Driving through the Chequamegon Nicolet forest on a business trip this week, I was reminded that there are amazingly vast stretches of northern Wisconsin that are so sparsely populated that it hints at what the place might have looked like before people started tromping through it. And then we’d pass by the radio-controlled “Elk Crossing” signs complete with flashing warning lights and the illusion would be spoiled.

Also, that there are many villages and towns were they just don’t do lunch. North of Wausau, we wandered from one crossroads town to another looking for a diner where we could get a bite to eat and didn’t find one until we were almost on the shores of Lake Superior. On the plus side, I was good and hungry by then.

Final tought: It’s just possible we may have reached a critical mass on the number of Culver’s restaurants that will fit in the strip malls along the interstate. There seem to be more of them than Starbucks now. Not sure about that. Somebody should do a count.