Public Enemies

We're back from our short stay in the beautiful North Woods of Wisconsin. We had a great dinner at the Little Bohemia Lodge, the sight of the infamous gunfight between John Dillinger and his gang and the FBI.

We drove past the Lodge on the main highway on the way to the cabin, so when we hopped in the car to go to dinner, I teased Uncle Lynn for hooking up the GPS. Men and their gadgets!

We followed the directions until it had us turn left AWAY from where we thought the Lodge was.

"Let's just follow it" Lynn said, so we wove through the woods, between small lakes and tall trees for miles. One of us commented that it would make more sense to have a hide-out back in the woods than on Highway 51, so we kept following the Garmin. Finally, we looked up the address to the Lodge, and found ourselves at the end of what seemed to be a long driveway. By then, I was willing to follow its directions and go down the road to my dinner! But Lynn said it must be someone's house, so we went back through the woods to the highway and found the Lodge.

When we had ordered a drink in the bar.

Lynn told the bartender that we took the "long way " to find the Lodge. "Let me guess," he said. "You have a GPS!" Turns out that the previous owner worked from a home office, and had his home address as the mailing address for the Lodge. Despite numerous phone appeals, the GPS folks have not made this change. Imagine the traffic in the woods during the making of the film Public Ememies this summer! All those women trying to get a glimpse of Johnny Depp!

The gangsters were having dinner in the private dining room at the end of the main Lodge. The original windows have been preserved, complete with bullet holes.

There are also bullet holes in the wall, directly across from those windows.

The food was great, and not expensive. We had a little adventure finding the place. If you want to learn more about the Little Bohemia Lodge and it's history, go to http://www.littlebohemialodge.com/. It's very interesting. And when you see the film Public Enemies, which now I HAVE to see, you will have some background. And if you go there, forget the fancy GPS. It's right on highway 51! (must not have been so well traveled in the 1920's)

Candid Carrie, who's also from Wisconsin, brought you this travelogue as part of her Friday Foto Finish Fiesta.