Wine, Cheese, and Beer-chitecture Tour! - September 12-14, 2008

It is just six weeks until we head to Wisconsin for the fourth annual Wine, Cheese, and Beer tour! Please note a number of deadlines are fast approaching.
  The route is done and waiting for us! We found some fantastic MG roads and really enjoyed practicing the drive. We are going to run out of wineries long before we run out of roads. There was no construction during our planning run, we make no promises for mid September. This will be an enjoyable less than one tank trip from Rockford to New Glarus.
  We will have dinner in Rockford on Friday, September 12th. This has been an option since the second year and everybody enjoys another night on the road.  I reserved a block of 15 rooms at the Quality Inn and Suites.  If you want to join us Friday, please reserve your rooms from the Chicagoland MG Club block. The number at the hotel is 815-227-1300.  This year’s rate is $85.00. If you plan to join us, we will be dining at JMK Nippon again.  We will have a great dinner and get an early start for the weekend. Let us know if you are joining us for dinner so I can make reservations. We will start the tour from the Rockford hotel parking lot at 8:30 AM Saturday morning.
We have had to change the hotel in Spring Green. We tried to call before I wrote this but the Prairie House numbers are still disconnected. If you already reserved rooms at the Prairie House, or if you plan to join us, please make new reser-

vations at the Round Barn Lodge for September 13. The number for the Round Barn Lodge is (608) 588-2568. The rooms are in the name of the Chicagoland MG Club, so please mention our club when you call to get our rate. I have 24 rooms reserved. There are 13 standard rooms (two double beds) at $85.50 and 11 deluxe rooms (one king and a pull out) at $94.50. You need to add tax to both rates. All rooms include a refrigerator, microwave, and coffee maker. The Round Barn has a very nice indoor pool and whirlpool. They require 24 hours advance notice to cancel.
Our destination Saturday will be Taliesin in Spring Green. Taliesin is the Eastern home and school of Frank Lloyd Wright. We will be taking the House Tour which includes the interior and exterior of Wright’s private residence.  It will last approximately two hours. The cost will be $42 per person if we have 21 or more participants.  Please let us know as soon as possible if you want to do the house tour. We need to give the folks at Taliesin a count. We will also need to send them payment in advance.
We made arrangements to dine at the Shed again on Saturday. If the weather cooperates we will be outside. The Shed features beers from two local breweries. Dinner will be the same as two years ago. We will have roast beef, turkey and sides. If you want a vegetarian option, let us know.
We will leave Spring Green Sunday for our winery visit. This will be a winery we have not visited before. The owner of the vineyard is a car enthusiast and hosts an annual car show in August.
We will end the tour in (you guessed it) New Glarus so we can restock our supply of Spotted Cow and Fat Squirrel. One of the many great things about planning this is I get to make TWO trips to the brewery.
If you are attending this event, please let us know your plans and send your email address and cell phone information as soon as possible.  We will add you to our CMGC tour email list. We will send the final route instructions to all participants.

Hope you all can join us!

John and Ann
flobearsmg@comcast.net
630 244-4930

  Please note the August 1st deadline for our group rate at the hotels.  Both hotel room blocks are reserved under the Chicagoland MG Club.  We also need to make reservations for Friday, so let me know if you will be joining us.