USITT, Milwaukee and a Quick Wisconsin Road Trip

Professional

Mar 27

I'm back from the USITT conference and a little spring break road trip. This was my first time back in Milwaukee since 1990 (when I attended USITT the last time it was there), and this city has really come a long way since then. I was happy with the way our sessions went (although, of course, I forgot to take any pictures), all my books sold out, and all in all it was a great time. One cool thing was a tour of Rockwell Automation, including their high current testing lab, where they do full load testing of electrical gear up to 100,000 amps (!). As you can see from the char marks in the photo below, not all of the gear survives this testing.

We also got to tour their materials and environmental testing labs and got to visit the clock tower. More photos here.

I led a group to the excellent Safe House (which I last visited in 1990), where one friend who didn't know the password had to dance like the Easter Bunny in order to get in:

Jamie A, John A and I also went to several cool bars, including the fun and dive-y Y Not II:

After the conference ended I stopped by the Midwest Gaming Classic, where my friend Maya N had competed the day before:

I also went to see the excellent Harley-Davidson museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum in a beautiful building on the lakefront, and then the Brewcity Bruisers roller derby:

More photos here. I had planned my trip to stay around a few extra days in the hopes that there would be some weather to chase, but there wasn't. So I went to the excellent Harley Davidson motor factory tour (no photos allowed), which was excellent. Makes me want to buy one...

I then took a quick run north to see if I could get a couple shots with the new D600 camera on the lake. Unfortunately the weather didn't allow any decent light, but I grabbed a few out of the stratus-murk.