Sitting in a motel room in Green Bay, Wisconsin pondering the plans for our first really somewhat normal day. It should have been yesterday after a Wednesday night arrival. Unfortunately United had other plans.
I lean towards patience with companies that function at the mercy of weather and such but sitting in Cleveland, awaiting our last hop to Wisconsin, only to be told our flight was cancelled because the crew had "timed out"? Really? A half hour before takeoff and you figure this out? There were eight of us and we were tired. To the airline's credit, they bought us a night at the Howard Johnson but when the "shuttle" arrived at the curb, it proved too small for all of us, let alone luggage and the stroller/car seat contraption that the Toppings are dragging about plus one seat didn't have a seatbelt..."no no no...it's good" "But there's no seatbelt and my son needs to be buckled in'. 'No no no...it's good". "NO!...I'll put in the other seat". "OK OK OK..that's good". So Monica rode to the motel sitting in the seat with no belt. We slept fast and were up prior to the crack of dawn for a seven o'clock flight replacement to Green Bay, then had our rental car and were checked into our real hotel by nine in the morning.
After settling in and gathering our thoughts, we headed to the University of Wisconsin so I could start some research that will help me locate information on two of my mom's siblings. No luck on the sister for whom I lack a birth date in order to choose the correct documents on Ancestry.com but I hope to find something when we go to the research center in Eau Claire where the family lived.
Uncle Charlie has proven to be more interesting than expected. I came across the court documents for his divorce proceedings including the transcript where much dirty linen was aired. On a high note, the documents included paperwork showing where he was working when wages were attached for child support he skated on....*sigh*...THIS I didn't expect.
When Charlie's brother, my Uncle Joe, died in 1954, the obit referred to survivors and mentioned Charlie as being in Milwaukee. This was today's project, drive to Milwaukee. We tracked down the library and searched through death records and city directories with no luck; no sign that Charlie had ever lived there. The library was fabulous, a glorious limestone building with amazing marble staircases so much like Hogwarts that I expected the stairways to swivel and deposit Harry Potter. Even the unsuccessful research was worth the trip to this building.
We spotted the original Pabst Brewery so wandered the area a bit to check out the buildings before tracking down a brew pub and have dinner and a tasty ale before heading back to Green Bay.
The title song has been popping into my head these last few days and, after I thought about my family connections, it just fit.
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