I forgot to share a funny story from Saturday.
We were starving when we got to Paddy Coughlin’s, so we ordered an appetizer of Reuben Egg Rolls as soon as we sat down. These little nuggets consist of cabbage, corned beef, onion, Swiss cheese, and mozzarella rolled into an egg roll.
They were delicious – especially when dipped in the sauce, which was subtly sweet and piquant with a thick texture, perfectly complementing the egg rolls. Tara and I spent several minutes trying to figure out what was in the sauce.
“I’m picking up notes of honey, with an essence of mustard,” I said.
“It’s got a tomato base that reminds me of fry sauce,” Tara added.
“The creaminess is reminiscent of an aioli,” I remarked.
“There’s a crunchy zing that might be sliced cornichons,” she conjectured.
We held it up to our noses, inhaling the aroma, dipping a finger in to sample it on its own. Unable to identify this unique sauce, I finally broke down and asked our server about it.
“It’s Thousand Island dressing,” she said, shaking her head at our foolishness. “Straight out of the bottle.”
Needless to say, we felt pretty silly, learning that the secret sauce was no different than what you’d find on your common Big Mac. We had a good laugh over that.
When you’ve been blogging as long as I have, you can’t help but form friendships with many of your readers. This isn’t surprising; after all, you’re given a front-row seat into their daily lives, learning about their kids and pets, spouses and exes, which foods they like, where they’re vacationing, their hobbies and interests, their hopes and fears and dreams. You may even be privy to their deepest, darkest secrets. In my experience, the friendships I have forged through blogging are every bit as solid as any “real life” ones.
(I may be biased, given the fact that I wake up next to one of these bloggers every single morning.)
One of the true pleasures of blogging is meeting these people in person. Over the years, I’ve met many bloggers IRL — 19 by my count, though I may be overlooking one or two. (Don’t worry, I’m definitely not overlooking you.) Only once, in all those meetups, did a fellow blogger ever give off “serial killer” vibes.
J/K. Everyone I’ve ever met has been great. And the latest is no exception.
Shelly, aka Going Down the Road Feeling Grand, emailed me in December 2022 through a contact form on my website. That was a first! She apologized for “misusing your Hire Me section” because she didn’t, in fact, have any writing jobs for me. Instead, she wanted blogging advice. One of her posts went viral, and she suddenly had strangers reading her blog, which had previously only attracted friends and family. This made her a tad uncomfortable. Shelly took one look at my blog, saw all the strangers I was interacting with (that’d be you, dear readers!), and knew I was the guy to answer her questions.
She also showered me with compliments about my writing. Stroking my ego is one sure-fire way to win me over.
I gave her some insight and shared a few tips – she refers to me as her “blogging mentor” (which, NGL, has a nice ring to it) – and started following her blog in turn. I quickly became hooked. Unlike most people I follow, Shelly isn’t “from” any particular place; she and her husband Tracy are retirees who roam the country in an Airstream full-time, so her “home” is both nowhere and everywhere. It’s a lifestyle I find fascinating, though after reading her blog, I realize I may have been romanticizing it in my head. Let’s just say I’m happy to live vicariously through her posts that I can read from the comfort of a home that I don’t have to maneuver through tight spaces to park and isn’t likely to blow away anytime soon.
In any case, Shelly and Tracy were planning a four-night stay in Madison and asked if I’d like to meet up for lunch. Naturally, I was down! The timing was such that I could only get away during my lunch hour, but then on Sunday afternoon, she texted to let me know she was going to be passing right through Fort Atkinson in 90 minutes and asked in which direction she should wave. I told her she would literally be two minutes from MarTar Manor and it would be a crime if she didn’t swing by for just a few minutes, so she did. Which was great, because they got to meet Tara, we gave them a tour of our backyard, and they showed us the inside of their Airstream. Tara even gave them a bag of freshly picked tomatoes and lemon cucumbers from the garden.
Then on Tuesday, I met them for lunch at a BBQ restaurant right across the parking lot from CheeseGov. Which means my anonymous cover is blown, but the funny thing is, they have a good friend in Madison who actually worked for CheeseGov in the very same building.
I can only assume that he, too, played elevator roulette.
We had a lively conversation over some excellent food, including a platter of nachos bigger than Shelly’s head. They did me proud by ordering the requisite when-in-Wisco cheese curds, too. We talked blogging some more, and when Shelly asked me what my favorite part of blogging was, I pointed to her and Tracy and replied, “The community.”
All too quickly my time was up, but luckily, the distance back to my desk was measured in steps instead of miles. They graciously picked up the tab, and I promised we’d treat them next time.
So, another fun blogger meetup is in the books. There are a bunch more of you I have no doubt I’ll meet someday. Who wants to be #20?
How many bloggers have you met in person? What do you like best about blogging? Could you ever live full-time in an RV?
Mark My Words 
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