New Glarus Brewing Company

I hope all the fathers out there had a happy Father’s Day. Our son Eric was on call for the weekend, so he came out and visited with us last weekend to celebrate Father’s Day.

Yesterday was a beautiful summer day, so we decided to take a little road trip to New Glarus, Wisconsin to tour the New Glarus Brewing Company. They are most famous for their Spotted Cow beer.

The brewery was started in 1993 in an abandoned warehouse with used brewpub equipment. In 2006 they opened a $21 million new facility on a beautiful hillside location on the outskirts of New Glarus. The complex is designed to look like a Bavarian village. They are the 21st largest craft brewery in the country.

We arrived around noon and were surprised how packed the parking lot was. We looked around the gift shop which was doing a brisk business. We followed some signs to the self-guided tour. The facility was big and sparkling clean. There were, however, no signs explaining what we were seeing. Since it was the weekend, none of the machinery was operating. In the bottling area, there was a silent video showing the bottling process.

There was one employee to answer questions. I asked him why the beer was only sold in Wisconsin. He said they can barely keep up with demand for their Wisconsin customers, so there is no need to sell in other states. He was kind enough to take our picture in front of one of the three huge copper vats.

After we wandered around, we went out to the patio beer garden. There were three choices for sampling. Each included a beer glass. Kevin chose the $8 pint option and chose the Totally Naked beer. Refills were available for $5.50, but he didn’t try anything else. They also gave us a coupon for a small tap beer available at several pubs and restaurants in town.

The building had this clock tower. The bells played a song on the hour. It really reminded me of our trip to Germany. There was a beer depot store on site. Twelve packs of their standard beers were selling for $18. That definitely wasn’t any kind of a deal, so we didn’t buy anything. Our impression of the facility was that it is a very nice place, but the tour was disappointing. Some signage would have been very helpful.

The view from the beer garden reminded me of a typical Wisconsin countryside. Rolling hills with green pastures dotted with farms is what you see while driving through much of the state.

We left the brewery and drove back into the downtown area. There were lots of people wandering around the shops, pubs and restaurants. We looked around in some of the shops. New Glarus was founded in 1845 by a group of Swiss immigrants. Most of the buildings are in the Swiss style. I heard quite a bit of German being spoken.

We sampled some cheeses in the cheese shops. We found a pub that had some seating available and Kevin used his coupon to sample another New Glarus beer called Two Women. He enjoyed both beers he tried. After wandering around for a little longer, we headed home.

Strong storms are headed our way for today, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed and hunker down. We had planned on golfing this afternoon, but I think those plans will have to be cancelled.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Happy Anniversary To Us

Today is our 38th wedding anniversary. Wow, time sure does march on. We are certainly blessed to have had so many wonderful years together, and hope for many more so we can fulfill a long bucket list. Mostly mine :)

We have been pretty busy on weekends here at the campground. A few weeks ago, this tent was on the site next to us. Here was the view out of our side window.

They were part of a group here for a family reunion. They’ve been here before, and I finally asked them how they came to have such an unusual tent. It turns out they perform at renaissance fairs. Makes sense. It rained all weekend, so I’m sure they were happy they rented our Quonset shelter. Its not the greatest building as it is rather old and has a few leaks. But, with all the rain that day, they were glad to have it. For $60 a day it’s a great insurance against bad weather.

One of the ladies taking party supplies from their campsite to the shelter had an interesting method. I’m not sure if the dog was any faster than pulling the wagon herself, but it was fun to watch.

I sure was glad to be inside where it was dry and warm.

One of my responsibilities as the park attendant is cleaning bathrooms. We have a nice shower building with flush toilets. Since we only have 24 sites, it doesn’t get very dirty. Once a week I do a thorough cleaning. On weekends, we make sure that supplies don’t run out. I know there are a lot of workampers who don’t want to clean bathrooms, but it is not at all bad at this park.

I sure was surprised last week when I went into the men’s room to check supplies and found this little visitor in the urinal.

I didn’t want to touch him, so I got a plastic cup and scooped him up. He didn’t move, so I think he was dead, but I dropped him outside in the grass just in case he had some life left in him. You can see the other frequent visitor to the urinal. Every week there is at least one of these creepy crawlers in there. I have no idea how these visitors got into the building.

Last night we had a single lady pull in for one night. She said she was on her third day into this, and didn’t seem to know very much at all about her small unit. She asked us where her water tank fill was. She didn’t unhook and never plugged in. This morning this truck pulled in.

He pulled out a battery and jumper cables and went over to her car. Turns out she drained her battery by running her camper off the car all night. I’m often amazed how uninformed many people are about their units. We’ve seen and heard lots of interesting stories. Sometimes the lessons are quite costly.

Speaking of RV problems, we had an unpleasant surprise today. Kevin and I were both working this morning. I was putting out reservations slips on sites. As I walked past our site, I noticed LOTS of water pouring out of the bottom. That’s not good. I called for Kevin and turned off the outside water. Our basement floor was quite wet by this time. As we started pulling out all of our stuff, it started raining. Great!!

Luckily, the Quonset building is not rented this weekend, so we were able to take all of our stuff in there to dry out. Once we got everything out, Kevin removed a side panel in the basement and found the problem rather quickly.  A hose clamp failed and let loose on one of the water lines. He put a new clamp on, and we’re back in business.

During my spare time, I’ve been working on some quilting projects. Here’s one I just finished. It’s about the size of a placemat, but took a long time to finish with all the little details. Its hanging on the wall in our kitchen area, and it makes me smile.

I also made this poppy piece for my mom for Christmas. She can use it as a wall hanging or maybe over the back of a chair or the couch. She doesn’t have a computer, so this won’t be ruining the surprise.

My next project will be some placemats for us.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!