Best Friends From Wisconsin – Barb Brush and Roxanne Marston

Barb Brush and Roxanne Marston from Madison and Baraboo, Wisconsin

Barb Brush and her long-term best friend, Roxanne Marston (both from Wisconsin), just happened to be going to the right quilting show at the right time. While these two inseparable friends were on their way to see expert weavers, quilters and sewers, Barb got an unexpected call from her husband who insisted that she stop over to Runde’s and take a look at a Lexus that might suit her, and boy did it ever. While here, she kept saying how it felt like family, so we did what families do – sat down, got to know her and chatted for a while…

What brought you into Runde PreDriven today?
Barb:  A phone call. We were on our way to a quilt show and I got a phone call from my husband who knew I was looking for a car. He was looking online and found a car I might be interested so he called and said I should stop by and gave me Runde’s phone number. So we called and got Al Kloft who directed us to this place and showed us the Lexus.

That might be one of the most spontaneous things I’ve heard in a while…
Yes, it was great and we loved the Lexus so we just decided to buy the car.

Where are you from?
Barb: I’m from Baraboo, Wisconsin
Roxanne: I’m from Madison, Wisconsin
I go up to Devils Lake in Baraboo every so often, very relaxing and beautiful place…

You two seem like very good friends. How long have you known each other?
Probably about 40 years or so. We used to be next door neighbors when our kids were small and our friendship just got stronger ever since.

How did you like your experience here at Runde’s?
It was really friendly and very laid back. We didn’t experience any pressure or anything like that. We would both come here again. You guys have a lot of vehicles…

We have over 1,300 vehicles in stock in four different locations.
Thir-Teen-Hundred!? Wow.

On a scale of 1-10 what would you rate your Sales Person, Al Kloft?
Roxanne: Oh a 10, for sure.
Barb: Oh yeah, no doubt, he’s a real likeable guy. Really laid back and easy to deal with. He loves to talk but it’s always entertaining and makes you feel comfortable. No pressure… I found it unusual that he seemed to let us make our own decisions and encouraged us to be sure about our purchase, not something you find anywhere else. And he let us have some of his strawberries.

What do you like to do in your hometowns?
We are both retired now, so it’s a little different than it used to be. But we like to keep busy with our grand-kids, travel, go on motorcycle rides, various projects, and we keep active in our communities. I used to like skiing when I was healthier.

I’m sure you like to quilt as well?
OH YES, I love to quilt. I started that a few years back. I have my own space, my “woman’s cave” that I go to quilt. It’s much more peaceful than a “man’s-cave”… My husband has one of those, I call it “toy barn” it’s a whole building next to our house.

What are these quilt shows all about?
Barb: They are all beautiful hand-made Amish quilts. They have the quilts strung up and people can buy them. It’s basically just a good reason for Roxanne and I to get together and have a good time. We used do road-trips to Minneapolis to shop and be together every year. Now we go to Kalona for the quilt show and stop in Galena on our way back… we’ve been doing that for quite a few years. But we’ve never went on a trip where we bought a car on the way *both laugh*

I was confused with all the buttons in the new car at first. There were two buttons on the door that said “1” and “2” and I pressed “2” and the seat started to move forward, I thought it was going to crush me into the steering wheel! I later learned that it was memory seating, pretty neat feature.

Do you like to travel?
Barb: Yes, we both travel quite a bit, my husband and I absolutely loved Alaska and would like to go back and spend a little more time up there. We were also talking about going to Russia.
Roxanne: My husband is a travel agent so I’ve been lucky to go on a lot of trips and see a lot of different places. We’re going to Australia in August. It’s great now that we have all the time to do it.

Do you have any pets?
Barb: We have a black lab named Gretchen who is a fetchin’ maniac. We are going to put up a sign at our house: “do not throw sticks around dog” because she will go and find that exact stick and keep bringing it back to the person who threw it. If you don’t she will keep begging for you to throw it and she will never tire. You’ll have to throw it 1,000 times before she does tire.

See any decent movies recently?
Barb: I saw “The Kings Speech” which got great reviews and awards. I thought I’d see what all the talk was about but I wasn’t too impressed. I thought it was a good movie but not worth that much praise.
We don’t get much time to watch movies, though. We are usually doing something else. We are both golfers and we like to ride motorcycles. Once a year my husband and I go on a long bike ride… we’ve ridden to Colorado, California, up through Canada… it’s really fun. We also usually do political rides.

Political Rides?
It’s basically when you ride around with political candidates and the candidates go around to local communities and chat with all the folks and get their names out in the public. There’s a little group of people who go and it usually takes about a week… we typically ride around with the governor of Wisconsin.

Sounds like the funnest part of politics, ever.
Yes, it really is!

Do you have any last comments before you scoot out of here and on to your quilt show ?
Barb: I would highly recommend Runde’s. It’s interesting that we just stumbled upon this great place. I’ve been to Lexus Dealers… they don’t call their salesmen “Car Salesman” they are “Auto Executives”. You don’t get that kind of snobby feel from Runde’s.
Roxanne: My husband has the same Lexus as the one Barb just bought. When we need to get a new vehicle we will go to Runde’s first.

I’m happy to hear you found your gem at Runde’s. We’re glad that you had a great experience and hope you have a blast at the quilt show and then a safe trip back to Wisconsin!