ouch...any ideas on a ball park on flying into Boston or San Fran? And are there direct flights for those cities?

just a quick google on house prices, and the top level housing is still cheaper than entry level housing where I'm living, found a gaff with a half acre and a six car garage, a mortgage would be less than what we're paying in rent on our apartment, and that's factoring in the property tax etc....kind of depressing.

Though the thought of cutting that much grass is the other flip side to a decent sized gaff

Invariably, most trips involve a connection, and a lot of the connections get delayed, particularly during rain or bad weather.

O'Hare is bad enough for delays that you're probably better off just driving to and from there. The airport is overcapacity, so when the weather gets bad, it's the minor flights to places like Madison that get put onto the O'Hare back burner.

Most but not all of the time Bob, it's cheaper to fly in and out of the big hubs and drive to where you need to go, unless it's a place Southwest et al flies. Like cheaper to fly into Logan and drive to Portland or Bangor then to fly into them.

O'Hare is bad even on a good day. I believe they are in the process of adding more runways to the airport. However due to it's current runway configuration it's designed for congestion. That's why I always fly into Midway. Plus it's closer to downtown Chicago.

I do know in that area that there are shuttles that run between the two airports to places in Wisconsin. I know my sister flew into O'Hare when her final destination was Milwaukee. She took a shuttle bus from there into Milwaukee. They might do the same for Madison proper.

I have flown through O'Hare a lot. When the weather is OK, it generally works. Add a little weather, and everything goes to hell. Doesn't necessary matter if you're connecting to a major city, but connecting to a minor town, delays are essentially guaranteed. (I've been marooned all night in other cities because all of the flights to and from O'Hare were out of commission.)

Taking a shuttle or bus sounds like a good idea. Here's an airport bus, although I can't comment on the service: http://www.coachusa.com/vangalder/ss.tickets.asp

My girlfriend went to UW Madison and lived there for 5 years in total. I've been a few times and I absolutely loved it everytime. Very liberal, great bars and nightlife, utterly beautiful during the summer...it really is fantastic. I was born in London and now live in NY and I've always said that I could never live in a small town, but Madison is the one place that isnt one of the major 'global' cities that I could imagine living in.

If you go, head down to the union and have beers on the terrace. The farmers market on sunday mornings is great too. If you want to visit to check it out, the Edgewater is a nice reasonably priced hotel. Oh yeah, and the essenhaus is great. It's german style beer hall where you drink beer out of glass boots!

The only slightly negative thing that I would say is that it is very much a college town, so downtown Madison (i.e. State Street and the surrounding areas) can be very very rowdy on weekend nights. Sometimes it's a good thing, but obviously if you want a quiet night it can be hard.

Other than that very small thing (and the weather of course) i cant reccomend it highly enough.

p.s. Ive done the drive several times and if you jump on I-90 it's 2 hours to Chicago.

I must have been lucky, I've flown in and out of O'Hare around 15 times and I've never had a delay of more than 1 hour...although I think they give priority to the international flights...

Any delay is bad when you have a connecting flight to make. However O'Hare is notorious for delays along with the majors in NYC.

that sounds like Newark - except for the "when the weather is OK, it generally works" bit

I've never had a flight leave on time from JFK or La Guardia! Newark is pretty good though.

If memory serves, Newark has the worst on-time record of any major US airport.

In your dreams it's 2 hours. You couldn't do that in a McLaren F1 on a Sunday morning at 3am.

Jim.

Middleton is situated just west of Madison. The Company I drive for takes Middleton High School on their road trips. Well run school, and Middleton looks to be a decent place to live.

Lots of recreational activities nearby, too many to list. However, there are quite a few State Parks within easy reach. Baseball Games, you can go to Milwaukee and watch the Brewers play the Cubs. It's usually a sell out, and the atmosphere is great. But, being English....you really shouldn't give a shit about Baseball anyway!

O'Hare is at least 3 hrs away. It's 145 miles by road, but, there are frequent delays on I-90 on a good day. Van Galder offers an express Coach Service, from Madison to O'Hare with departures every hour.

I'm 90 minutes south of Middleton, in Dubuque, Iowa. Lots to offer there, too. Low crime rates, like Middleton and a low cost of living. I pay around $600 in property taxes per year.

More info if you wish to PM me.

Jim.

Hey Bob I have several friends at the place I believe you're looking at (Raven?) and they all love the area. A relatively large change from where they came from but ultimately better for family life, financial sanity and overall quality of life compared to city living.

we VERY nearly went that way ourselves and may yet make the move in the next few years depending on circumstance.