You’ve all heard about it. You’ve all see it. In this blog post, you’ll find out what really went down in Waukesha county that fateful day. First we gotta start where we left off… Davenport.
We were only in Davenport and Milwaukee for a hot second, so I’ll hit the highlights. Davenport was where I saw my first northern snow. Not the icy inch or two we get down south, but some real powder. Of course, Mitch and I had to be spontaneous and run outside to play. We drive a 27 foot hot dog for goodness sake! We are kids at heart.
Snow angels were made, snowballs were thrown, and lots of pictures were taken. Then we ran inside to get on our jammies. As I prepared myself for sleep, I came to terms with the fact that I would drive the Wienermobile in some real snow for the first time. However, I was wrong. By the time I woke up, every road was plowed and there was nothing to worry about. In fact, in my entire time in the midwest, I’ve yet to drive in any snow! They get out there and plow all night and there isn’t anything left. I truly feel as if I’m being deprived of a good life experience! But hey, we are given what we can handle, so maybe its all for the best.
Milwaukee was quick. Mostly grocery stores and visiting several friends and family of Mitch. We did meet two hotdoggers from previous classes and that was about that. Nothing too crazy. Then…. it happened.
After surprising several families with rides in Wisconsin, we headed to our next stop in Madison. On the way we noticed several cop cars to the right. Mitch, who was driving, tried to get over for them, but a car was hovering on our left taking pictures. By the time we realized we couldn’t get over, we were already closing in on the cop cars. We passed on by. Suddenly, one was behind us. Sirens blaring. “Dot, we are being pulled over,” Mitch warned. We glided our giant hot dog onto the side of the interstate. The police officer approached the vehicle and asked us why we didn’t get over for the emergency vehicle. We kindly replied that there had been a vehicle next to us and moving over was not a possibility. After kindly reminding us about the move over law, the police officer let us off with a verbal warning and noted that next time we should slow all the way down if possible. She also explained they had set a trap that day specifically for that law and were pulling people over to reinforce the law and make sure it got attention (side note: the law is created to bring attention to the fact that its dangerous for people to be on the side of the interstate… so doesn’t it seem slightly dangerous to be setting up traps so that you can pull more people over on the side of the interstate which you’ve already declared a hazardous thing to be doing? Just a thought, but hey, I’m just a Wienermobile driver.) Anyway, cue the random man on the bridge that took a picture of us. I turn to Mitch and say, “hey… that man is taking our picture.” Then we leave. Surely that random side of the road man doesn’t have enough influence for that photo to go anywhere right? Wrong.
That man shares his photo with a popular pub, who shares it with the Waukesha police, which causes the local news to pick up on it, which spreads to the Milwaukee news, then onto several other small town broadcasts, then several city broadcasts, then national news. So yea, thats how our Wienermobile made national news in under 24 hours. There is no bad press???
However, Oscar Mayer handled it beautifully. They created t-shirts with the famed photo and the words “Road Hog” underneath it. If Mitch and I don’t receive one, there will be an outcry of the greatest of sorts. But yes, Mitch and I will spent the entirety of our Wienermobile tour answering the question, “HEY!!! Was that you guys that got pulled over the other week?!?” Why yes…. yes it was.
So now we head to Madison, because its time to recruit the 33 class of Wienie drivers!!! Yayyyyy!!! I got to run around campus and be very happy about finding people to take my dream job away from me…. hmmm. I’m sort of kidding…. I’m very excited to get to share the job with a new group. Just wish sharing it didn’t require me to become irrelevant.
Recruiting was awesome. Mitch went to UW Madison, so he was back in his element. His college roommate and someone who I tend to like to see frequently, Luke Pitzo, also showed up for some shenanigans. We had super fancy hotel rooms with robes, and I spent an absurd amount of time in bathroom stalls taping flyers to the backs of doors.
Ultimately it was a fantastic week. I got to meet Oscar Mayer’s grandson, and we had some promising recruits for the job (one of which is only 3 seconds away from the world record of running on all fours). Our time quickly came to a close and we headed onward to Minneapolis, Minnesota. I’ll let Minneapolis be its own post since it was a packed 2 weeks.
But per usual, “franks” for coming to “ketchup” with me,
Hot Diggity Dot
P.S. I got this fortune cookie and I thought it was cool how accurate it was!
Hot Dog Dot and the Wienermobile! 