Day 3: Lakewood, OH > Rockford, IL
States: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois

We hit the road early to cover the 7 hour drive to Rockford, stopping for bagels before driving through a torrential downpour for basically the entire state of Ohio.  We listened to NPR as long as we could, quering Twitter for information about stations along the way.  Once through Ohio, the rain lifted, and we carried on to Three Floyds in Munster, IN, for lunch and the acquisition of still more beer.  As we passed through Indiana, we wasted a solid few minutes watching our phones to see how quickly they would catch up with the switch from Eastern to Central time.  My phone won, just for the record.

Three Floyds provided us with a great opportunity to see how many business can begin with ‘Munster’ – and also a delicious plate of sausages and pickled things.  Shane was excited to have Dreadnaught and to try the Apocalpyse Cow, while I stuck with the always solid Robert the Bruce.  We got a case of Gumballhead plus 22s of Dreadnaught and Apocalypse Cow, which required a side trip to another business whose name started with Munster.  Back on the road, we carried on to Rockford, skirting Chicago traffic and stopping for a dip cone somewhere in the north suburbs.

That evening was my sister’s not-bachelorette party, so after a quick nap, we picked Jenn up and headed to the Irish Rose for dinner.  Not-bachelorette meant that boys were allowed, so Shane and my brother were there, along with Cassie, her boy Nate, and Robyn – plus Joes T and O who met us out later.  After a very tasty dinner, we rolled on to Carlyle and Swilligans, where Shane and I left the party in order to SLEEEEEEP.  It was just the right amount of boozey and fun as far as I’m concerned, but then I didn’t have Jenn’s hangover in the morning.

Day 4: Rockford, IL
States: Illinois, Wisconsin

I did, however, have some excitement in store for me.  I got up early in the morning to prep for my web-based interview that would be taking place at 8am Central time.  When I rolled into Mary’s Market, though, I discovered that my wallet was missing.  Cue much swearing and freaking out, as well as no delicious Market breakfast.  I went home, searched the car and suitcase, and then gave up and did my interview.  Fortunately I had my ID and checkbook and also fortunately we bank at a national bank, so I was able to get cash before my nail appointment (bright red!).  A few phone calls later, and MIRACLE OF MIRACLES, my wallet was located at Swilligans, where we picked it up en route to the  rehearsal later in the evening.

At this point we’d gone 24 hours without acquiring any more beer.  Can you believe it?

My parents took us out to lunch at Jester’s, a local Greek place they like a great deal.  Shane managed to mystify the girl at the counter by asking for his gyro to be made spicy – apparently they haven’t heard of harissa – but our food was solidly good with GIANT portions – something I haven’t missed from the Midwest, though the Mid-Atlantic’s not much better.  We kicked around the house for a bit, showered, then headed down to Klehm for the rehearsal.  Mark did an impressive job of wrangling the bridal party and family, including two very cute and spazzy ring bearers and two very funny flower girls.  The gardens were beautiful, and the rain held off until we packed into cars to drive 45 minutes north to the Rockton Inn for the rehearsal dinner, hosted by Bill’s parents.  These sorts of occasions are always interesting – it’s rare to actually know everyone in the bridal party, so there’s a lot of sitting around awkwardly and just talking to the people you know.  We chatted with Mark and watched Bill’s nephews, my cousins, and Belah run around and hang off Bill.

Since we were already almost all the way to Wisconsin, we decided to take a quick trip across the border in a classic Midwest thunderstorm to get my beloved Spotted Cow, which isn’t distributed outside the state.  The first stop was Cub Foods in Beloit, my go-to spot for Wisconsin beers, only to discover that it CLOSED!  From there we went to Everett’s, where we discovered Port Pizza Hop 15 and Shark Attack, some beers from Lost Abbey that we didn’t buy, and also that Everett’s is actually not in Wisconsin.  A third stop at Woodman’s provided us with a 12 pack of Spotted Cow, a wine bottle of Raspberry Tart, and Dancing Man Wheat, one of many New Glarus beers that I hadn’t seen before.  I look forward to being closer to Wisconsin if only so that I can sample these more often!

Another stormy drive home, and we crashed for the night in hopes of getting enough sleep to make it through the wedding day.  We wisely removed Gypsy‘s collar, resulting in a quiet fuzzball sleeping between us for part of the night.