Sometimes It's More Than the Sales

Husbola and I have recently returned from an antique show in Eagle River Wisconsin. We have done the show for a few years--and it is the first week of August way "up nort" in my childhood home state. The show has been around for 50 years--sponsored by the Rotary Club and promoted and run by our friends Joan and Jim Walter.

This show is an example of "you have to look at the whole package" kind of show.

Now--it is NOT a vacation. Nooooo--a vacation is not sitting in a large metal building for two days showing our wares. We really have lucked out over the years--the show is held in a surprisingly clean and well lit, snowmobile racing aerodrome Morton building kind of thing. Eagle River is know for fishing and boating and hunting and in the winters it become the snowmobile capital of the northwoods. That would not be a selling point for Husbola and me. But this show is the first week of August--and it has never been blazing hot.

The drive is long--really long. About 400 miles for us. But once you reach north of Tomahawk--the landscape changes from sand country woods to dense northwoods and we know we are a long way from home. Our travel takes us past the little town in which my grandparents owned a 30 acre Christmas Tree farm, past Wisconsin Rapids that used to smell like paper mills but doesn't anymore and on to Tomahawk WI. Tomahawk is home to the oldest standing Dog N Suds in America and there used to be a large wooden cigar store indian downtown. Travel takes us past Minoqua--home of the Paul Bunyon restaurant, the Waters resort that burned and was rebuilt several years ago--and has never been the same, and the wooden bleachers that you can watch the free water show from--but they are not wooden anymore.

Eagle River itself is pretty straighforward--from the weird guy who sells wild rice to the famous Bucktail Tavern. This tavern/restaurant is off the main drag and is full of locals--and drinks are served on a large varnished pine bar. Lon serves up a mean gin and tonic. If you go two days in a row--Lon will remember you when you walk in and have your drink waiting at your stool. Oh--and the walleye fry on Friday night--fresh hot and extra good with an order of hand dipped fried mushrooms. A once a year treat.

How about the Friendship Cafe? The waitress knows our order "two poached eggs medium on whole wheat toast". But Husbola fooled her on the last day and got french toast instead.

Driving home with Husbola at the wheel--we should really have a sign on the back of our truck that says "we brake for farmstands." By the time we got home--I was balanced between bags of peaches, two huge muskmelons, green beans, zucchini and tomatoes. Our favourite stand is in Hancock--the town that time has forgotten. It is still 1960 in Hancock--there is a farm stand in front of a home--we met the owners last year--and you get your produce and put the money in a can with the honor system. What a town. If an old crooked yeller dog ambled across our path--we would not have been surprised.

Oh yes--and there was a two day antique show and we sold antiques.