Day 9: Beer, brats and the Blue Egg brunch

"As everyone knows, the couch was made for…Miller Time."

Ah, our last day off before two endurance runs to the Least Coast. After sleeping in while Scott Lee wakes up early to go to the gym, we head out to the Blue Egg for brunch. The Blue Egg is operated by the same group that owns Maxie's and just opened earlier this month. Though the space was in an unimpressive strip mall, the food even surpassed last night, bumping off many meals on our best of trip list in the process.

Scott Lee ordered the Dubliner benedict, a mouthwatering combination of corned beef, leeks, poached egg and hollandaise sauce on top of rye bread. I had the seafood scramble, a melange of lightly fried seafood folded into scrambled eggs topped with a red sauce and aioli. While the food was great, it was the little things - the bottle of water left on the table, the bowl of grapes upon our seating in lieu of bread - that made this place worth writing about. if you are in Milwaukee, you can do a whole lot worse than this place.

Two activities were on the agenda today, order uncertain:  a Milwaukee Brewer's baseball game and the Miller/Coors brewery tour. Originally we had planned on doing the tour first since we got to sample three beers at the conclusion, a good baseline going into the game, but a longer than anticipated meal put us at Miller Park initially.

Good things about Miller Park: cheap parking, cheap brats, retractable roof, good seat layout, sausage races
Bad things about Miller Park: have to watch the Brewers, expensive merchandise, average brats, music played in-between pitches!

I know our respective teams are awful (D-Backs, Orioles), but watching Milwaukee play today was painful. The fact that it was the stupid Giants putting a beating on them for the second straight game made it doubly painful. The best part of the game were our seats - section 422, row 13, seats 7&8. I paid $1 for them on stubhub the night before (at the game as we were parking a horde of scalpers approached us and I asked them how business was - "bad" was the group response), but the best part about our seats occurred behind us when some kid with a neck tattoo proposed to a girl who looked to be around 18 via the scoreboard. His proud father, shirtless, looked happy. Amongst tears, she agreed.

Quick: what's the best free tour in the state of Wisconsin? Correct, the Miller brewery tour. Highlighted by the best 12-minutes of movie time I've seen in several days (a why Miller is great and why the moment your night goes from good to great is Miller Time propaganda-esque intro movie), the tour fascinated the John Gililian (= Free Beer + Supply Chain Awesomeness) in both of us. Did you know this particularly brewery (one of seven Miller plants in the U.S.) produces 500,000 cases of beer a day, most all of which is consumed by citizens of Chicago? Of course you didn't.

At the end of the tour everyone gets three samples of much needed beer; the first a mandatory taste of their best-selling Miller Lite, the other two drinkers choice. Scott Lee and I both incorrectly choose the Leinenkugel Summer Shandy, which is sweet and citrusy beyond most summer brews. Why is it that sweetness and fruit designate summer in the alcoholic beverage world? Order is quickly restored with a cold-filtered MGD and High Life. While we are enjoying our beers, a Miller worker comes by and attempts to sell us a welcome portrait they take of you before the tour begins, a la splash mountain climax shot. It is $21.change after tax. After we are done laughing at him, he tells us they probably sell 50 a day. We all laugh.

The final component of the tour is the gift shop, a smorgasbord of beer related merchandise and where Miller makes money by the handful. Of course, we contribute with me acquiring a shirt you'll see me wearing in Cleveland tomorrow while tormenting former fans of the local basketball team.

Like most everyone else on this planet, we are glued to the television at 9pm EST to see LBJ tear the hearts out of the citizens of Cleveland on national television. While disappointed neither of our predictions come true, we are giddy at the prospect of being in town tomorrow to 1) see the hatred firsthand, 2) buy cheap Cleveland James gear and 3) see Shaq try and crunch numbers to see if he can get a roster spot in Miami. Throw in the RnR HOF, grilled cheese sandwiches and a new road trip member and tomorrow will be a good, albeit long, day.

Meghann Glavin Highlight of the Day:

Scott Lee: Miller Time
Mike Ham: LBJ Death Blow

Tomorrow's Agenda:
Route: Milwaukee > Chicago > Toledo? > Cleveland
Estimated Distance: 432 miles
Estimated Time: 7 hours, 45 minutes

Day 8: It's pronounced Milly-wa-kay

"Is it me, or is it hot in here?"

When you can start your day with a traditional Ukrainian sausage, you do so, no questions asked. Our final recommended eatery (thanks again Marissa and Jason), is Kramarczuk's a market/restaurant specializing in traditional Eastern European foods. While not the end-all-be-all, this place was on Triple D, so it gets my stamp of approval already. We both get the Ukrainian sausage sandwich and share a plate of various varenyky, which are basically pierogi. Did I mention it's 10am?

The sausage is fantastic, but we agree the cheese on top is an unnecessary addition. The highlight of this meal however is the potato and cheese varenyky. Scott Lee, a pierogi connoisseur, states, "these are the best I've ever had" and "it's the skin that makes it good". We leave full, ready for the slow drive ahead.

Trouble brewing as the AC in the Benz is on it's last legs and humidity from the storms sets in. We resort to cracked windows and sunroof, which helps tremendously but let's the smell of Wisconsin (cow and beer) permeate the car. Madison comes slowly and the stop is appreciated as both of us are fading from the food and temperature. We had hoped to catch the end of the Germany-Spain match at the famous UW terrace but just missed it. The terrace is really impressive and something that every school should have, but this school still remains the impostor UW.

We power through the remaining hour and arrive in beautiful Milly-wa-kay as we'll been calling it which is Algonquin for the "good land". Tired and hot, we hang out in our room in the Hilton City Center, home of the first urban-indoor water park of its kind in America (Paradise Landing). It is sadly not available for our patronage during the week - I guess there is not a lot of demand for it from the business crowd. Our patience for dinner hurts us tonight; our first three choices are closed including the one we drive to that is suppose to be open but sends their kitchen staff home early due to slow business. They tell us the owner knows how to cook some of the simpler menu items, but we decline. We get bailed out by takeout from Maxie's, a stellar cajun/soul food spot with a persona I might incorporate in a future Glavin/Ham restaurant concept. For the first time this trip, our order greatly exceeds our appetite. Which is problematic because the food is delicious; gorging ensues. The banana cream pie is overkill and will undoubtedly set me back several days at the gym, assuming I actually go to the gym.

Pie, part ii.

The night is capped of with a viewing of Funny People, redeeming last Knight's movie (see stupid Hollywood producers, anyone can make a bad pun - it doesn't make it funny or necessary). Tomorrow is our last relaxing day until NYC, but I am stoked for the musical journey we are about to embark on.

Tomorrow's Agenda: 
Route: Milwaukee > Milwaukee
Estimated Distance: 0 miles
Estimated Time: 0 miles