Rey Road Trip, Part 1

We hit six states in 12 days.

First, we flew to Minnesota and stayed with my sister-in-law. We saw most of Hubby’s extended family. Some drove four hours, one way, in the same day. Ooof.

We had dinner with Hubby’s college friends, another meal with his high school friends, stuck our feet in one of the state’s 10,000+ lakes, visited the famous Mall of America (especially the Lego store), and, most importantly for blog purposes, had breakfast with a blog buddy. 🙂

Meeting TTA was loads of fun. She and Hubby are both teachers, so I enjoyed my eggs Benedict while they talked shop. Learning how she and her husband met was most entertaining. (Sadly, he was in England at the time.) And I discovered that rabbits have personalities like humans do. Now I kind of want a bunny. She wrote about the visit on her blog.

The next day, we drove to Wisconsin. We’d been warned by my sister-in-law and Mark, the next blog buddy to meet, that a storm was a-comin’. “It’s supposed to get pretty gnarly,” Mark said. “I wouldn’t be shocked if tornado sirens go off.”

We raced to Verona, WI, and a place called Epic, only getting splattered with rain along the way, until the sky changed from gray to black in a second. The saturated clouds were squeezed like sponges that never emptied.

Then the siren started blaring, loudly. This wasn’t something the kids or I had experienced before. And we couldn’t figure out where to park at this giant complex. And my sister-in-law had shared stories that morning of giant hail balls smashing the tops of vehicles. And I was inwardly freaking out.

Our contact at Epic was another of Hubby’s friends. He had texted a map to follow the blue line to parking, but we didn’t know where we were to begin with or where the blue line was. We tried calling him but the storm was making the call cut out repeatedly. In my best calm-for-the-kids voice, I shrieked at Hubby to drive to a covered garage area where a guy was standing for a smoke break(!) He didn’t know where we were being directed to park either, so I asked kindly if we could just park there.

“Well, I can let you in,” he said, with a smidge of reluctance, as he swiped his employee card and the garage gates opened. It took forever to find a parking spot and Hubby’s friend, but we did, and made it safely indoors. The woman at the reception desk gave us visitor badges, let us know the outside doors were now locked, “So if you step outside, you won’t be able to get back in,” and, “If you see employees heading to the basement, follow them.”

Gulp.

But we were safe indoors and soon immersed in this wild, wonderful world of Epic. It’s a computer software place for interfacing doctors with patients. “We want it to be fun for people who work here,” Hubby’s friend told us, so every building in the complex has a theme.

Who is this peasant who dares approach the queen?

Complete with tumbleweeds in the hallway and carpet that looked like dirt.

The name tags on office doors were shaped like sheriff badges.

Oh, yeah, and there were slides. We came across two. Why use the elevator or stairs when you can take a slide to the next floor?

One building was called Storybook. This conference room was based off, can you guess? *Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland*.

This area was super trippy. Stuff was upside down.

Which way is up, and which way is down? The floor was painted like ceiling and vice versa.

That must have required a lot of superglue. Spot the cat?

and eventually wound up in *Stargate*. There was a rocket here somewhere, which my son sat in.

Restaurant 42 was based on *Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy*.

Step out of an elevator and find a dragon flying overhead.

And that thing outside a window. The sky had lightened by now.

Elsewhere, two podracers from the Star Wars movie where Anakin is a kid are attached to the inside of a canyon.

Another view out the window of different buildings.

One building looked like Hansel and Gretel’s house of candy.

The mystery-themed building. There were details on every surface of this whole complex.

Alfred Hitchcock’s birds on an elevator. Everywhere, you almost missed the elevators because they were painted to the theme, as well.

One archway was covered in the various Clue boxes and boards from over the years.

Then we went *Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea*.

Why stick a tentacle to the wood when you can have it crashing through instead? No detail was spared in this place.

After two hours, our guide told us we had only seen 1/5 of the place, which is about how many pictures I shared with you. We missed the treehouse, barn, wizarding world, and others. But if you’re ever near Madison, WI, Verona’s not far, and the tours are free. Bring good walking shoes. Tornado sirens and storms are optional.

Next stop: Fort Atkinson and the genesis of this entire road trip idea.