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Story and Photographs by Sarah Miller
My husband Eric and I have traveled extensively since meeting 13 years ago. We started with road trips, then graduated to a cruise and later flying to the Caribbean and Mexico. This year for our seventh anniversary, we decided to stay a little closer to home and take a “green” vacation to Wisconsin.
We hit the road early on a Thursday morning from our home in central Illinois heading north through sprawling corn and bean fields. As we cross the Wisconsin border, the scenery finally starts to change from flat farm fields to rolling green hills. We knew we were in the Cheese State from the large number of cow pastures that dotted the countryside.
Our first stop is Monroe, Wis., home of
Wisconsin’s oldest cheese store. The first
thing I notice upon entering are a variety of eclectic signs — one reads “Happy Hour 5:45 to Quarter to Six”. I order a cup of Baked Potato Corn Chowder and a Cheddar Cheese sandwich, which comes served on a square paper napkin. My sandwich is served cold, but Eric opts for a Hot Ham & Swiss, which gets heated in the microwave. We both try the horseradish mustard and like it so much we buy a bottle to
take home in addition to a few other items from the cheese shop. We’ve planned ahead and have an extra cooler for cheese and other snacks we plan to accumulate along the way.
Our next stop in Monroe, which is dubbed “Cheese City — U.S.A.”, is The Historic Cheesemaking Center. For a $2 donation, we take a 10- minute tour through the restored Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Depot to learn about the
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