RN: When we drove into Minnesota from South Dakota, we saw the landscape change from flat prairie to rolling, green hills with many more trees. When we went from Minnesota to Wisconsin, the landscape seemed the same, but the drivers got crazy. Until now, everyone was patient and polite, but suddenly a lot of cars got impatient and rude. In fact, the predominant message on the lighted highway signs said, “Camp in the Woods, Not the Left Lane.” Due to folks camping in the left lane (including trucks), nuts started weaving in and out of traffic, cutting off cars by leaving no space in front. At one point, I woke up from dozing to see Felix driving 80 miles an hour with only one car length between us and the car in front, when, suddenly a car cut in from the right, virtually leaving us bumper-to-bumper. I screamed and Felix made the car howl through the horn, and he gave the driver the finger (the correct one, which he didn’t do when I first met him). Thankfully, no one crashed.

We took a break at a rest stop and it had a lovely garden of native flowers to soothe drivers’ souls.

Between Eau Claire and Madison, we saw impressive rock formations. Much of Wisconsin was carved when glaciers retreated.

We thankfully arrive intact at Brian’s house in a ‘burb of Milwaukee. Brian was a grad student in my lab at OHSU who arrived the same year as Diane. They were great buddies. Brian is super nice, hardworking and very successful- he is a tenured full professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin and he just stepped down from being Grad Program Director after 16 years. The photo below shows Brian and his wife Marjorie. He just swam 5 miles this morning to train for the Bridge to Bridge 10K swim in San Francisco! He exemplifies work/ life balance.

FE: Amazing to remember Brian as a grad student, little Midori always wanted to ride on his shoulders when we had lab parties. At the time Brian, Diane, and Tom (see third blog) were all together in Rae’s lab….it was probably the best fun time for the lab ever and I am glad that I was included. These days we share an interest in fine American products, and we sample a bit of the known Woodford Reserve Bourbon and the Rye below. I thought I preferred Bourbon, but now I am not so sure……