Milwaukee, Wisconsin…home of the Brewers. And I don’t mean the baseball team. Shlitz, Blatz, and Pabst put Milwaukee on the beer map years ago. The Harley Davidson Museum is now a tourist attraction for motorcycle riders from all parts of the globe. They have their world headquarters and a factory there. 

The old brewery buildings downtown have been converted to upscale condominiums. The city also converted other industrial buildings along the river into trendy shops and restaurants, creating the River Walk. It was hard to look at the old brewery buildings and not think about Laverne and Shirley.

 Milwaukee was our first stop on our cross-country motorcycle trip. Our friends Greg and Brenda made the first leg of the ride with us and did the museum tour at HD. Cathryn tried out one of the bikes to get the real feel of riding a hawg, then her and I took a ride along the lakefront, where they set had off 4th of July fireworks the night before.

We stayed in the Astor, an old hotel downtown that has been refurbished to include trendy apartments.

I was amazed at the beautiful 18th century buildings that have been preserved and blended into the downtown landscape. There are stone churches and city buildings dating from the early 1800`s. C and I strolled the River Walk and sampled a couple of the bars and restaurants. We chose Rock Bottom for dinner and brought Greg and Brenda there. It`s a Brewpub with a great menu and beautiful patio overlooking the river.

We followed the old Chicago Road from Detroit, U.S. 12, until we ran into the scary south side of Chicago. Gary Indiana wasn`t any better, it made the blight in Detroit look good.

Greg and Brenda headed back home from Milwaukee. Cathryn and I have continued west and are now about four hours out of Deadwood, South Dakota.