We left the resort on Sunday after the wedding exhausted and starving which left us no choice but to search for food. This was a rather difficult task considering Northern Wisconsin doesn't have too many options much less options on our way home and visible. Most are hidden in the backwoods only for locals or common tourists to find. So we relied on our handy dandy Garmin to aid us in this task to cure us of extreme levels of hunger.
This posed somewhat of a problem. Our Garmin may not be the most reliable source. First, who knows what type of place it will bring us to. We could end up at a 5 star resort or to a back bar that is only to be seen in scary movies. In my mind at this point the second option was highly more likely than the first.
But after the many twists and turns, ups and downs, side roads, back roads, main roads, off roads...blah blah blah and even getting lost a few times (yes even with the Garmin) we found Jo-Mamas.
Yes out of all the options we decided to be adventurous and choose Jo-Mamas from the list of names that popped up.
Pulling up made me a little scared... It looked tiny and desolate. Walking in made me even a little more nervous b/c it was stuffy and hot and even a little smokey. Smoke from the kitchen not cigarettes thank goodness. But it was busy and friendly and we found out that they had never ending pancakes for only $7!
Yep the pancakes sealed the deal.
The food ended up being delicious, the services very good and the best yet is that we met a new friend.
I can't remember his real name but they call him, Hap. Hap for always being happy. He sat at the table next to us and struck up a conversation with us after one of our trivia answers from a stack of cards happen to be A Siamese cat. And he just happens to have adopted one.
This friendly conversation starter led us to learn that Hap is a towny local who lives on 3 acres and only pays $82 a year in property taxes. He was in the Air Force and by the sounds of it he has almost lived in every state and moved about every three years. He hasn't cooked in almost 7 years and goes to Jo Mamas or another local diner every day. He snow blows for his neighbors in the winter, has bad rotator cuffs and can no longer golf. He worked in maintenance his whole life which is probably why he has bad shoulders. Oh and he also has tendonites and I want to say carpal tunnel.
I could have sat there talking to him for hours... and I really don't think he would have minded. But we did finally leave after Steve only ate 5 large pancakes. I was a little disappointed in his efforts to get his money worth from the never ending pancakes.
But our sleepy friend Dave made a good point. In this world of technology, too many times people just stare at their phone, iPad, or computer and don't ever cease the day and strike up random friendly conversations with those around us.
That's going to be my new goal b/c meeting Hap just happened to be the highlight of my day.
Oh and coming home and seeing a middle aged man, standing on the sidewalk outside his house, dressed in a wife-beater, shorts, socks, sandles, hair all bed-headed out, racing his remote control car.
By himself.
Classy.
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