The Don Q Inn with a Twist of Goose

To continue on with the travelogue of a goose, we left Grandview and headed up the road, around and around through detours and through the rolling “driftless” land of southwestern Wisconsin until we reached the village of Dodgeville.

We were famished and nearly faint with hunger.

We stopped at a Quik Stop and asked an elderly couple where was the best place to get a dinner in Dodgeville. Figuratively speaking, elderly people usually know the diners in town.

They gave us the classic reply:

“Well….you go back up town there a ways, about three blocks to the light and take a left if you want some barbecue food and live music… That’s Bob’s Bitchin’ BBQ.” The old people actually said the “b” word…

We shook our heads.

“Oh well….then there’s Sam and Maddie’s on your way out of town. That’s right next to Don Q’s Inn, you know that place with the big ol’ airplane parked right out front. Good steaks there and nice family place. Can’t miss it…..just up this way, take a left, take a right past the gas station…”

Well, for gooseness sakes, that sounded interesting to Mother Goose and her dear Gander — hunger will drive you to eat even at a place with a big ol’ airplane parked right out front.

“Unique in All the World”, the Don Q Inn is actually one of those scary “theme” hotels with rooms bearing these names:

Jungle Safari
Sherwood Forest
cupid’s Corner
Casino Royale
Arabian Nights
The Cave
Caesar’s Court
Paradise Cove
Up, Up and Away
Shotgun
Swinger
Mid-Evil

Nearly all rooms are decorated just as you’d imagine with mirrors on the ceiling, heart-shaped whirlpools or 300 gallon copper cheese vat bathtubs. Yes, 300 gallon copper cheese vat bathtubs.

The Steeple Room is obviously on the right…

So we made our way through the lobby of the Inn and into the secret passageway to the Sam and Maddy’s Restaurant which, of course, is in the barn of the estate because this is Wisconsin after all.

Hungrily licking the menu, we devoured a basket of deep-fried dill pickles and for our entre, we finally decided on the porterhouse steak with double-baked tater for the dear Gander and some deep-fried walleye for the Goose. But we soon found that what’s good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander in this instance…

The steak was quite delicious I was told — aged and grilled to perfection. However Mother Goose took one look at the “walleye” and realized that I had been duped once again! This was no fine northern Wisconsin fresh walleye, batter-dipped and deep-fried, but just a plain old oven-baked catfish.

HONK! HONK!!

But you know Mother Goose….not one to complain about a meal or make a scene about a fish mistake. I politely picked at it a little. When the young server asked how everything was, dear Gander asked her what kind of fish she had served to Mother Goose, and she brightly chimed in that it was a walleye.

But Mother Goose knows it was not a walleye. Mother Goose is from Minnesota for gooseness sakes — land of 10,000 lakes and over 10,000 fresh walleye caught daily.

We left Sam and Maddie’s dining room in a huff when we had finished our meal. And then we noticed another secret passageway — this one leading UNDERGROUND!

“Just walk this way, Mother Goose.”

Oh the dreadful smell, the horrible despicable sights within that “tunnel of despair”…

WHAT?

“Don’t look behind you, Mother Goose!”

“Get me outta heeeeere!”

Whew!

You won’t want to miss the next episode in the travelogue of Mother Goose where we check into The Silver Star Inn (for the third year in a row).