So my Sista had made plans with me months ago to do a thang… walk with goats at Hoof It just outside of Galena Illinois. I really couldn’t say no to that. Although I had hoped to take the bike and the weather was perfect for it, I couldn’t find any female takers who also ride. However, my trusty friend, Emily, was up for the adventure, so she joined me.
We stopped on our way there in Dodgeville on Saturday for lunch at Bob’s Bitchin BBQ and it was excellent! We arrived at the motel I booked, Grant Hills, right around check in at 3 p.m. and we agreed to hit the pool there for a while before needing to get ready to meet Lori and Dale at Frank O’Dowds for dinner at 7. Hence the name, they had a lot of traditional Irish dishes on the menu, even poutine with Guiness, and it was super yummy!
Although there was a hot-air balloon race and balloon glow that evening near our motel, it got pretty late by the time we were done visiting over dinner and just went back to the motel.
The next morning after checking out Emily and I ventured into town to check out some of the historical buildings and the original estate of Ulysses S. Grant. This town definitely requires way more than just an overnight stay to take everything in, even though the population is only just over 3k.
From there we had to get to Hoof It for our walk time of 10 a.m. The owner had the same kind of goats my friend Ron has, Bore and Nigerian Dwarf. It included a mile walk on some old logging trails on their property and we stopped several times to learn more about the property’s history, the goats, to feed them and for photo ops. It was a real Hoof of a time!
After that we ventured into downtown Galena with a planned stop for lunch/burgers at Durty Gurts Burger Joynt, and that was excellent too!
There are so many shops, eateries, boutiques, etc. downtown and it was really bustling, so we had to park four blocks away and hoof it (get it?) to the restaurant.
Again, visiting this town definitely requires and deserves more than two days, but I highly recommend it!
Thank you Sista for thinking of me and planning this. It was so much fun seeing you and Dale!!!
