Canada/West 2022:
Day 2 - Trempealeau

	Thursday, August 11, 2022: We awoke to a beautiful day, ...
	... and ate the leftover chicken and rolls from last night's dinner for breakfast.
	We headed west across the Wisconsin-Minnesota border on the Mississippi River, ...
	... through the rolling hills of southeastern Minnesota, ...
	... past beautifully sculpted fields of corn and beans.
	These fields appear to almost be manicured, with freshly cut grass dividing the different crops in the fields.
	Just before noon, we were driving down a gravel road, ...
	... bearing signs warning us not to spray the organic crops, ...
	... and turning on to the lane which leads to ...
	... the Myrahs' farm.
	We were immediately greeted by Marley, a very good boy.
	Janna came out to welcome us and to explain that Marley was her daughter Amy's dog, and to make sure that he wasn't being a nuisance.
	He took an immediately liking to Debbie, who declared him to be a "very good dog," which is her highest praise.
	Inside were Debbie's brother, Doug, and his wife, Susan, who were talking with Janna's husband, Len. Doug and Susan had flown into the Twin Cities earlier in the week and arranged to meet us here.
	After catching up for a little while, we headed into the kitchen for lunch. Janna had promised us her "sandwich of the day," which turned out to be delicious pulled pork, accompanied by fresh cole slaw, potato chips, melon, grapes, and watermelon.
	During lunch, talk turned to their son Christian's distillery, and Janna asked if we'd read any of the messages on the inside of the labels.
	Here's Len holding a bottle of Barrel Roll Rye, which features a picture of him entering the cockpit of his Navy fighter plane back in the days when he and Janna first became friends with Debbie and Doug's parents in San Diego.
	As we were getting ready to leave, Debbie saw this beautiful antique book on a table near the front door. Janna said that it had belonged to her father.
	Doug gave Marley one last rub as we all piled into our vehicles for the drive ...
	... into Spring Grove, ...
	... past the Syttende Mai Hus, ...
	... to Rockfilter Distillery. Christian had opened the distillery so that Doug could see it, and so that Christian could see both Debbie and Doug again. They used to play together when they were children and Debbie's family would come visit for a couple of days each summer.
	While Christian discussed the intricacies of making bourbon with Doug and Len, ...
	... we admired the tasting room.
	On display at the bar were Rockfilter's current offerings. From left to right are: Stone's Throw (bourbon), Rail Splitter (bourbon), Fence Jumper (bourbon), Barrel Roll (rye), and Red Rider (rye).
	Janna and Debbie peeked into the office area ...
	... to say hi to Honky Cat Stevens.
	He sees you and invites you to come in and give him some pets.
	It's a distillery, and tractors are somehow involved. Check.
	Real-life Christian showed the distilling tanks to Doug, ...
	... while cardboard-cutout Christian hung out in an adjacent room.
	We filled in the gaps in our collection and even managed to score a bottle of the brand new Black Hammer bourbon. A t-shirt with a portrait of Honky Cat Stephens came home with us too.
	What a good looking family!
	As we were getting ready to depart, Doug and Debbie did their usual Debbie taking a picture of Doug taking a picture of Debbie, ...
	... but this time, Tom got a picture of them doing it.
	We left Spring Grove on the History Bluff Country Scenic Byway, ...
	... and headed for Trempealeau, Wisconsin, home of our favorite giant catfish.
	We pulled into Carol's driveway and admired her freshly-mowed lawn, ...
	... and Debbie's uncle Mark's signboard baseball cap. It was announcing that it was happy hour, ...
	... so we obeyed his hat immediately.
	We decided to head to a nearby restaurant for dinner. Mark looked both ways before crossing the main street or maybe he didn't.
	Here's Tom carefully crossing the busiest street in downtown Trempealeau.
	We went to the Trempealeau Hotel, ...
	... a very nice restaurant, bar, and hotel right on the Mississippi River.
	We made a note of their beer selection before being seated.
	Debbie took this opportunity to send a selfie to Stewart and Lyndsay to notify them that she had found Doug and Susan and that we were still on our way to their engagement part in 2 1/2 weeks.
	We had a nice table for six in their not-quite-indoors but not-quite-outdoors section.
	All of the windows were open, which provided a nice breeze.
	There are train tracks between the hotel and the river, and we had tried to guess how many trains would go by while we had dinner. Here's one going by now.
	Debbie ordered the salmon bowl, which she declared to be delicious.
	Three places in one! A hotel, restaurant, and saloon. Saloon sounds so much better than "bar," doesn't it?
	And an old saloon at that. The Trempealeau Hotel is on the National Register of Historic Places. Woo hoo!
	After dinner, we walked the very short distance down to the waterfront ...
	... and looked over the train tracks to the lock and dam.
	Doug, Susan, and Carol decided that they wanted to walk over to it, ...
	... while Tom, Debbie, and Mark headed back to Carol's house.
	Check out this cool old building built in 1888.
	We hung out for a while, discussing our plans for the upcoming Lindevig reunion, ...
	... before calling it a night and heading back to the Prairie Inn.  Day 3 >