CTCC
Fall Tour October 16-18, 2015
The Thunderbirds were already parked in a row when we
arrived at the Belvidere Oasis on Interstate 90 Friday, October 16. The group already inside included Ed Levin
and Rose Kovalenko, Ken and Kathy Smizinski, Len and Mary Keil, Lloyd and Joan
Schellin, Joel Greenberg and Annie Luginbill, Len and Irene Vinyard, Tom and
Judy Bruin, Liz and Bill Werth, Larry and Karen Kelly. Jerry and Pat Peterson, Bob and Barb Sroka,
Bob and Helen Hoge, and Madeline Zambon soon arrived at the Oasis. Madeline
parked her Thunderbird Blue retro Bird next to ours, appearing as twins in
the parking lot.
After a brief rest/gas stop in Orangeville, Illinois we
cruised to our first destination, New Glarus, Wisconsin. The group had time for antique shopping and
downtown sightseeing before lunch at the historic New Glarus Hotel. An addition
to the traditional Swiss and German food was Larry, our accordion player. Larry
played traditional, sing-along songs. We
sang and clapped, Larry remarked that we were the best audience he had ever
had. Bert and Jane Eisenhour from Iowa
City, Iowa arrived as we were finishing lunch.
At that point, we had participants from three states on our tour as
Madeline now lives in Indiana.
Our next stop was the Epic Campus in Verona, Wisconsin. The campus is valued at half a billion
dollars. Epic is the provider of health
care software to hospitals and clinics. Kaiser Permanente Health System in
California is a major customer. The Google Model campus has been designed as a themed playground for the
employees. Buildings were interesting,
on many levels, and artwork was all over.
The cafeteria featured healthful fare for employees, many of them biking
to work. Computers were accessed in
multiple private offices. Three Epic
guides led three separate groups on tours.
After leaving Epic, we checked in at our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express
in Verona. Friday night was the Pizza Party in the Badger Room of the Holiday
Inn.
Saturday morning after breakfast buffet at the hotel we
toured the home of Jim and Marlene Korb in Madison. Jim has standard gauge and O gauge Lionel
model train layouts in multiple rooms on three floors of his home and an even
larger layout in the carriage house. As
many as four trains ran simultaneously with lights and whistles on the
different layouts which all had scale model buildings and scenery. Walls were covered with shelves of complete
trains. Marlene Korb had more Hummel
figurines than she could count, both large and very small. The Korbs had lunch for us in their dining
room.
Next stop was the New Glarus Brewing Company. Some toured the brewery, others visited the
store on the premises for spotted cow and other beer varieties. Saturday night we met for dinner at Grays Tied
House in Verona. We sat at a long table
in a private dining room.
Sunday morning we cruised 50 miles to Freeport, Illinois to
visit the 101 year old historic Union Dairy for great ice cream
selections. Adjacent to the dairy is a
park that held one of the Lincoln/ Douglas debates. We read the plaques with information relative
to the event and said our good byes as this was the last stop of the tour. We left the caravan as we headed south on
Interstate 39. Joel had the repair kit
but as far as we know, there were no mechanical hiccups. Thanks to Bob and Helen Hoge for
planning and leading the tour.
Jim and Jane Wilson
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