The Wanderful + Emotibles The Many Moods of Mister Design Contest is now over. We had a lot of fun handing out Emotibles across the nation, but equally fun was the ability to design Emotibles online BASED ON OUR DOG! The contest, which was Mister inspired, was the neatest thing to us and we’re happy to have worked with such a creative company on this one. Mister had fun, strangers in the street had fun, and unsuspecting Emotibles fans had fun as well. After 805 entries, I’d say the contest was a success.

Hey guys, I started writing a short post for the Daily Photo, and was planning to write something here - instead the Daily Photo post turned out to be the longest post ever. Click HERE to read that one.

In other news: PLEASE email us or leave a comment with your T@B questions/inqueries. We posted a call for questions last week and have received only two questions so far for our T@B Tour video. What kind of crap is that?! I know you want to know “Where do you keep all your belongings in such a small space?!?!” and “Does that thing have a shower?!?” Well, we can’t answer those questions until you ASK US. ASK NOW!

Let’s get us some equal rights, dammit.

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If I were to ask you who has worse gas, Mark or myself, who would you choose?

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Thanks to Waterslidegate last Thursday, Mark and I had to spend the whole day attempting to defuse the situation and missed out on a quick trip to Minneapolis. We were going to head in there around 1pm, stay until 8 or so and then get on the road to the Badlands. But of course that didn’t happen…

Instead we camped out that evening at some blaaah KOA, twenty miles outside of the city and watched the vice presidential debate online, we also ate Thai food and Chipwiches so it turned out to be a good night. The next day we woke up late as always. Mark thinks it has something to do with the T@b because we can never seem to get up earlier than 9:30, and most of the time it’s after 10. We blame you Wanda the T@b, for being too comfortable. Check out was at 12pm so of course we were late doing that as well and eventually we were on the road and looking for some breakfast.

So this is where it begins: Eggs benedict (with no meat, thank you) is my favorite food, EVER. We began this road trip on September 1st, it was October 3rd and I hadn’t come across any eggs benedict on the trip thus far. Mark found a Chowhound review on some eggs benedict meals in Minneapolis and everyone seemed to love Al’s tart and lemony hollaindaise sauce over at Al’s restaurant. Looking at the review on my iPhone my mouth began to water “TO AL’S WE GO!” Oh no! Al’s closes in 20 minutes! So I called ahead - “Aaaaalll’s Breakfast!” said the guy on the other end.
“Hi, what time do you guys close?”
“1pm but if you’re on line by 1 you will get food.”
“A line?”
“Yes. A line.”
“Do you have eggs benedict?”
“Yes best eggs bene in town. See you soon, Katie.”
“How do you know my name?”
“Al’s knows all.”
We somehow arrived at Al’s before 1pm. I think because the fear of me whining all day if I didn’t get those eggs bene fueled Mark to drive like I’ve never seen him drive before. We made it past twenty minutes of traffic lights in five minutes, WITH Wanda in tow. I didn’t even have to help him find Al’s “THERE IT IS GET OUT GETOUTGETOUT!” He opened the passenger door and shoved me out. Leaving me in his dust. Would I ever see him again?

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Woke up this morning on a bluff overlooking the convergence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers.  Saw a bajillion stars last night.  Even saw stars beyond the stars.  While savoring the heat of a campfire, heard wolves communicate across the expanse below with howls.  One of the howls sounded so close that we had to run and leap inside the T@B.  Might have seen a bald eagle yesterday, not sure.  October is looking promising.

It was only a week ago that Katie and I sat at the dinner table with my Grandma, looking over black and white photos in her dusty albums. There had been times in the past where Grandma would show me colorful, forgotten pictures of my childhood. Often, she would remind me of the songs we sang together in back of the car, or whisper how my parents felt about my behavior at a certain moment, forever captured in a photograph. Last week was especially dear to me because Grandma clasped my hand and told the story I hadn’t been lucky enough to hear: the story of her own life.
The three of us spent hours flipping pages in photo albums as Grandma’s memories sparked and came to life. Though Katie and I learned many things we’ll never forget, it was the tale of Grandma’s travels to Devil’s Lake 68 years ago that inspired us to travel to the most popular State Park in Wisconsin. We wanted to see if the setting of Grandma’s memories had sustained the test of time. According to the story, she had gone with her husband, Monroe, and her two daughters at the time, Louise and Sharon. They had planned to spend a whole week canoeing, hiking, and camping, but on the third day Grandma fell ill and the vacation was cut short. She woke that morning with half her face paralyzed. It didn’t regain feeling for ten long days.
The end of the story was sad, but the pictures taken before illness struck attested to a young family having a wonderful time together. Katie and I knew we had to check it out for ourselves. We, of course, brought along our chihuahua “son,” Mister.

Let me tell you, Devil’s Lake is awesome!

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Wanda!!! Woohoo! So we knew right away after reading Anne Prince’s T@b name suggestion (apparently the first one made) that Wanda was the perfect name. I told my pal Kate to guess which name we chose and she said “Well definitely not Wanda or Tabitha, because those are too obvious.” Listen, when we’re driving down some random interstate, sometimes the jeep goes fast enough that I have to shout “Holy poop! Is Wanda still attached to us!??!!” And it fit so perfectly we decided to keep it. So sorry to all those who suggested other fabulous names like Lola, Pluie, Clementine, Claudia Cardinale, Munchie, etc. etc. Those were all great, but Wanda really fit and so Wanda it is. Congratulations Anne Prince, we’ll be sending you a package of goods in the next week (keep an eye on the mail).

We felt bad because Anne Prince is sort of our pal, really she’s the VP of the Stopkatie.com fan club (if one were to exist), so we wanted to send out a prize to at least one other person. But how? Pick a runner-up? No that makes no sense, runners-up never win anything in other contests, and unless we find nude photos of Anne Prince somewhere online and have to take her title of ‘Wanderful T@B Namer’ away, the runner-up in this contest would also get nothing. Then yesterday something happened: Our Mio GPS has had the same voice for the past month, Samantha, some robot chick who really got under my skin. First of all, she would always take us to the wrong place, sometimes miles out of our way. Sometimes I’d be talking to Mark and she would interrupt - seriously Samantha??? We’d get in arguments all the time, “PERFORM U TURN NOW, PERFORM U TURN NOW!!!!” It got to the point where even if she would just tell us to make a left I would yell something back at her. But yesterday Mark changed the voice. I swear the first time she said “Please perform a U Turn when possible” “WOW! Who is this pleasant new lady!?” “Oh, she’s just US Voice Female.” “What should we name her?” “I don’t know, let’s pick from the T@b name list.” We went back over the list and picked Penny as our name for the Mio GPS. So congrats to Jenny! Woo hoo! Okay so now both of you need to send us your address, I believe you’ve both got my email.

Anyway, speaking of the T@b, Wanda and our road trip were written up on ApartmentTherapy.com last Friday and it’s been bringing a lot of new readers to Wanderful. We couldn’t be more excited and I’m glad a lot of people have been leaving us comments on places to visit - one chick even offered to let us park in front of her house, shower there and she’ll take us on a tour of the area once we get there. Here’s a link to the story: House Tour: Mark and Katie’s Cross-Country T@B Trip. Alex, who we wrote about here, wrote a really nice post for us and we’re super thankful for everything she’s done for us.  Woo hoo!

Traffic is a killer heading into Milwaukee. Did you know this? I didn’t expect in the least to be stuck idling on the interstate just a few miles outside of the city. I figured Milwaukee was one of those sleepy cities where a few commuters go about at their leisure. Turns out it’s got all the traffic of a major metro area.
But of course Milwaukee is known for something much more splendid than traffic jams. Katie rubbed her hands together in the passenger seat as we inched into the city, smiling devilishly and whispering, “Beer, beer, beer, beer.” Yes, it’s true. We had scouted out breweries on the internet the night before, looking for the perfect tour. The Miller Brewery was free, but who wants corporate beer? Not us. We like beer brewed from the heart, made with spit and sweat and blood…and then filtered. That’s why we chose the Lakefront Brewery. The tour wasn’t scheduled to start until 3 p.m., so we took advantage of the first half of the day by exploring the town a bit.
Hordes of German immigrants populated Milwaukee in the mid 1800’s. They brought to the city an appreciation for fine architecture (and authentic brewing practices) that still stands today. They sure knew how to slant a roof, didn’t they?

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Before I say anything, you should know that tomorrow is the day to announce the winner of our contest Name That T@B! Any late-entry suggestions for what to name our RV can be left in a comment to this post.

Now, these kinds of days come around, it’s true.  Days when I spend four hours and 63 quarters washing three and a half weeks worth of laundry.  When Katie locks herself in the T@B and updates her clients’ websites from sunup long into night.  When Mister complains about the cold weather and burrows under the blanket to sleep with his favorite toy in mouth.  It’s days like these that the T@B feels most like home.
Today is the kind of day when we shuffle through bright aisles in rhythm to a grocery store soundtrack of funk classics.  When we cook a simple but startlingly satisfying meal on the double-burner stove, after having spent an hour ripping through various instruction manuals trying to figure out how to light the darn thing.  When I remember that I left the propane tank on and cease typing mid-sentence to rush outside and shut the valve.  When I convince Katie to take a break from work to ride hydro-bikes on the lake, where we watch as the sun sinks, turning the sky pink and orange.  When Katie says, “I’m much happier now than I was at this time last year,” and we fantasize about road-tripping for the rest of our lives.
Listen, yesterday wasn’t quite like this.  We went to Milwaukee.
I’ll tell you about it soon.  Here’s an exclusive excerpt from the first draft of tomorrow’s post. The publisher consented to have this leaked on the internet :

Whenever Katie and I see a Cracker Barrel on the highway, we have to stop to eat there. It brings back memories of summer road trips with our families when we were younger.   Did you know they serve breakfast all day, but will only serve oatmeal until 10 a.m?  Our utmost we tried, but Katie and I couldn’t get ourselves to Cracker Barrel in time for oatmeal.  Well, yesterday we succeeded.

What do you think?  Dynamite, right?
Prepare yourself for Milwaukee.