June 14: Moonlight Outdoor Drive In, Shawano WI

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It’s Day 165 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I bounced down from Chetek WI to Eau Claire then turned east, driving about three hours to reach the Moonlight Outdoor Drive In in Shawano.

The Moonlight is one of those drive-ins that opened next to an existing indoor theater, in this case, the Shawano Cinema. According to Movies By Twilight, the Moonlight opened in September 2000, with the parking area fully developed by the next season. The screen came from Grafton’s 57 Outdoor Theater, which had built it about 10 years before it closed in 1985.

A 2011 article in the Shawano Leader indicated that the indoor theater had switched to digital projection by then but the drive-in was still using film. Owner Tim Suick lowered the admission price as a result, telling the newspaper, “We don’t have as many first-run movies showing outdoors because more and more movies are only coming out in digital, so we wanted to make it more attractive for customers.”

Julie Boucher, Shawano Cinema general manager, said then that weekends averaged 25-30 vehicles for the drive-in.

I was glad to continue my streak of consecutive movie nights (up to 13 now) even though it was the fourth time I saw Wonder Woman. It’s really a pretty good drive-in movie.

Miles Today / Total:  191 / 21587 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Wonder Woman / 81

Nearby Restaurant: It had been a while since I had some pizza, so I was happy to stop by Luigi’s Pizza & Pasta. I had a regular-crust pizza with plenty of vegetables, so I could say I was eating healthy. I was so proud of myself that I also had a cannoli for dessert.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Here’s another regional hotel chain that’s new to be – the Boarder’s Inn. My basic room didn’t have a fridge (that’s just for the suites here), but the wifi was very good and the hot breakfast in the morning was a great way to get the day started.

Only in Shawano: No trip to Shawano would be complete without a visit to Twig’s Beverage Museum. Twig’s Beverage was started in 1951 by Floyd “Twig” Hartwig. The museum tour includes bottling, history, knick-knacks, and samples. And the best part is that it’s free, except for the souvenirs and six-packs for sale in the gift shop.

Next stop: Skyway Drive-In Theatre, Fish Creek WI.

June 13: Stardust Twin Drive-In Theater, Chetek WI

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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.

New Drive-In Opening Soon in Maine

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Worker at the top of wooden poles building the drive-in screen

photo from the Narrow Gauge Cinema Facebook page

There’s great news from Farmington ME this week. According to the Franklin Sun Journal, the Farmington Planning Board gave its approval to a new Big Sky Drive-In adjacent to the Narrow Gauge Cinema in town. It’s a darned good thing the board went along because, as the photos here and in the Sun Journal story show, construction of the screen was already well underway.

Owner John Moore said the drive-in would hold up to 60 cars. When asked whether its driveways were wide enough, Moore told the board he had traveled the space with a 7½-foot plow on his truck all winter.

I know that sharing the concession stand infrastructure between several screens helps the economics of anything like this project, but I especially love this quote as the perfect reason why an indoor / outdoor movie combination is such a great idea. “(Moore) believes there will be a balance between the two, as during good weather, which is perfect for drive-in movies, the cinema is slow. It picks up on rainy summer days when drive-in attendance would slow down, he said.”

They plan to open the drive-in during this summer. Although 60 cars sounds a little small, I’m sure the Big Sky can be a great success.