Day 9 - Janesville - Milwaukee

After a bit of a sleep in this morning I was offered a cooked breakfast which was a very good meal made by Barbara. Gregg & Barbara also gave me some peach pie and some home grown tomato's to take with me for today. We chatted for a while then it was time for me to move on as I had a ticket to the Milwaukee Brewers – LA Dodgers game in Milwaukee which started at 1pm.

I set the GPS to get me there and for the most part of the trip it was very quick as there was no traffic. Unfortunately as I came to the outskirts of Milwaukee there was a huge traffic jam that held me up. I would have taken close to an hour to cover the last 10 miles to the ground.

I finally made it to the car parking and was lucky as I was in the last row and there were still a lot of cars behind me, don’t know where they were going to park. The only problem was that by the time I got my ticket from the Will Call window and got into the stadium it was already the third innings.

The LA Dodgers had a run already by the time I got to my seat which was in the second tier of seating. The stadium has a opening roof which closes for bad weather but it was a sunny day and it was wide open. The section of the stadium I was sitting was in the sun and it was very hot.

The stadium was quite full for a Tuesday daytime game though it is more than likely because it is holiday period and there were quite a few families there

By the end of the eighth inning the Dodgers were leading 5 to nil and I had to get out of the sun so I watched the last inning from the rear of the stands where there was a nice cool area in the shade. The Brewers scored a run in the last inning but the score finished 5 – 1 to the LA Dodgers. Milwaukee has been on a hot run of wins and it was only their third loss in 22 games. They are leading their division by over 6 games which is very good at this stage of the season.

I got back to the car and it was easier to get out of the car park than to get into it. Plugged in the GPS and I was onto the freeway and headed towards the centre of the city to the only casino in town. It is a huge building and there were plenty of people already inside by the time I got there. I was pretty quick to get the chips i needed and left just as more people from the game were arriving.

It was now about 6pm and I than went looking for some accommodation for the night. I was thinking of heading up to Green Bay tonight but it is a two hour drive and then I would have to find a hotel so I decided to stay in Milwaukee. I have found that some hotels over here you can sit outside in your car and look up the wireless internet on your laptop. So I searched for local hotels on the GPS and found a Comfort Inn was nearby. I pulled up next to it and was able to put my laptop to work with their wireless internet.

Online I found a cheap Red Roof Hotel near the airport and made my way out there. They had rooms available so I booked in. I had stayed at Red Roof in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania so I knew although they are very basic rooms they do have free internet and reasonable beds.

I settled in and checked out my emails etc before making contact with another Can Club member Ken Treml to confirm our earlier conversations about my time in Green Bay this weekend. I have met Ken every Canvention I have been to and last year we shared a shuttle back to the airport after the show. Then I told him I was going to be in the USA for a few weeks before the Canvention. He told me his local chapter of the club The Packer Chapter was holding a meeting in Green Bay, Wisconsin a fortnight before the Canvention. So when I made my plans and Ken also told me that there was a Green Bay Packer’s trial game on the Friday night before the local beer meeting. This made this part of my planning decision easy,

I then headed out to find a place to have dinner. I found on the next main intersection there was a place called the Branded Steer. It was a restaurant but also had a long rectangular bar that I sat at to eat. I had some chicken strips for appetiser (USA for entree) and then lasagna. It was a filling meal and I was able to watch one of the NFL preseason trial games.

After finishing dinner I went to a service station to fill up with petrol. ($US 3.69 per gallon) and get some milk to have with my cereal for breakfast. Back at the room I went to the ice machine to get some ice for my cooler and placed the milk and some bottles of water in for tomorrow before watching some TV and heading off to bed for the night.