Baldwin

 

      After I got my hair done, C and I decided we wanted to do something fun. We decided to drive to Baldwin. Baldwin is a small town in western Wisconsin We thought we'd have some lunch there and go to a store I heard about. 

   Baldwin has memories for me. When I was a child and  my family travelled to my grandparent's farm, we went through Baldwin Sometimes we would stop to eat at the A&W restaurant just outside of town. I knew when we got to Baldwin that we were halfway to the farm..

   C and I drove into Baldwin and drove past the windmill. It looked like the same windmill I remember driving past as a child. It's not a working windmill. It looks more like the windmill you see on boxes of potato chips.  

   Both of us were hungry so the first thing to do was get lunch. We found a bar and grill on the main street, parked and went inside. There was one guy playing pool and a few people at the bar. The minute we walked in everyone stared at us. I knew what that meant. We had just found the local watering hole. 

   We were obviously from out of town, We were dressed differently and I obviously had my hair done. We were both carrying  fancy cell phones. Clearly, we were city folk. We walked across the wood dance floor and sat down in a wooden booth. Once we sat down, people went back to drinking and watching the Brewers game on the big screen TVs above the bar. The top of the table was sticky. That confirmed it. We were in the local bar.

   The menu was about what I expected: burgers, chicken strips and pizza. There was also a large appetizer menu which included my personal favourite, jalapeno cream cheese poppers. Experience has taught me that the best thing to get at a place like this is a hamburger. Both of us got hamburgers. C got fries and I got onion rings. This is another thing I learned from experience. Generally local bars tend to have good onion rings.

   While we waited we sipped at our drinks. C had a root beer and I had a diet cola. This was another thing that made us stick out. Everyone had a beer or other form of alcohol in front of them. It could have been uncomfortable, but I didn't mind. 

   The bar tender brought out a carrier with our sauces. They were all in large plastic squeeze bottles with small nozzles. There was the usual ketchup and mustard. There was also barbeque sauce, mayonnaise, ranch dressing and some potent hot sauce. I was pleased that we had chosen to eat here. A few minutes later our food arrived. The burgers were the perfect size. I put ketchup and mustard on my burger and took a bite. Wonderful. I ate an onion ring. Perfect. Just the right amount of crunch and not to greasy.  C and I happily ate out food.

   Once we had eaten and paid the bill, we got into our car and drove to the shop. It's outside of Baldwin and called The Paisley Cow. I had heard about it from several friends. We knew we had the right place when we saw a cow statue with the name out front. We parked and went inside.

   It was a large store with rooms off the main part of the store. The first thing I noticed were shoes. Not common shoes, Cute shoes and sandals. There was a whole room of shoes with a couple racks of colorful socks in the main part of the store. 

   Walking further into the store I saw a wall with hats and fascinators. I looked at them carefully. The hats and fascinators were nice, but there was nothing I wanted. Next to the hats I found a rack of wrap skirts. They are made from discarded fabric from India. They came in lots of bright colours. There were a couple that I liked, but they were too short or too long. I saw another nice one that was just the right length. I left it in the rack and looked at more stuff.

   I found some ball caps, wall hangings and a small section of sensory blankets for babies. I saw jewelry, natural makeup and a large selection of essential oils. I saw handmade lotions and other body care items. There were all kinds of different things. Everything had the look of being unique or handmade.

   C found a few pairs of socks he liked.  I went back to the wrap skirt and showed him. He thought it looked all right. I decided to buy it. It was different from other skirts that I had and would be cool in the warm weather.

   We had a nice chat with the lady who rang us up. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the skirt was on sale. We had such a good experience there that we decided we would come back there if we were ever in the area. It will be interesting to see what season things they carry.