5 weeks and counting!

Touring model homes? Are you serious? I'm not driving an eight hour round trip, losing a day's pay from work, and spending $200 on a hotel to see model homes. With all due respect, this thread has been full of ideas, but I've yet to see an actual plan. Allow me to ask a blunt question, and I would appreciate an equally blunt answer, is there a plan for this weekend or not? If the "plan" is to enjoy Prairie du Chien on your own, I'm fine with that, but it would be nice to know in advance so that I can at least make my own plans for the weekend.
 
Patrick J. Martin said:
Touring model homes? Are you serious? I'm not driving an eight hour round trip, losing a day's pay from work, and spending $200 on a hotel to see model homes. With all due respect, this thread has been full of ideas, but I've yet to see an actual plan. Allow me to ask a blunt question, and I would appreciate an equally blunt answer, is there a plan for this weekend or not? If the "plan" is to enjoy Prairie du Chien on your own, I'm fine with that, but it would be nice to know in advance so that I can at least make my own plans for the weekend.
Click to expand...

Yes Patrick, from the beginning there was and is a plan in place.
 
Well that is just great. I had to get special permission from work to get time off for this since I used all my vacation time in Milwaukee.

Now one week before I am supposed to go, it is cancelled because no one can give a definite schedule of what is going on? I would think that if you are going to organize a meet, you would have this information well in advance, not keep coming up with new "suggestions" or changes every other week.

Yet there is no time for the things I suggested if ideas were needed, which are listed as top attractions for the area. Touring funeral and model homes are not.

Thank you for making me beg for time off, and now I will have to go back to my boss looking like an idiot because this has been cancelled one week before I am supposed to go. Hopefully the hotel reservations that were made can be cancelled as well.
 
"Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated"

That quote from Mark Twain seemed appropriate for a meet that was scheduled to take place along the Mississippi River. Its also appropriate for this announcement.

Don't go and cancel your plans and reservations just yet! The duo that brought you the Milwaukee International Meet will be picking up the pieces here and reorganizing it into the Illini Chapter Fall Driving Tour. All PCS members are welcome to attend regardless of chapter affiliation. The dates of October 18-20 will remain unchanged.

Stay tuned here as details are announced!
 
Stay Tuned Everyone.

This meet will be happening. Patrick and I were up late last night getting everything organized, and we should have the full itinerary posted sometime today.

It will include some of the original ideas, some new ideas, and none of the ideas anyone objected to. We are just getting the details finalized before we post it.
 
Ok everyone, after a weekend marathon planning session, I'm pleased to announce the itinerary for the Illini Chapter Fall Driving Tour/Great Upper Midwest Chapter Meet. Everyone is welcome to attend regardless of chapter affiliation, and you may come and go as you please without necessarily attending every event. So, the plan for the weekend is:

Friday Oct. 18 -

The driving tour/meet will kick off at noon in Potosi, Wisconsin for a visit to the National Brewery Museum. Also in the same complex is the Potosi Brewing Company Transportation Museum, showing how beer has been transported over the centuries. This stop will also double as our lunch stop at the onsite brewpub restaurant.

Depart Potosi no later the 3:00 PM for the drive to Prairie du Chien in order to catch the 4:30 PM Mississippi River cruise. The cruise lasts two hours, and upon returning we'll venture over to Fort Mulligan's Grillpub for dinner.

Saturday Oct. 19 -

We'll depart the hotel at 10:00 AM for a short drive to McGregor, Iowa for a boat tour of the flooded Spook Cave. We'll then drive through the scenic Pikes Peak State Park, which can double as a photo shoot location, on our way back to Prairie du Chien. Upon returning, we'll go to Pete's Hamburger's for lunch, and then the Fort Crawford Museum for displays on medical history, military history, and local history. Villa Louis, a restored Italian Villa style mansion now open as a house museum, will conclude our afternoon. Dinner will follow at The Barn restaurant. Being the Halloween season, if anyone is interested, an after dinner activity could be a visit to what is billed as being one of the scariest haunted houses in Wisconsin.

Sunday Oct. 20 -

We'll have a group farewell breakfast buffet at Huckleberry's Restaurant. Those travelling back to Illinois may want to join Mark and I as we stop in Middleton, Wisconsin on the way home to visit the National Mustard Museum. A past Illini Chapter Driving Tour stopped at the Mustard Museum a couple years ago, but the museum has since moved and this will be our first visit to their new location.

Any questions, feel free to contact Illini Chapter President Patrick Martin, and I wish to extend my thanks to member Mark Novak for being co-host of this weekend.
 
Just some quick additional information.

The Mississippi Explorer, the Friday riverboat cruise, suggests arriving 25 minutes prior to boarding, so that would be 4:05 P.M. on Friday

They also suggest booking online so that your seat will be guaranteed. You can also purchase tickets at their ticket booth in person, but that is only if they have available space after the online reservations are taken.

Patrick and I have already booked our tickets. Ticket info is available here. Under online reservations, select Prairie Du Chien 10/18/13 for the 4:30 P.M. Sunset Wildlife Cruise:

http://www.mississippiexplorer.com/ports/port-prairie-du-chien.php

Additional info for some of the other tour stops can be found at their websites

Fri

Brewery Museum
http://www.potosibrewery.com/

Sat

Spook Cave
http://spookcave.com/

Pete's Hamburgers
http://www.travelchannel.com/video/boiled-burgers-at-petes

Fort Crawford
http://www.fortcrawfordmuseum.com/

Villa Louis
http://villalouis.wisconsinhistory.org/
 
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