Day 19 – Madison

We woke up in Minnesota to a cloudy day and a 373 mile drive ahead of us. Coming near the end of our road trip, we weren’t going to let those things stand in our way. Sometimes you need to buck up, and this was that morning. In the end, it wasn’t that hard. 373 miles seems like nothing these days, and a couple cups of coffee and some quality musical selections and we were enjoying the drive like always.

We reached Madison, Wisconsin at around 1:30 in the afternoon. Our host for the day was my friend Brian Braun. Brian and I coached hockey together when he lived in Pennsylvania. He’s an awesome person who had come to the Lehigh Valley five or six years ago from Madison for his job. A few months back, his job took him back to Wisconsin. We also became good friends with Brian’s parents, Dan and Liz, who offered up their house in Madison for us to stay in for the night. It turned out that Dan and Liz were on a road trip of their own (Spain … nice!) during our one night stay. We were sad to miss them. (Liz left little notes for us all over their house, which was really funny and really sweet.)

So many experiences on this road trip have been about the unexpected, and maybe more than any other time during these three weeks, our stop in Madison had one of the best. More on that in a little bit.

As I said, Madison was cold and cloudy, but that didn’t deter us. Brian gave us the tour. Yet another Frank Lloyd Wright house sitting comfortably in a suburban neighborhood, a view of Madison from the other side of the Lake Manona, then back to the state capitol building, which is magnificent. We went to the observation deck and got a look at the city.

Then, the important stuff.

A trip to the Kohl Center and La Bahn arena … home of Wisconsin Badger Ice Hockey. The Kohl Center was set up for basketball (yawn) but the La Bahn arena held a magnificent sheet of pristine ice, just waiting for skates, sticks, and pucks. Wisconsin has had it’s share of Ice Hockey Olympians, two of which have special honor at the arena: Bob Suter and Mark Johnson, members of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” Gold Medal hockey team. Mark Johnson currently coaches the Badgers Women’s Team. Bob Suter tragically died not long ago, but had great hockey connections to the Madison community. His son Ryan Suter plays in the NHL for the Minnesota Wild. (More on that in a second.)

Next was dinner at a brew pub, Ale Asylum. Excellent choice. Lots of home crafted beers with names like Hopalicious and Ambergeddon. As Brain and I sipped from a sampler of six beers, Laura asked Brian what he was drinking and he deadpanned, “The tears of my enemies.”

By this time we were pretty beat. Almost 400 miles of driving, an afternoon of touring, a meal in our stomachs. We told Brian we were done, we’d love to crash back at the house. Brian said fine … but we need to make one more stop. In a few minutes we pulled into a strip mall and were thinking what the hell are we doing here?

That’s when the outstanding unexpected experience I mentioned earlier was presented to us—especially outstanding to hockey nuts like me, Max, and Brian. We walked into Suter’s Gold Medal Sports, the most awesome of hockey pro shop I’ve ever been in. Yes, maybe I’ve been in bigger stores, or newer ones … but never one that said “this is hockey” more than this one. Cluttered. Jammed with hockey gear and apparel. Every square inch occupied by the DNA of hockey. The kicker is that the store is run by Mary Suter, the wife of Olympian Bob Suter, who I mentioned earlier. She was incredible. So friendly. Friends with Brian. We had the shop to ourselves. Us and Mary. We stayed and talked together for a long time. What a wonderful way to finish the afternoon.

Thank you Brian, Dan and Liz! We miss you already.


Song of the day: “Won’t Give In” by The Finn Brothers.

2 comments

Beer, hockey and then a golden meeting. The stars have aligned. The picture in the heart of the pro shop does not do any justice to the intensity of moment with the smell of hockey equipment and the meeting of hockey royalty. OK the state capital was cool too but not as rewarding as the notch you have put on your hockey memory stick. Long live the great finds that can not be scripted or planned for!

dbeedle@mac.com

Jack, you are awesome. Thanks for all you’re great comments. Especially this one! See you soon.

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