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Every night I have a set dog walking route that involves a swing through downtown Dodgeville. My dog knows the time we go, route we go and about how long it should take. The ritual is the same. Dog goes, I follow head down listening to music with my ear buds.
A week ago we were on our route and out of the corner of my eye I saw a group of dozen or so elderly people waving their arms at me as they were walking down the sidewalk window shopping. I pulled my ear bud out and they yelled that they wanted me to cross the street and come see them.
I thought maybe they needed directions or just wanted to compliment me on my physique. However, once I crossed street I found out what they really wanted was to see my dog. My retired racing Greyhound is known to be a head turner and loves to soak up the attention, while his owner stands by waiting patiently.
They were a wonderful group of people and had a slight accent so I asked them were they were from and they said southern Ohio. They related to me their group has been traveling on summer trips together for years and has been to every state in the union.
They then proceeded to tell me in all their years of travel and all the people they have met, they have never been to an area like this. They said there is no place else in the good old USA where the people are as friendly as they are in this area.
They originally only planned on staying in the area for a couple days, but after the treatment they got they decided to stay in the area for their entire two week vacation. The group spoke of time spent in Spring Green, Dodgeville, Mineral Point and the surrounding towns. One of the ladies told me their trip was almost over and they still hadn't run into anyone that had given them bad service or wasn't just downright "friendly."
I told them growing up here this is just the way we all are and it's the norm to treat people with respect, regardless where they are from. They told me they couldn't wait to get home and tell their famlies and friends about what a wonderful area we have here and next year they want to come back.
You can spend a lot of money on advertising to draw tourists to the area, but nothing beats word of mouth. By the way this group acted, by now I think probably most of Southern Ohio knows about Southern Wisconsin.
It's a true testament to the people, the attractions and just shows how great it is to live in an area where one of the biggest selling points are the people themselves. We should all be proud!