When I awoke the next morning, my ears weren't ringing too much from the Stick Men show and my ladyfriend was next to me in bed. Truth be told, I am still getting used to waking up next to another human being as I'd lost that pleasure with my wife a few years back. But at least I had Piper - until just shy of a couple months ago - a friendly face first thing in the morning. Going to bed and waking up alone is just no fun. I so enjoy making coffee for someone, breaking their fast, and planning a day with a lovely lady.
This day was to start with coffee at ACOCA Cafe down on College Avenue. I'd meant to do so back in 2024 but did not for reasons lost in the mists of time and instead ended up going to Copper Rock Coffee Company. I find also that I never took a photograph of the ACOCA's red exterior which makes it really stick out. The owners did a reasonable job of overcoming the industrial ambience of the place and gave it a modicum of cozziness, er, coziness.
A nearby section of wall was devoted to paintings.
All of these cat pictures made me miss Piper. While I fully intended to adopt a new cat, I wasn't sure when I'd so. Dealing with Piper's death and my divorce simultaneously made me hesitant to adopt right away. Too many feelings and too many memories make it hard to think clearly, at times.
After breakfast we headed to Sunset Point Park in nearby Kimberly for a walk.
The first thing I noticed were the permanent cornhole boards. I'd never seen such things before but find them to be a fine idea.
The bathroom building was painted with a lovely rainbow sky-forest motif.
The scenic overlook was quite, well, scenic.
Just around the bend one could wander down to the river and see all the fancy houses on the shore.
A nearby squirrel looked down upon us letting us know that he was not too happy with the tourists.
A doe wandered by looking a bit mangy. She wandered across the grassy field and into the woods beneath the overlook.
It neared 10 o'clock so we returned to the car and headed out. Because my ladyfriend likes jerky, we made a bee line to All Things Jerky.
They go well beyond beef and have all manner of jerky such as venison, elk, alligator, camel, et al. I suppose a little kangaroo jerky is as close as I'll come to an Explorers Club dinner.
In addition to a wide variety of meats, they also offer sundry flavors such as pepper, teriyaki, dill pickle, Dr. Pepper something something, and so on.
The gentleman behind the counter was very friendly and broke the news that he is tired of the snow and heading for warmer climes. Thusly All Things Jerky was going to be on the market soon.
They also had hot sauce on offer including this one which made me chuckle and put "South of Heaven" in my head despite it being from the wrong album.
Our final stop was going to involve cats, if you can believe such a thing - The Pawffee Shop Cat Cafe.
We arrived a bit before our appointed hour and so got coffee and waited out the short time before we could go into the cats' half of the cafe.
When we went in, there were cats everywhere but so too were young children. The race was on to find cats to pet. I believe this one was under a bench and rather feisty so we were warned to steer clear.
This feline was relaxing at the top of a cat tree in the open and so she was liable to get lots of pets. Here she is trying to get the human stank off.
And this little lady was in her own private suite for reasons I cannot recall. Perhaps she was recovering from a feline illness and had to remain segregated from her brethren.
After petting various cats and watching kittens energetically scoot around the floor to the delight of toddlers, my heart ached for Piper and yearned for a cat of my own.
When our time with the cats was up, my ladyfriend and I headed home. On the one hand, I really missed Piper. On the other, I was able to shed my (admittedly mild) notions of Appleton as a place to go to get away from my wife and instead view it as the place I go to see Stick Men. It was really nice to be making pleasant, happy memories with someone new.
We didn't run into anymore lions with wings but we did wander by a mural with a chimeric cow. What do you call a cow with the head of a horse? A cowtaur? A hippoboûs?
And look at those rabbits.
They take on an extra layer of creepiness for me now that I am reading Absolution.
While writing these two posts on our venture to Appleton, I realized that I never wrote about my trip there in July 2024. The destruction of my marriage was in full-swing and, feeling blue, I didn't do a whole lot of writing. That and I was always off somewhere else, whether it be purely psychologically or physically too. Dread does not inspire me to write, I guess.
But I had a great time in Appleton. Not only was the Stick Men show great, but I wandered around the city and enjoyed my time there greatly.
There were ghost signs.
And lots of pelicans hanging out by the dam.
Jones Park had plenty of rabbits. (I didn't see a one eating a crab. Ever.)
I wandered what Google Maps calls the City Park Historic District and saw some lovely old homes which had turrets.
This one had a cat looking down upon me with derision.
The History Museum at the Castle had a neat Harry Houdini exhibit. Although born in Budapest, Houdini's family emigrated to the United States and settled in Appleton.
In the basement was a rail exhibit featuring a model rail setup of the old paper mill on the river.
And here's a quote from Emerson that was on the back of a store.
I don't know how it is that the Appleton Beer Factory attracts Stick Men but I am happy to make a trek up there every year or 2 to see them. Not too long after the show, a recording of it appeared on Dime just as the taper said it likely would.
I don't know of any bands of note from Appleton but here's a bit of garage rock from 1965 from Appleton's Denny & The Catalinas.
No comments:
Post a Comment