I haven't been in a very good mood since since returning from Madison late last night. What was supposed to be a fun day looking for albums and CDs turned out to be a day which the likes of National Lampoon Vacation is made of, sprinkled in plenty of Friday The 13th and the book of Job.
Madison used to be a three time event every year of getting into the car and blending into the city to see the sights, then it became a twice yearly event and but even the last time I went up there was not much to be joyful about. But at least I could find a motel room on that trip.
For the first time this trip didn't see me stop at any Goodwill or Savers up there and PrePlayed got bypassed as well. I didn't intend it that way but going to Madison is s frustrating mess even getting up there. The 151 exit to 61 into Dubuque was closed down and so we had to take a fucking detour. And we were not even out of state yet.
Going into Walkerland aka Wisconsin, the roads continue to deteriorate but at least the WDOT were fixing some of them up. But for one lane of traffic, there was always some dildo driver in a SUV or pickup truck, going about 90 coming from behind while you had some slowpoke going about 40 in front of you. It didn't matter if I pulled over and let them pass by, another idiot would come rushing by from behind a half mile later. Even then I probably should have went no further than Dubuque. But you know me, gotta find the bargains.
By the time I got to Mount Herob, I begin to look for alternative route to stay away from getting into Madison on the infamous Verona Road, a collections of bypasses, roundabouts and other oddities that making getting from Point A to B in Madison the same as getting a root canal without anesthesia. So basically I found myself on some back road going from Mt Herob into Madison which somehow got on Fitchburg that lead to Verona Road and 151!, Another U turn, another sitting at the stop lights for 10 minutes and another set of tailgating idiots behind and I found myself on Whitney Way at the first Half Priced Books, A Monks Of Doom CD for a dollar but I put it back and did the week's shopping at Big Lots, which are becoming a BIG DISAPPOINTMENT. But at least I had snacks for evening stay at the Microtel.
The Madison trip was the worst bargain hunt that I have ever done, a disappointment that that I didn't go to Strictly Discs, they were closed for the day and I wanted to return tomorrow. For the first time I didn't visit any of the Goodwill stores, The Salvation Army, Savers and PrePlayed. The only stores I went to were Half Priced Books, The St Vincent De Paul on Williamson Street and Mad City Music X. I was going go to them the next day but some was some big pow wow going on and ALL of the motel rooms were filled. I knew Iowa fans would be up there this weekend to watch the football game and The Decemerbists were in town. The Microtel was filled up, so were the other motels up and down the highway and interstate. I did hit Pawn America for a look, but the CD section is full of shit that nobody wanted and I did managed to find something to listen to, a band called Ticks but the rest was crap. Even at 8 PM the place was empty. Even both Half Priced Bookstores didn't have many folks in there. None of the stores had anything of note in the 2 dollar section. There was a collection of juke box 45s, and most have seen better days. Like the March trip, neither store had anything of value or note. Although the east side had a copy of Television's Marquee Moon I basically put it back on the shelf, thinking of maybe picking it up tomorrow. But tomorrow never came.
In short, hitting every stop light, and having every dip shit tailgating text reading dumbass behind me and the road racers who sped 90 miles to the next red light just got to me. It didn't help having dealing with a snarly Ian's Pizza dude taking the pizza order either. The pizzas remain good but the fountain drinks sucked. I could have a root beer, or a creme soda or a pepsi and the fucking drink still tasted like brass metal. State Street has become more downtrodden of late, with plenty of homeless folk hitting people up for money or smoking and sleeping on benches. Walking past their own homeless tent city on the way to Monona Terrace and hearing them argue over something or yelling at folks to give them money got a bit tiring. There was a local newscaster chatting about it live as I walked by but basically I just wanted to hang by the lake and at least enjoy some of this trip.
The only decent part of the trip was actually finding a few 45s at St Vincent De Pauls and a couple other things at Mad City Music X and making a note that Captain Beefheart's Lick My Decals Off Baby is now back in print on CD. It was nice of a interracial couple to ask my opinion on a LP and how the vinyl looked and told them they could buy that Evita soundtrack for a dollar with confidence.
But after that, it was back to fighting the traffic, idiots turning left and blocking traffic and causing us to sit though another 5 minute long red light and then getting to the Mircotel and finding out that all the rooms were rented out. Which became a three hour fiasco of trying to find a hotel room only to come up empty and even going as far as Waterloo Wisconsin, which had two motel rooms and me having some fucking idiot riding from behind me on the way to get one of them. Frustrated with this, I made two more attempts to find something at around Sun Prairie and Mt Hoerb before saying the hell with it and going back home, tired, depressed and pissed off at everything that could and did go wrong. It didn't help that I only got 2 hours of sleep prior and then having to deal with trying to stay awake on the trip back home. By then any motel off the road were full anyway.
In the twenty years of Madison, I have times of varying degree, a couple were great, some were and some were uneventful and most were bad. This was the worst of bargain hunts. By far.
PS
Even though the Madison Disaster turned out to be a day to forget, I didn't leave any curses about their football team getting beat. Saturday, Iowa went up to Madison and defeated the Badgers 10-6 in a game dominated by both defenses. Certainly Joe "The Show" Schobert did his best and damnest to keep Wisconsin in the game and would be the Big Ten Player of the week for his efforts, perhaps even in a losing effort he might be named that. But it was Desmond King 2 interceptions and a fumble recovered inside the Hawks 10 yard line that the game ended up in Iowa's Favor. Iowa is now 5-0 for the first time since 2009, the Orange Bowl year. And they got the Heartland Trophy back too. So basically I guess you can say that Crabby did get his revenge on Madison for the day to forget.
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