OK, so you didn’t get to spend any time at the Miller Oasis this year during Summerfest, but don’t worry, now there’s a place where you can really celebrate your passion for Miller Lite.
Forty-five years after Miller Lite made its national debut, you can bed down in a Miller Lite-themed timeshare in Mona Lake, Michigan, created by Miller Lite in partnership with Hotels.com.
Mona Lake is just south of Muskegon, directly across Lake Michigan from Milwaukee.
(NOTE: Miller Lite appeared locally two years earlier and was based on a recipe developed in 1967 for New York’s Rheingold Brewing as Gablinger’s Diet Beer. The recipe went to Chicago’s Peter Hand Brewing, which brewed it as Meister Brau Lite before Miller bought it, but I digress.)
For $96 a night, groups of up to eight people can book for up to three nights between Sept. 10 and Sept. 30. Guests must be 21 and over, and booking is on a first-come, first-serve basis.
The retro-vibe place comes fully stocked.
There’s Miller Lite in numerous rooms and a mini bar full of Funyuns, Ring Pops, Ding Dongs and more; there’s a game room with pinball machines, ‘70s board games, and a turntable and vinyl.
There are ‘70s slippers, koozies, Frisbees, playing cards and Rubik’s Cubes; and there’s an avocado-colored kitchen, mod furniture, shag carpets, house plants and wood paneling like your parents thought was a good idea (but were wrong).
"End of summer travel looks a little different this year," said Courtney Dugan, director of activation for Miller Lite. "But it’s still time for Miller Time, so Miller Lite created the Miller Timeshare, a groovy space for a small group to get together, put on a record, crack open some beers and escape 2020 for a couple days."
To book, go here hotels.com/page/MillerTimeshare beginning Sept. 4 at 9 a.m. CST.
If you’re lucky, you’ll get the place booked and then you’ll be living the, ahem, high life.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
