To some, it might be hard to justify driving 400 miles in 24 hours, to take a one-day road trip to a sleepy Up North town in the dead of winter.
To me, it's just what I needed, and after my quick trip to our very modest (read: cheap) cabin in the Town of Wausaukee, an hour due north of Green Bay, I'm ready to do it again tomorrow.
Friday's trip was a quick getaway with one of my oldest friends. The cabin is heated, but has no running water in the winter. Still, with limited entertainment options that included eating pizza, listening to music and bowling a game, Eron and I realized that if we are actually going to get in some quality conversation despite our busy lives, we'll need to drive three hours away from Milwaukee to do it.
And it was great. For an area that shines in the summer, the quiet, "boring" winter wasn't boring at all. It looked and felt like winter Up North, too. With a frozen lake, snow on the ground and temps much colder than Milwaukee, it couldn't have felt any farther from home.
Tomorrow, I'll do one more 24-hour jaunt with another friend, Jon. It's just part of my plan to make full use of the week off we give our OnMilwaukee.com employees. While it's easy to sit around and waste away the time on the couch, it's just as easy – and almost as cheap, really – to get out of town for a day. If you're not as lucky as me to have a run-down 1964 single-wide mobile home in the middle of nowhere (yes, I'm being sarcastic), all the motels along our way had plenty of vacancy. Your most expensive part of the trip will be gas.
For as much as I love Milwaukee, sometimes it's good to get away and catch up with friends. Even one day will do the trick. You'll come back recharged and ready to face the new year.
Most importantly, you'll ask yourself why you don't do it more often.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
