When Shelly from Going Down the Road Feeling Grand stopped by MarTar Manor in September 2024, I did the math and figured out she was the 19th blogger I’d met in person over the years. In that post, I wondered who would be #20.
Welp, it took nearly two years for another blogger meetup, but I have my answer. Author/Jiu Jitsu master/Chex Mix aficionado Ilsa Rey is lucky #20.
We first started reading one another back in 2017. So, she’s not quite an OG, but she predates a lot of y’all. To put that into perspective: she read me when I lived in Washington. And South Dakota. And Wisconsin. That’s a long time (and a lot of states!). I have no idea how we found each other. Neither does she. Probably through a comment on a mutual blogging friend.
Ilsa and her brood live in San Diego, but her husband is from Minnesota and she’s from Ohio, so they planned a trip ostensibly to “visit family,” but c’mon, we all know I was the main draw.
Either that or cheese. But I won’t be offended if it was cheese.
In any case, they flew to Minneapolis and rented a car to drive to Cleveland. Fort Atkinson is conveniently smack dab between both cities, so she asked if they could stop by for a visit. (She actually asked this like six months ago. Wednesday was the big day.) That was a big, fat yes!
The only potential fly in the ointment? Mother Nature. After a very placid May, June’s weather has been bonkers. Heat, humidity, and thunderstorms. Oh, those storms! They’ve been pretty gnarly, but at least all the rain has eased our drought worries for now. And wouldn’t you know it, a particularly severe line of storms was forecast right around the time they were due to arrive. They wisely sought out shelter in a parking garage while those storms raged, which put them in our driveway a bit later than expected. Them, by the way, meant six people: Ilsa, her hubby, and their four kids. Holy cow! I wasn’t even sure MarTar Manor could fit so many people under one roof!
Literally the first words out of Ilsa’s mouth: “Hey there, WHERE ARE LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY?!”
Hahaha. Ha.
(Still separated and not getting along, but that’s another post. She got to meet them individually.)
The weather had thankfully calmed down by then, so we gave them a tour of the property. This alone took an hour. Hey, we have a big backyard! The moment we opened the back door, everyone stopped in their tracks, the kids (and okay, the adults too) squealing in delight. Not more than a few dozen yards away were a doe and her fawns. “We don’t have deer in California!” one of her daughters remarked. Which I’m pretty sure isn’t true, but I appreciated the wide-eyed wonder. We couldn’t have planned that better if we’d tried.
Ilsa has an excellent memory and is a master of the callback. She spent a lot of time wandering around, taking photos of things I have blogged about over the nine years she has read me: the koi pond, our strawberry cage, the Traeger and Weber smokers, our wood pile, the scorched grass around the fire pit, our many flamingos. It was like her own personal greatest hits tour! I felt like a celebrity; that’s how I might behave if I were touring, say, Tom Hanks’ house. And yeah, if Wilson were back there, I’d be snapping a million volleyball pics, too.
I don’t know if she was more excited about our many lava lamps…
…or meeting Zoey…
…or getting an opportunity to climb aboard JD.
She had a plan for many of these pics, which we’ll get to in a moment.
After the grand tour, I played bartender for the adults. Any guesses what I’m mixing up here?
(Brandy Old Fashioneds, of course. Too easy, but it’s a warmup question for what’s to come.)
One of the big draws was our record collection. After playing The Shins, because of my t-shirt, I wandered over to grab a new album. I’ll let Ilsa step in and explain what transpired next:
The Shins record, which I enjoyed, finished.
“Do you suppose you could put on…oh, you already have a record chosen,” I said.
Mark paused to look at me.
“I was going to suggest you put on the Singles soundtrack.”
He held up the record case, big smile.
Me: “What?! That’s amazing!“
Mark said something about reading my mind.
One of the biggest things Ilsa and I have in common is a shared love of grunge. She’s one of the few people who can quote dialogue from Singles as easily as me. Of course I was going to give this record a spin!
We finally sat down for dinner. Had to drag a spare card table out of storage, because did I mention she has four kids?! I served pulled pork I smoked on Memorial Day, and Tara made homemade mac ‘n cheese and apple slaw. The food was a big hit. We talked. We talked about some of you. We laughed. We laughed at some of you. Are your ears burning?
And then we said goodbye, but not before the kids (okay, and again, the adults) chased after the lightning bugs, which reappeared right on schedule earlier this week. It was 8:30, and they had a hotel room in Whitewater to check into. ‘Twas a short but sweet visit. Ilsa is every bit as genuine and fun a person as she portrays herself on her blog; she’s got a zest for life that kinda rivals mine. I really liked her husband too, and her kids. All four of them! They were well-behaved and downright charming. 10/10 would do this again. I hope we have another opportunity someday.
“It’s always fun to see old friends you hadn’t yet met,” Ilsa remarked later, and that pretty much hits the blogging nail on the head. After reading one another so long, we know each other well. Meeting in person was merely a formality.
And now, Ilsa’s big plan. She thought it would be fun to play a game of trivia based on the photos she took. Each of them relates somehow to things I have blogged about over the years. I dunno, maybe this is only fun for us, but feel free to play along. The winner gets an autographed copy of Ilsa’s debut novel!
Err, J/K. There are no winners; the answers are below…and I can’t be promising free YA novels I didn’t write anyway. But it gives me an excuse to link to Wish I Was Here, book one in a proposed trilogy. It’s really good!
Without further ado, let’s play five rounds of trivia!
Question #1: What is this metal object, and why is Ilsa pondering it with a confused look on her face much as I was when we bought the house?
Question #2: What special purpose did this giant letter P serve in Rapid City?
Question #3: Why (and what) is Ilsa pretend-chugging from this condiment bottle?
Question #4: Why is Ilsa so enamored with our driveway?
Question #5: To whom did Ilsa say “Suck it!” while holding Santa Claus, and why?
Trivia Answers
- This is our well, which I mistakenly assumed would look like a fairytale wishing well. I used to be such a city boy.
- We used to gauge how much snow had fallen by looking at how high it piled up around this decorative vintage store find, e.g., “We got half a P overnight!”
- I was just raving over this amazing Bucky Badger cocktail sauce. We should’ve served shrimp cocktail, I guess!
- Not many common folk can boast about having a heated driveway, even if it isn’t particularly effective.
- She was taunting Christmas Light Kelly, our Rapid City neighbor with whom we had a friendly holiday decorating rivalry every year. CLK always won, but that was pre-blow mold Santa. I might have a shot nowadays!
Welp, that was fun…both the trivia and the blog buddy meetup. Thank you for gracing us with your presence, Ilsa. Even though it’ll be hard to top this, enjoy the rest of your trip–and safe travels!
I guess the inevitable follow-up question now is, who will be #21?
Mark My Words 
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