It’s Day 167 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I back down Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula, circled Green Bay, and continued southwest to the Field of Scenes in Freedom WI. The drive took less than two hours.

Tim and Brenda VandeWettering built the Field of Scenes from the ground up, surrounded by farmland, in 2003. The drive-in switched to digital projection in 2014 and added a second screen just last year. According to the Field of Scenes About Us page, their pictured but unnamed(!) children are taking over operations beginning this summer. (Don’t worry, a story last year in the Appleton Post-Crescent identified them as Taylor VandeWettering and his sister Brittni LeNoble.)

I included a 2013 report from WLUK, Green Bay’s News Leader, which had the questionable idea of doing a live morning-show remote of this drive-in theater. (A recorded segment from the night before would have looked much better!) Owner Tim was game, hauling out a wide sampling of concession stand treats, as you can see in the YouTube video above.

Mini-golf returned this summer, and there are a couple of hoops for patrons who bring their own basketballs. Or you can kill time before the movie the way I did, at the adjacent Fieldhouse Sports Bar.

Cars 3 is a perfect, family-friendly film to show at a drive-in. The original Cars, which features a drive-in at the end, was the last movie I saw at the Cinderella Twin, which was the closest drive-in to Carload World Headquarters in Denver. I wonder how many times I’ll be seeing it again over the next couple of weeks.

Miles Today / Total:  93 / 21785 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Cars 3 / 83

Nearby Restaurant: I took advantage of the Friday night fish fry and grand buffet at the Colonial House Supper Club. There were frog legs (yes, I know, technically not a fish) and perch and crab-stuffed mushrooms and so much more. I even ate some vegetables first so I could feel self-righteously healthy as I plowed through all the meats.

Where I Virtually Stayed: As Kris Kristofferson almost put it, Freedom’s just another word for nowhere left to stay. With no hotels in town, I drove nine miles to Kimberly for my first Hilton Garden Inn in a while. The price was particularly nice for an HGI, the amenities were their typically comfortable standard, and breakfast was free for me as a Hilton Gold member. Woohoo!

Only in Freedom: Just eight miles south of the Field of Scenes, you’ll find the authentic Dutch Little Chute Windmill. Authentic as in, it was built in the Netherlands from an 1850s design, then disassembled and shipped to its new home in Little Chute WI. A local nonprofit operates the windmill “as a tribute to Midwest’s Dutch heritage”.

Next stop: Chilton Twilight Drive-In Theater, Chilton WI.

It’s Day 166 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I took my first-ever trip up Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula, having driven from Shawano through Green Bay to the Skyway Drive-In Theatre northwest of Fish Creek and right across the highway from Peninsula State Park. The drive took less that two hours.

The Door County Pulse wrote that the Skyway first opened in July 1950, owned by Orville and Elton Voeks. (Elton sold his share to Orville in 1955.) According to the Pulse, “The screen was 46 x 50, the same as today. The Voeks showed foresight in building the screen to face the south, so a late-setting sun wouldn’t hit it. … The orange, yellow and pink marquee they built is still in use.”

Orville sold the Skway to Darrell “Wild Bill” and Eileen Jacobson in 1981. Their kids, Jeffrey and Dale Jacobson, took over in 1999.

The Skyway’s got a great history page on its web site. The site says that in times past, “prior to the movie, Orville or (Darrell) would drive up and down the rows in a 1955 Chevy, which was designed to release a mosquito-repelling fog.” That must have been a sight!

Speaking of old sights, I’ve embedded a 10-year-old YouTube video of a Door County “Explore the Door” travel show that celebrated the Skyway. The projector has changed, (digital was installed in 2013), but most of it’s still the same.

Honestly, Wonder Woman makes a very good movie to see at the drive-in. This marked the fifth time I’ve seen it in 10 days, including the second night in a row. That’s more than I would recommend.

Miles Today / Total:  105 / 21692 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Wonder Woman / 82

Nearby Restaurant: The White Gull Inn‘s cherry-stuffed French toast was a finalist in Good Morning America‘s Best Breakfast competition, so I was really glad the place also served breakfast at lunch. I had a half-order with some meat, because that really is a lot of French toast. Great stuff!

Where I Virtually Stayed: There’s a nice little place called Julie’s Park Cafe & Motel right across the street from the entrance to Peninsula State Park. There was good wifi and a fridge in my room.

Only in Fish Creek: Just six miles up Highway 42 from the Skyway is Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant, which has goats on its roof. It felt like deja vu because a few months ago I visited a place in Georgia called Goats on the Roof. Al Johnson’s doesn’t include them in the title, but you can watch them live on his Goat Cam.

Next stop: Field of Scenes, Freedom WI.

It’s Day 164 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I had another short- to medium-sized drive again, just an hour and a half from Lake Elmo MN across the border to the Stardust Twin Drive-In Theater, just northwest of Chetek WI.

The Stardust is one of those modern, 21st century drive-ins with a retro vibe. It opened in May 2008, owned by Paul and Marlys Javener. Paul Javener told the Wausau Daily Herald in 2015, “We wanted to give people an experience they and their kids are going to remember. Everyone who has ever gone to the drive-in as a kid fondly remembers it, including myself, so we wanted to keep that going.”

Some drive-in owners may want to skip to the next paragraph. Javener also said, “One of the perks of the drive-in is you can bring in a lot of your own treats and snacks, so we serve items that are more like a complete meal or that people can’t easily bring in on their own, like pizzas, burgers and breadsticks.”

The Stardust has a little bit of everything. There’s a shaded deck, a tractor-pulled train for kids, a playground, and lots of fun space-themed kitsch. There’s even a second screen, added about the time it converted to digital projection in 2011.

What a great time it was for me to visit. There was a new YouTube video (embedded above) posted just two days earlier. The second screen started with a blockbuster that had previously eluded me, The Mummy. Chicken taquitos from the concession stand filled me up, and hot fudge coffee kept me awake. Good times!

Miles Today / Total:  89 / 21396 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: The Mummy / 80

Nearby Restaurant: The day before I was off by a letter in thinking that Gorman’s Restaurant might be a German restaurant. This day I was reward with the little Chetek Cafe. It was so German it even offered German coffee. (When I think of German coffee, I think of the Munich train station with a stand offering “Coffee To Go” in those English words. But I digress.) I had the Jaeger Schnitzel with mushroom gravy for lunch. Wunderbar!

Where I Virtually Stayed: There are at least a dozen resorts on Prairie Lake next to Chetek, but for just one night, I thought it would be more appropriate to stay at a mom and pop motel. Or maybe that’s just mom, since it’s called Mamma’s Cottage. This is a humble, vintage, wood-themed (formerly the Oaks Motel) place, but my room had a mini-fridge, a microwave, and wifi, plus a very low price.

Only in Chetek: Every summer around the Fourth of July, Chetek holds its Liberty Fest. The celebration includes a softball tournament, helicopter rides, a horse pull, and of course, fireworks.

Next stop: Moonlight Outdoor Drive In, Shawano WI.