In thinking about all I am thankful for this week, I cannot help but to express gratitude for the friendships that have helped me through this most difficult year. And for diversions. Sometimes we just a need a break to unplug and unwind, which always calls for a trip to Green Lake, Wisconsin.
Green Lake 2020 Trip – A Weekend In Trump Country
For the ninth year in a row, I flew into Chicago then traveled up to Green Lake, Wisconsin to spend a weekend with former colleagues from Star Alliance who are now dear friends.
We kept delaying this trip during the year due to the pandemic, but decided to pull the trigger in late October. One of my friends is in a higher-risk group, so this was a trip in which I took extra care to minimize any potential exposure to any germs. I quarantined and tested before and kept to myself during the journey from Los Angeles to Chicago.
Once there, we stayed at home for the weekend. Tradition calls for fish fry on Friday night and a nice steak or prime rib dinner out on Saturday night. But in this more conservative, rural part of Wisconsin, indoor dining continues and patrons crowd around bars without masks. There was also a severe COVID-19 outbreak in Wisconsin at the time. My host felt it would be better to stay home and I did too…not just for me, but for him.
Our choices in life are a constant risk/benefit analysis and I am quite willing to take more risks than many would be comfortable with. But the thing about this virus is that it impacts more than the risk taker: it impacts those in his orbit. I could never forgive myself if I exposed my friends to COVID-19 by engaging in foolish action. And yet note that key and highly-subjective word foolish. Some of you may reasonably claim the journey itself was foolish, despite the precautions I took. I don’t think so. Not because the trip was a matter of life and death, but because sweet fellowship is like a balm that heals wounds.
We had a nice weekend inside. Saturday was a beautiful autumn day. It snowed on Sunday. I ran into herd of deer on my walk. We had Lou Malnati’s pizza, Chicago-style hot dogs, grilled steak, omelets, and Italian beef sandwiches. The Trump yard signed outnumbered the Biden ones by about 20 to 1….I’d say “Trump country” is a fair description.
CONCLUSION
This was an unusual trip to Green Lake in an unusual year. But I’m deeply grateful for it…and a month later I can report back that no one got sick from our trip. Next year will mark 10 consecutive years: I am already looking forward to it.
I am unfollowing your FB page. Your apparent glorification of “trump” country is unacceptable. Plus your obvious ignorance about the extreme outbreak of COVID-19 in Wisconsin. Not sorry to be leaving your page.
Wow, way to read into something that was never said. Or did you not even read it at all? Look beyond the headline and pictures. Read what I actually wrote.
Bye, Felicia!
Matthew, Great article! It’s incredible how people who read the SAME article can come up with two completely different outcomes. Fellowship, GOOD EATS (I gained 10lbs just looking at all the food lol) in the time of Covid-19, while traveling to a conservative area of the country that appeared to have voted heavily for trump is what I got. Nothing more, nothing less. There was no opinion, just observation. Unfortunately these are the the times we live in. We are as divided as ever!
Great article, full of accurate observations of the situation in Wisconsin, and an example of travel in these Covid times done right. Hopefully you will be back next year to continue this wonderful tradition with your friends. Best wishes.
What did you do for Star Alliance? Did you work for them in Germany?
Legal Dep’t + Sourcing Dep’t.
Yes, in Frankfurt.
Geographically about 90% of the USA is “Trump Country”. A trip to Trump country is essentially any trip outside a city.
People, not land masses, vote. As others below me have pointed out.
By Trump country, do you mean places where a brick won’t be thrown through your window if you dare display a Trump sign?
Must have been scary venturing into Trump country with all those riots, looting, murders, gangs, homeless, and all around horrible, mean racist fascists. /s in case it’s not obvious.
Oh, and just so you know, the vast majority of the country by area is Trump country. Biden set a record for fewest counties won. Somehow some of the ones he did win had >%100 turnout. Hmm.
News flash…land mass doesn’t vote…people do.
Sorry you backed a loser!
What is a country without land? I guess you’re an open borders guy. Fatty.
You are just trolling now, self hating chubbs. Do you dispute anything I wrote?
Time to put the fork and knife down already.
Next you’ll say that there is no such thing as a blue life. Blue states are real, though, right? And if you had your druthers, it would be a blue country (in reality a red one).
Oh, and chump, Biden’s counties won = 70% of US GDP – more than HRC in 2016.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2020/11/09/biden-voting-counties-equal-70-of-americas-economy-what-does-this-mean-for-the-nations-political-economic-divide/
FOR THE WIN.
Are you valorizing mammon, fatty? I guess you have no problem with Big Tech’s fascistic power so long as it is working with the blue tribe in control of the state.
I’m a maker. I can only assume you’re a taker.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll/opinion/cc-op-zirpoli-050620-20200506-7ya7okjfk5btdpysnrnrfouyz4-story.html%3foutputType=amp
Your logic is probably super powerful on QAnon fanboy sites. Not so much here.
Are you denying that Big Tech is aligned against heterodox opinions? I don’t care about QAnon. Creeping collectivism and fascisto-racism in anti-racist clothing are far bigger problems and very real.
If you are happy to be complicit in extortion by the state, you do you, as Fredo Cuomo says. Keep thinking that paying high taxes as a wage slave and flying around on OPM makes you a tough guy, fatty.
The one who valorises Mannon is actually your Dear Leader, but as a sycophant, you refuse to see that, dont you, dear Cargocult?
I have always thought Trump was a charlatan and I never voted for him. Still, somehow Trump beat the other charlatans, made it to the Presidency, and managed not to destroy the country or start any new wars. I asked if UA-TDS was valorizing Mammon above other more humanistic qualities as it is not typically included in the virtue signaling repertoire.
All I can say in return to the above comments and you… I’m a believer in the human balm for the soul and this SD, SIP, and infection rates announced daily ( reminds me of body bag counts on the nightly news during Vietnam) has caused distrust, misplaced fear and paranoia and played perfectly for agendas of many. Keep your traditional trips, your positive outlook and stay safe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult
Cargo cults often develop during a combination of crises. Under conditions of social stress, such a movement may form under the leadership of a charismatic figure. This leader may have a “vision” (or “myth-dream”) of the future, often linked to an ancestral efficacy (“mana”) thought to be recoverable by a return to traditional morality.
This leader may characterize the present state as a dismantling of the old social order, meaning that social hierarchy and ego boundaries have been broken down.
Yup, makes sense…sounds like your Trump worship, which you clearly practice yet refuse to admit. Must really suck to be you given that he was one-and-done.
Why, thank you for telling me what a cargo cult is. I didn’t realize I was in one while using it as a handle. Did you look that up all by yourself or did someone who knows better how to follow the science show you? Now, do you acknowledge what UA-TDS means, fatty?
While you are learning to use the Interwebs, why don’t you look up “cargo cult science” and “Gell-Mann amnesia?”
Wow, you are truly a F’d up person it seems – get yourself some help.
“Believers may stage “drills” and “marches” with sticks for rifles and use military-style insignia and national insignia painted on their bodies to make them look like soldiers, thereby treating the activities of Western military personnel as rituals to be performed for the purpose of attracting the cargo”
– sounds just like the Proud Boys / 3%, et. al. All makes sense now.
Perhaps someone with a two-digit IQ might conclude that discussing a position means one endorses it. I assume UA-TDS didn’t even know what a cargo cult was before looking it up on the Interwebs just now. How many deranged leftists called the Trump administration “literal Nazis?” By uttering the word “Nazi,” they revealed that they were Nazis themselves. Wait, I just used “Nazi.” I must be one, too! Save me, Jeebus!
How did such a wonderful blog post become a political argument? What has happened to us?
^^^THIS^^^
The well-known Nazi term “Trump” was in the title. Are you feigning surprise or truly that naive? I assume Matthew expected this sort of response.
It is scary venturing into Trump country with all those riots, looting, murders, gangs, homeless, and all around horrible, mean racist fascists. Even worse, they all carry guns! They keep trying to run over or shoot the peaceful protesters!
Lovely country. Too bad they support a scum, a pos, a rapist, a traitor, an impeached criminal and his band of ass kissers in the Senate.
Hope you didn’t get any trouble from white christian jihadists.
I would never vote for an old white man with a history of racism and sexual assault whose name is Trump. So instead I voted for an old white man with a history of racism and sexual assault whose name is Biden.
Even voting for Kodos is a vote for the system.
Yup. The bloody capitalist country that only gives a choice between two parties.
Either they are alike or they are so opposite that one seems better than the other. Either way no choice.
Stupid Americans. Made to compete for everything, even daddy’s affection, but get no choice in selecting a leader. And people have been ok with this more or less for 2.5 centuries
@Joe Chivas,
Classic!
🙂
food looks pretty dire.
It was delicious.
this explains alot
We know how Matthew love a click-bate title – surprised that he did not do a separate post just on the hot dogs.
There is no Trump country or Biden country – however people voted does not dictate how we treat one another. It is the will of the people that everyone needs to accept.
There is Trump and Biden country (lower case C) within the United States of America…my neighborhood was the total opposite with Biden/BLM/Love Wins signs placed on the majority of lawns.
And the hot dogs were so delicious I should give them a dedicated post!
Not really sure why Trump was included in the article title other than click-bate. It was actually a nice review of a socially distanced trip. As someone from Chicago who has traveled to Wisconsin many time it brings back many memories of the landscape. But tossing the “Trump country”, which added ZERO to the story, is guaranteed to turn the comments into a dumpster fire. I don’t know, maybe blogs with more active comments are more attractive to advertisers.
Hard to blame me, though, when there were literally hundreds of Trump signs on lawns and on roads. I thought it was noteworthy especially since WI was such a key battleground state.
Hello Matthew. With all due respect, even though you were in Trump Country, you should have skipped the Trump Diet. “pizza, … hot dogs, … steak, omelets, and … beef …” are only considered healthy in small to moderate quantities and frequency. Would have been much heathier if chicken or turkey or fish had been substituted. (Pleased at least there’s not a ketchup bottle next to the steak.)
This is another manifestation of Trump’s disbelief in science. He doesn’t properly understand climate change and the environment, he doesn’t properly understand infectious diseases and (until COVID-19) vaccines, he certainly doesn’t properly understand a healthy diet. It’s so sad that so many people believe what he believes.
I fully admit it was not healthy, but it was a rare splurge: I tend it eat much healthier when at home.
Groups who voted overwhelmingly for Democrats (Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans) have higher obesity rates than the white supremacists. Does white supremacy prevent Black folx from listening to the science? Since you are a doctor, you should be well aware of the concomitant health risks of obesity. If BIPOC folx weren’t so fat (Asians don’t count as POC, right?), they likely wouldn’t be dying as much from COVID-19. This applies, of course, to the US at large, which is far fatter than countries like Japan and South Korea. Leading a healthier life is an individual choice and one should not depend on the government to save him. The government has a better record of locking up Black folx rather than lifting them up.
YEAH for TRUMP COUNTRY!!!! WR2 and Paul you get it… the others i guess are happy with a Pres-elect Joe-WOTH DEMENTIA= A bad case and getting worse daily–If you saw his Thanksgiving speech???
dee – time to admit you have a bit of an illness here. Trump didn’t do anything for you, you just don’t realize it. Get some help for yourself.
(but hey, at least you clearly aren’t obese like the self-hating poster “cargocult”…that would truly be the double whammy!)
Matthew: re “… but it was a rare splurge: I tend to eat much healthier when at home.”, for your and your family’s sake I certainly hope. It seems that many of the food photos you post do not picture healthy food and (obviously) you travel frequently. Airplane and lounge food are rarely healthy, if you’re eating it frequently it’s not a splurge. As much as we (most definitely me included) like to believe that eating something while standing up in the kitchen or while the refrigerator door is open or while traveling or on vacation makes it healthy and non-fattening, that’s actually not true. Please Matthew, do not allow yourself to embrace the unhealthy habits (diet, exercise, activity level) common to many road warriors and frequent flyers.
BREAK
cargocult: The slightly higher rate of obesity of some groups does not even come close to explaining their much higher COVID-19 death rate. Obesity is not always a personal choice, it can just as readily be an illness. Ignorance, racism, accepting “alternative facts” and believing a lying corrupt con-man are most definitely personal choices.
Slightly higher? According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the US obesity rates by race/ethnicity are as follows:
White – 30.4%
Black – 40.7%
Hispanic – 34.5%
Asian/Hawaiian or Pacific Islander – 12.7%
American Indian/Alaska Native – 37.9%
So, the Black obesity rate is 34% higher than for Whites. A widely cited study out of UNC-Chapel Hill found that patients with BMI > 30 were 113% more likely to be hospitalized, 74% more likely to be admitted to ICU, and 48% more likely to die from COVID-19. Please note that this is just obesity, not even overweight.
Are you are among those who attribute Black obesity to white supremacy? I will discount any future statements you make accordingly. Also, if anyone claims to be antiracist or care about anthropogenic climate change and while still consuming animal products, he is a hypocrite. Wokeists talk about the violence of microaggressions and white supremacist rationality, but what about the actual, “literal” violence done to animals and the environmental degradations caused by animal consumption? Where is your allyship, meat eater? I suspect the good doctor is just another mood affiliator.
@UA-NYC
How are you liking President Biden
In all honestly most people would rather have President Trump back in office