I left Green Bay at about 5:30, just stopping home to grab clothes, CD's, the camera, etc. The drive down I-43 to Milwaukee is a particularly boring one, and is almost completely empty until you hit Sheboygan. Traffic was typically light and the nice weather that had settled in Green Bay seemed to continue down the shoreline.

I reached the metro Milwaukee area around 7:15, well after rush hour traffic had cleared out. As usual, the patchwork speed limits were a challenge, but I managed to find my way to I-94 and made my way toward Sharon's house. When I got there, she seemed surprised to see a flash as she opened the door. I informed that, since I had a new digital camera, I was required to play with it as often as possible. It was nearing quarter to eight by then, so we grabbed the get-in-free pins and headed out toward the lakeshore.

When we got there half an hour later, parking became a bit of issue, since one of us didn't know where we were going and the other couldn't see. Eventually, we found our way to the official Summerfest parking lot -- $7! -- and parked in, perhaps, the spot furthest away from the entrance in the whole place.

We wandered around a bit as we waited for the show, ducking into the little shops and pointing out weirdos. We finally got over to the Leinie Lodge with about ten minutes or so to spare and stood around waiting for the show to begin.

From our vantage point, it was occasionally hard to see what was happening onstage; however, it was quite clear when everyone stood and started cheering that the band had arrived and things were ready to start. After greeting the assembled mass, they launched into "Singing in My Sleep", followed by "This Will Be My Year", my favorite from their entire repertoire.

Most of the tunes they played were from their current album, Feeling Strangely Fine, though they did play several cuts from Great Divide, one from Passion and one Split Enz cover, the latter coming in their four-song encore. I didn't notice any extra musicians coming onstage for any songs -- a surprise, considering how instrumentation-heavy some of their music is. There were a few mixing problems, but they didn't take away from what was a very good show.

Unfortunately, Summerfest seems to be actively anti-mosh. Many of the stages have a dozen or so rows of metal benches which prevent people from being able to rock out; that kind of deadened some of the atmosphere, though spirited renditions of songs like "F.N.T." and "California" more than made up for it.

When the show came to an end, it was nearing 11:30. For some reason, some of the people leaving the park were getting their hands stamped; apparently, they thought they'd be back for some reason within the next half-hour.

Since I had the morning off from work, I hoped to sleep in a bit before my drive home. Alas, this was not to be, as my caffeine-related sleep woes continued. I awoke at around six, but tried for over an hour to not get up. Eventually, though, I was forced to give in; I got dressed, had a shower and was on the road at 8:30.

My first priority was to find some breakfast -- Sausage McMuffins were sounding pretty good, so I searched out a McDonald's in Waukesha. A word of advice: never get lemonade at McDonald's. It is the most godawful beverage I have ever tasted and I've had entire bottles of Surge.

Elsewhere on my list of priorities was finding someplace that sells Star Wars toys. Since none of the stores in the Green Bay area have any of the June releases yet, I'd hoped to find them in Milwaukee. As I was leaving McDonald's, like some mystical monolith, I saw the Target sign. Though it wasn't yet nine o'clock, they were open. I went inside and sought out the toy department; to my dismay, they had but one figure on the entire rack from the new series. It had been partially opened and had something removed from the package. I wasn't about to let that get me down, though. They had good prices, so I picked up the Watto and Padme figures. I also found some cool South Park keychains and decided Kyle would be good to hang from my rearview mirror.

Target was also able to help with another important priority -- caffeine. Pepsi is apparently test marketing a new drink called Storm in Milwaukee. The label makes sure to indicate its caffeine content, so I decided to give it a try. It wasn't bad -- it's essentially 7-Up with caffeine -- but it wasn't able to stave off the caffeine withdrawal headaches. I knew that when I stopped for gas I'd have to get some Mountain Dew as well. Since gas in Milwaukee was $1.19, I decided I'd stop in Port Washington, where it was a few cents cheaper. I'd also seen a Target just off the freeway there on the way down, so I thought perhaps I could find the elusive figures there.

Unfortunately, the Target in question doesn't open until October of this year; the entire area -- not visible from the freeway, of course -- was torn up. I was able to get to a nearby Citgo to fill up the gas tank and there I found a heaven-sent sale on Pepsi products -- two 12-packs for $3.98. Needless to say, I grabbed a couple and the headache was soon a memory.

The rest of the trip was as uneventful as the trip down. Other than some driving rain about 30 miles outside of Green Bay, it all pretty much blurred together. With all the time spent at various stops, I found up getting home around 12:30 and got to work by 1:00. Not bad at all for a twenty hour trip.