I just got back from my first business trip in my new job. I went to a sales meeting (as part of the marketing team) in Rice Lake and Hayward, Wisconsin. I flew into Minneapolis and drove through a very rural part of Northwest Wisconsin. Several of the towns I drove through had populations of 500.
Since it was lunchtime and I was looking for something to eat, it seemed like a town needed a population of at least 2000 before it had anything resembling commerce (gas station, restaurant). I stopped at a Cheese Shop (there are many of these in Wisconsin) that was also an Italian Deli for a sandwich of Italian meats and cheese. I sat and ate my lunch outside and watched several red-winged blackbirds fly around the pond.
I made it to the meeting at the tail end of Tuesday’s presentations, but I was in time for the pontoon boat scavenger hunt. We had to find a lily pad, catch a fish, identify drinks at two of the lakeside bars, dance in a Conga line, as well as many other things. The boat I was on won by 10 points. We all got T-shirts at the restaurant we ate dinner at, the original Famous Dave’s BBQ.
The next day, we had more meetings, we drove back to the client’s facility and stopped off at Miller’s Cheese Shop for some 2 year aged Cheddar before heading back to Minneapolis. I flew out the next morning.
