Sint-Truiden, Belgium + Galena, Illinois
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We did the second show of our #10KDrivewayTour in Little Rock, Arkansas!You can watch the video episode here!
The homeowner of the driveway hosting our most recent live episode has a 2020 Hyundai Palisade, and Alison is beyond obsessed. Lulu is obsessed with the Boulevard Brewing Company they visited in Kansas City, the beer was great, the people lovely, and their community involvement and zero-waste policies are inspiring!
Sticking with her obsession, Alison wants the 2020 Hyundai Palisade. Lulu is wishing for a way to share documents from her external drive to another device without using the cloud or wifi…which we don’t think is possible? RIght? Who knows. Clearly we are very tech savvy here.
We are currently on our #10KDrivewayTour, and on a pit stop took a tour of Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City. Alison was inspired by their brewing style inspiration and picked Belgium as her destination country! According to google it's where you can find the best beer in the world. Now, Alison doesn't like beer, but if she's going to like any one beer, it'd likely be the world's best. So it's off to Sint-Truiden, Belgium!
Before her search for a beer, she had to find an Airbnb. She landed on Land Van Engelingen, which has a very off-the-grid vibe going for it while just a mere 15 minute drive from the city. This stay has 7 bedrooms...in FIVE different water mills, converted into houses, of course. There's an additional house with a seating area around a wood-burning stove and an industrial grade kitchen. This idyllic locale deep in the valley of the Herk has room for up to 16 people, and has a fruit orchard and vegetable garden available to its guests. There's an ecological swimming pond, a greenhouse perfect for some any-season sunrise yoga, and plenty of room for a recommended "dew walk". Oh, and the on-site owners and their donkeys may be around! Booking the whole place is $2,000 a night, so full capacity each guest would pay $125 a night, making this a well-priced getaway for a group or family reunion!
For breakfast Alison heads to Venise, which is technically an ice cream parlor, or ijssalon, but they also have coffee and waffles available. They also have Cougnou, a Belgian holiday pastry that resembles a baby Jesus swaddled in a blanket…or something else entirely.
After her obligatory Belgian waffle stop, Alison goes for a wander in the Blue Forest. That's the nickname for The Hallerbos, the forested area in Halle that come spring time has bluebells blossoming like crazy. We're talking thick, dense, can-barely-see-the-ground amount of the flowers! Their blooming season is short-lived, you have to catch this fantastical forest's blue carpet from late April into May.
It's past noon at this point surely, so it's time to find that beer! Alison visits Brouwerij Wilderen, skips the available brewery tour and goes straight for the cafe where she gets one of the seven beers they have...perhaps the one that is whiskey infused and has a 10.2% alcohol content? That would really start the day drinking off right! Wilderen also has a distillery, and has gin, rum, whiskey, even a coffee liqueur offered. This sounds like the perfect place to pop in, a few times even to try their wide selection!
Next up is Beer School. Since this is imaginary she is going to assume that the instructors at Ku Leuven Institute for Beer Research in Brussels can cram their 3-week $3500 Malting and Brewing Technology course into a one day immersive lesson. Once she is beer-saavy, or as much so as can be accomplished in a day, she heads back to her Airbnb to put those skills and her recently-acquired bread-making skills to good use. Armed with ingredients for both and The Brewie Plus - a fully-automated all grain brewing machine costing $1499 - her afternoon will be well spent baking and brewing.
After an afternoon in, it’s time for an outing! While Belgium is renowned for awe-inspiring Gothic cathedrals, Alison opts to see Reading Between the Lines, a 33 ft (10 m) tall structure also known as the “See Through Church”. Belgian architectural duo Gijs Van Vaerenbergh created the sculpture in 2011 from columns and layers of steel plating, and it appears completely solid or completely see-through depending on your vantage point. It is only accessible by foot or bike, so Alison buys a bike (and bike rack for later) and works off all of the beer and bread calories from earlier.
For a devilishly good time, Alison ends her day at Le Cercueil - meaning “The Coffin” - a macabre theme bar in Brussels, touted as “The Devil’s own choice when he needs a drink”. Alison orders a cocktail whose ingredients include “corpse juice”, “vampire blood”, and “the devil’s sperm”. Umm, eeew.
Meeting interesting people here is not a problem, as the bar offers a speed-dating service! Ultraviolet neon lights “give potential lovers an eerie corpse-like appearance”! Alison is ready with glowing white demon contact lenses and a voice changer, she’s sure to spook or seduce, or maybe both.
What drew Lulu to a small town in northwest Illinois? That would be The Jail Hill Inn - TripAdvisor's #1 Bed & Breakfast in the US, #2 in the world (in 2019) - located in downtown Galena.
This luxury inn has some fantastic amenities, like a Tesla charging station and a complimentary 3-course breakfast served in-room if desired! Oh, and a wine and cheese tray delivered to your room every afternoon.
Lulu books Suite 301, which once housed a block of six jail cells for men, though is now "transformed into a personal spa retreat", complete with a KOHLER® Steam Shower. Historic jail details, such as carvings of prisoners’ names in the front window woodwork, as well as the original cement floor peeking through as the fireplace hearth, add to the charm and character! The 3-room suite comes with chocolates and chilled champagne waiting for you in your room upon arrival, which can be enjoyed fireside thanks to a gas fireplace in the bedroom. The room comes with complimentary house brand bath salts, and Lulu goes the extra mile to be on theme (of course!) and buys their old-school-convict-uniform inspired black and white striped bathrobe. That stop to the gift shop also took care of her souvenir shopping, with a deck of playing cards for Alison.
This may be the best experience we’ve ever done here at 10K Dollar Day. Lulu found Hoof It Galena, a family-run business that started with the desire to be more in touch with nature. The Rury family left city life to live with “dust in our hair, mud under our nails” and teach their children the value of a hard day’s work, giving them “a life many only dream about”.
Swoon, right? If 2020 didn’t already have you longing for simpler, more grounded days, this tidbit from their website might have you pondering an escape. By 2050, 66% of the world’s population is projected to live in cities and according to a study sponsored by the EPA, the average American spends 93% of his or her time indoors. Yikes!
So what is it that goes down at Hoof It? Goats. Nature. More goats. Adorable baby goats. More Nature.
Lulu starts her nature therapy excursion with Forest Bathing, a Japanese practice of taking in the forest with your senses, no goal other than immersion in silence and nature. Meandering is encouraged, as is curling up with a blanket in one of the lounge chairs or hammocks provided, whatever helps you decompress and relax. Ummm, yes…please.
Next is a Goat Walk & Bonfire. Literally walking trails with goats, followed by a bonfire under the stars with s’mores provided and beverages of your choice allowed. Both of these activities cost a combined total of $64. Just sixty-four dollars. We see you checking the driving distance between your home and Galena, Illinois.
Unique virtual experiences are keeping the world sane right now. Anything to shake the if-one-more-email-greets-me-with-the-phrase-“unprecendented times”-I’m-going-to-lose-it state of mind will do. How about having a goat join your next Zoom meeting? Seriously. Starting at $40 for 15 minutes you can have a goat join your call…and it can ever wear company branded merchandise like a hat or a t-shirt if you send ahead of time. Or for $100 you can go on a 30-minute trek with 6 goats (3 adults, 3 babies). How delightful is that?!?
Combining her love of souvenir shopping and all things savory, Lulu stops at Galena Garlic Company to purchase fresh garlic and soup starter kits. They have 20 unique flavors of soup, so Lulu buys one of each! She's particularly looking forward to the Arizona Sunset Enchilada soup, Idaho Outpost Potato Leek soup, and Florida Sunshine Red Pepper Corn Chowder.
Next she heads to Blaum Bros. Distilling Company to take their $10 tour…interesting to note that If your birth name is 'Gus' and you can prove it, your tour is free. A tasting and a bottle of Blaum Bros. Rye to take home makes for a great stop.
Lulu is missing precedented times where ones evening could consist of dinner and a show. She starts her night with a private show with P.T. Murphy, Galena’s master magician, the #1 Galena attraction on TripAdvisor. Then, listen, she doesn’t care how on-the-nose it is, Lulu is ordering the fried green tomatoes at Fried Green Tomatoes as well as a Jack Daniels porterhouse steak.
Now for the perfect end to her day, Lulu is heading back to her suite at The Jail Hill Inn, which you may remember we mentioned has a KOHLER® Steam Shower. She is going to turn this luxury bathroom feature into the perfect in-house spa-night. First things first, gonna need some soothing music with this hang up bluetooth speaker that sticks on the wall!
She buys this $935 AromaPro HVAC, a “total home or business scenting solution”, essentially an industrial-grade large space essential oil diffuser. Could do a whole house, or a hotel bathroom, in this case. You need 500ml of essential at a time in this machine, to give some perspective, a typical essential oil bottle size is 15ml. No big deal, just gonna drop $5500 on Neroli Essential Oil, also known as ‘orange blossom’ is one of the priciest essential oils out there. We’re talking a cost of $220 for your typical essential oil bottle size. It takes about 1000 lbs (~450 kg) of orange blossoms to make 1 lb. of Neroli oil, hence the hefty price tag. This expensive AF oil is useful in combating depression, frigidity, insomnia, and is also touted as able to “restore feelings of well being”.
Wanting to balance her conscience with the amount of water her spa setup will use, Lulu turns to CarbonFund.org to determine how much to donate to offset her water usage.
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