I love hippies

Friday at noon I took my first ever Van Galder bus trip to Madison, Wisconsin. I must say, taking a charter bus is by far the way to go. It' s cheaper than gas(if you use Mel's student discount) and much more relaxing...espically with all the traveling I've been doing lately. It was great to just sit on a bus, doze off, people watch, and read magazines for 3 hours. I didn't have to worry about tolls or traffic. I loved it...while on the bus, I even considered selling the Taurarri and taveling this way all the time...then I thought again.

Upon arriving in Madison, Mel picked me up via foot and headed to the mansion where she lives to drop off my bags. We had a good two hour chapt about our lives, drank wine and she even read my love life on tarot cards...it isn' t looking so hot...like I didn't know that. After that we headed to Dotty's Dowry for a burger, but with a long wait we just hoped next door for Ian's Pizza by the Slice, which was suprisingly delicious. We then headed over to one of her friends apts to pick them up on the party train and head on over to The Plaza(a bar). At the plaza we had a few cocktails and then some Iowa Alumnae occupied the booth next to us. In no time, we had made friends with them. Two more bars after the plaza and we decided to call it quits for the night.

On Saturday, Mel and I had the first annual taquito fest. We lounged on Mel's futon(affectionately name the taquito) and watched Garden State and ate crossaints...which Mel got of bed, walked to the bakery, went back to bed, then woke up hours later to eat. What a great friend. We decdided to get up about 1:30, shower and headed back to Dotty's for lunch. This time we were able to get a seat, watch the game and eat a good burger. We finished eatting at halftime, I convinced Mel to go to Pop Deluxe, a store I greatly enjoy, then we stopped at a coffee house to get a warm beverage. While sitting in the coffee house, Aaron called me telling me that Iowa was in the game and the score was 17-10. Mel and I quickly finished out coffee and chai and headed to State Street Brats where we watched the game. While there, I ran into former fellow RA Hans...picture to follow in next post. We stayed there and cheered the Hawks on to victory. After the big W, Mel led a small group of Iowa fans in singing In Heavan There is No Beer. After the game we did more downtown shopping, ate dinner at a fun little restaurant then went to the play "You Name It". Mel's friend Trisha's sister was in the play. The play was great. Afterwards, Mel and I decided we were hungry again(it was now about midnight) and went and ate Russian dumplings. I got half plain and half spicy....and oh my, were they delish!!! There we met a man that is a professor at the University of Iowa who was in town for the game and he also went to Iowa and used to wrestle for Dan Gable. After the dumplings, Mel and I headed back to her place to watch a little Will and Grace and call it a night.

It was a succsesful trip to Madison....that means I had a lot of FUN!