Sunday May 20th, 2012 – Peru, IN/Fox Lake, IL
It was nice to be able to pick up a few bucks last night, but I still had to make the dreaded drive home at some point. I should have been home Friday night, but I kept putting it off seeing friends along the way. I love visiting friends, but that doesn’t change the fact I’ve got to get back home.
One of the few things that still makes a drive even the slightest bit interesting is if I take a route I haven’t taken hundreds of times in the past. Way too often it ends up an extremely boring drive on an Interstate Highway where there’s nothing new to see. Today I made sure I didn’t do that.
I stayed on two lane roads as much as possible and drove through some smaller towns I haven’t been through in many years, if ever. Despite the fact Indiana is flat as a board, it was fun to drive through the towns and take in the scenery. I hadn’t been through Marion in years, and on this day with picture perfect weather it was an enjoyable experience – much better than a dull Interstate.
One of the towns I don’t recall ever passing through is Peru. For whatever reason, I don’t think I’ve ever had reason to go there. If I did, I’d have surely remembered the hot dog restaurant there with the delightful name of “Mr. Weenie”. Who could ever forget a name like that? I had to stop.
I can’t believe that isn’t a worldwide franchise. What an outstanding name. It has a cheesy logo to go with it, and I mean that with the utmost respect. It caught my eye from several blocks away and I immediately took a picture of the sign with my cell phone – and I rarely take any pictures.
It’s the same reaction I get daily from my ‘URANUS 2’ license plate and ‘I (heart) URANUS’ bumper sticker. It strikes the chord of the nine year old in all of us, and it’s just plain funny. I had to stop and snap that picture, and noticed they also sold t-shirts that say “It’s Mr. Weenie Time!”
Now who wouldn’t think that’s big time funny? I asked one of the teenagers who worked there if the owner was in. They said no but if I wanted to leave my info they’d pass it along. They said it’s been open for 50 or 60 years, and I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of it before. It’s pure genius.
I had to order a couple of hot dogs just out of respect. An idea that pure doesn’t come along all that often, and I can’t believe it hasn’t been taken and marketed. The hot dogs were delicious and dirt cheap to boot, even though I haven’t been eating many hot dogs with my diabetes diagnosis.
I can’t believe I’m the only one that would think that. I left my info with the teenagers working and asked that they please forward it to the owner. If I don’t get a call back I’m going to go after this until I get an answer. I can totally see making this a part of the Uranus umbrella of products.
This one is a winner. The owner saw it enough to offer t-shirts for sale, and I doubt if I was the only one to have this reaction. The secret is to find the way to get the rights to be able to pull the most money out of the concept. It obviously hasn’t been done yet, as I’d never heard of it before.
This is the kind of stuff that makes life a fun adventure. If nothing else, it reignited my passion and desire to create my own products and become more entrepreneurial. My mail order books all talk about finding a product and then creating a new market that buys it. It IS Mr. Weenie time!
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