top off the day, we ventured to Fjord’s Ice Cream and Coffee Shop for a homemade ice cream cone. Fjord’s certainly deserves all the awards it’s walls support. They had a wonderful array of interesting flavors, a friendly staff and delicious treats.

Finally, two videos, long overdue…
The Badlands National Park Sheep
The Wall Drug T-Rex