Flying Time.

Where does time go, we have been enjoying ourselves here but a couple of weeks have slipped away again; we had originally planned to spend one month in Wisconsin and we have been here nearly that long already. We have made some progress on our “to do” list but the majority of our time has been spent relaxing and visiting with family and friends; we have added some new followers to the blog and we feel the need to apologize for the lack of adventure and entries.

Last week there was a pizza party at the campground followed by Bingo and the Packer game. The pizza was good and everyone seemed to be having a good time, this is a fun group. Sandy and John have made appointments to have both vehicles serviced and made some calls in reference to upcoming appointments with our doctors so we continue to chip away at our list.

 

It took a few pizza ovens to feed everyone.

 

There was a large assortment of pizza and bread sticks.

 

Everyone chipped in for pizza or gas or something, it had nothing to do with the Packer Game.

 

John looks hungry or cranky.

 

Norm takes pictures for his office display.

 

This week we took Sandy’s Father (Leo), out for lunch and we stopped at Rainbow’s End so he could see the campground and watch Sandy put KoKo through some agility work. The following evening Sandy’s brother Mike and his wife Pat stopped to visit; it was nice to spend a little time alone with them.  We drove to Fond du Lac on Thursday for John’s dental appointment and to have lunch with his Uncle Ed, Aunt Joyce, Aunt Rita and Cousin Joan; we last saw Ed and Joyce last March in Mesa so it was good to see them and visit with Rita and Joan. Thursday evening there was another get together at Oscar’s trailer for the Packer game. Friday was cleaning day and John completed a project on some cabinet doors in the mothership; there will be a separate entry on that project.

 

KoKo was wore out after an agility display for Leo.

 

Yesterday we had a visit from Deb and Dave, we hate to call them old friends but Deb, Dave and John went to high-school together and worked at Saint Agnes Hospital for our after school jobs; we aren’t old, we have just known each other for a long time! Deb and Dave own an RV and follow our blog; they asked some good questions about our experiences and methods we use while traveling. Dave also reminded us that we haven’t posted anything for a while, we heard that comment a couple of times yesterday so we got busy on this entry. It was great to see them and visit but the afternoon flew by far to quickly.

 

It was great to visit with Deb and Dave.

Race Night.

We have been keeping busy with family visits and planning for some upcoming appointments. We changed sites on Thursday morning and Thursday evening attended the races at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna. Tonight there is a pizza party at the campground as a warm-up for the Packer Game and the NASCAR Bristol Race; this retirement stuff sure keeps us busy.

We are now on site #21, this site opened and we were asked if we wanted to move; we were hesitant because it was a 30 amp hookup, Norm (the campground owner), went to work and installed a 50 amp service, added gravel and leveled the site for us, talk about rolling out the red carpet! This site opened when the annual tenants Bill and Carrie had to return to Arizona, we now have a nicely landscaped corner site with a 300 gallon dump tank so this was a nice move for us.

 

Our new site at Rainbow’s End has a nice yard for KoKo to romp in.

 

Ed Manders is an old friend of ours, he and his son Corey own a race car and another old friend (Corey’s Uncle David), is a member of their pit crew so we drove to Kaukauna to watch them race. It happened to be a special race night so although we only saw Corey in one race all the events were feature races with additional laps. Corey started his race in the 7th place and advanced to 2nd before a faulty fuel pump slowed his car, he finished a very respectable 4th. It was nice to see Ed and his family that now includes a granddaughter.

 

 

Corey had a fast car to start the race with.

 

The car was set up well and he advanced to 2nd place before he lost some power due to a mechanical problem.

 

There were a lot of cars and a number of classes racing; Sandy got some decent images with our small camera.

 

We enjoyed the comment on the back of this winning car.

 

These are Limited Late Models on the half mile.

 

It was an expensive night for #1.

 

 

These are Super Late Models, they clicked off 75 very fast laps without a caution.

 

It came down to these two for the win.

 

Sandy even got the winning move…

 

and the winner doing donuts.

 

The figure 8 race is always a hoot.

 

The action isn’t always at the intersection.

 

But the intersection is always exciting.

 

My side hurt from laughing when this was over, it was a fun night.

 

On Friday we stopped at the Court House to pay for John’s health insurance, while we were there we spent another two hours talking to a number of old friends who are still working; this time we even got to the Information Services Department where Sandy worked. We also picked up our recognition plaques, we were not present to receive them from the County Board last January, very nice! 

 

 

Sweet Corn Season.

The past week went fast for us, we visited with Sandy’s father and stepmother, did some shopping and ate well while catching up with old friends. We have also been checking on servicing the mothership and CRV; our favorite mechanic lost his home shop to a divorce so we will be taking it to where he works his day job, he can do the work there but we will pay their regular shop rate which will add to the cost. The CRV seems to be wearing a back tire unevenly so we will get it into the dealership and try to get it covered as warranty work. The weather has been extra swampy over the past week, it is better today but is still plenty humid.

Our shopping day was a bit expensive, the costliest item was a new lap-top for Sandy but we had planned for this update and had the money set aside. To level our tow bar we ordered a 4 inch drop for our receiver hitch, John has been looking for the drop hitch but was unable to find one so we ordered here while we are parked for a while.

Our friends that keep their trailers here for the season were all here this weekend so we went out Friday for a fish-fry, took the golf carts into Reedsville for an ice-cream dessert and sat around Oscar’s fire ring that evening. Saturday night was Packer night, everyone got together at Todd and Judy’s trailer to watch the game and have a few “adult beverages”.

Also on Saturday the owner of the campground, Norm, had a corn-roast, he buys the sweet corn and invites everyone staying in the park, most everyone brings a dish to pass. Norm says that he considers the park regulars as his family and this is one way he shows his appreciation for them. Sweet corn season is one of the good things about August in Wisconsin, it really takes John back to the days of his father’s garden and loading his wagon with corn, then going door to door in the neighborhood to sell it for 35 cents a dozen, of coarse we kept plenty for ourselves to eat.

 

Lots of food for the corn roast.

 

The table with the corn, butter and salt was a busy place.

 

Plenty of people showed up for supper.

 

John has been trained in the art of avoiding the kitchen but he helped out at the grill so Norm could relax a little.

 

We grilled about 20 dozen cobs, John also helped eat it.

Family, Friends And Optimists.

We have been busy for the past week catching up with family and friends, one of those friends is a member of the Chilton Optimist Club and they invited us to speak about our full-time RV lifestyle at this morning’s meeting. We spent some time preparing an outline that condensed the 11 years of considering and planning into a 20 minute presentation.

Sandy’s sister Shirley, husband Alan and their family were here last weekend to attend a reunion of Alan’s family but Sandy and John were able to meet them for pizza Thursday evening; on Friday we attended a get together with the rest of her family for supper. In addition to the above we also had a chance to visit with Sandy’s father, brother’s and family on a couple of other occasions.

We also want to thank our old neighbors Jackie and Dave for stopping here last evening to visit, it was nice to see them and do some catching up. Jackie and Dave have a seasonal spot for their trailer at another local campground so it was nice to talk to them about their experience at that campground.

We were up early this morning to drive into Chilton for the 6:30AM Optimist Meeting; it was the first time in awhile that John was awake before 6:00AM. The club asked us to talk about the following topics: how did we prepare for the change in lifestyle, the sale of our house and possessions, where do we call home, where is our residency, places we have visited, and our plans for the future. We had prepared and practiced our outline and although we had to rush we were able to do the presentation in 22 minutes and then answer several good questions. We would like to thank the Optimists for the opportunity to speak at their meeting, breakfast, and for the great reception we received.

 

Sandy starts our presentation and shows them an image of our home and tow vehicle.

 

John did have a chance to speak.

 

We had a good audience.

 

As long as we were up early we stopped at the Courthouse to see some of our friends and former coworkers. We had planned to visit several offices, we started at the Sheriff’s Department where we spent 3 hours catching up with a number of people; we enjoyed the visit but it was getting close to noon so we returned to Rainbows End to check on KoKo. We will return to the Courthouse at a later date to see some more old friends.

Mariners Trail.

Yesterday we drove to Lake Michigan and parked between Two Rivers and Manitowoc to take a walk on Mariners Trail. This paved trail runs along the lakeshore for 6 miles from Two Rivers to Manitowoc; on a warm summer day it is a nice place to walk, run, bicycle or roller blade. From our starting point we walked a little over 2.5 miles to Manitowoc; we checked out the harbor and marina then returned to the car where we ate our lunch before returning to Reedsville.

One of our favorite bicycle rides is from the campground at Point Beach State Park to Manitowoc via the Rawley Point Trail and the Mariners Trail. The Rawley Point Trail begins in the campground and winds it’s way through the forest and open terrain into Two Rivers, this trail is hard-packed gravel. In Two Rivers we ride along the lakeshore on city streets to the Mariners Trail; if we are ambitious we ride the Mariners Trail to Manitowoc or turn around at some point along the lake, we generally pack a lunch on this ride so we can take a break along the trail.

 

There are numerous spots to sit and watch Lake Michigan or have a picnic along Mariners Trail.

 

In the distance you can see Manitowoc from our starting spot.

 

Great day and place for a sailboat.

 

Getting closer to Manitowoc, the dome is the Court House.

 

The sailboat passes the harbor entrance.

 

The S.S. Badger  was in the harbor getting ready for the return trip to Ludington Michigan.

 

So you think your RV is expensive to maintain!, the stern indicates it’s  home port is Chicago.

 

The mast is huge.

 

We start off on our return trip down the trail.

 

 

The Badger gets underway.

Back Where We Started From.

After 202 days, 35 campgrounds and 6,538 miles on the mothership we are back in northeast Wisconsin. We will spend the next two months at Rainbow’s End Campground in Reedsville, we are less than 15 miles west of Manitowoc and Lake Michigan. Yesterday we had a nice 190 mile drive from the west side of the state, we didn’t take the most direct route as we chose to drive southeast on I-90/94 then east on State Hwy 60 and northeast on US Hwy 151. The most direct route would have been State Hwy 21 but it is two lanes with a number of small cities and villages to slow for; there was also some road construction on several other roads we would have taken to US Hwy 10 which runs past the campground so we chose a longer but easier route.

 

I-90/94 north of Madison WI.

 

Hwy 60 eastbound toward Columbus.

 

The US 151 bypass around Fond du Lac (where John grew up (or did he ever grow up?) ).

 

North of Fond du Lac US 151 offers a view of Lake Winnebago.

 

Back in Calumet County (we both worked for Calumet).

 

John patrolled these roads for a long time, back in the day this intersection (151 and Indian Road), was a good fishin hole for John and his radar.

 

Back in Chilton at Chestnut St. and Grand St. our sticks and bricks home was a block to the right on Grand St.

 

Are we there yet? Grandpa owes me a ball game!

 

 

We arrived at Rainbow’s End at about 1:00PM and were hooked up on our site by 3:00PM and ready to drive back to Chilton to surprise Sandy’s Father and Stepmother. We loaded KoKo in the car and headed directly to their house but they were not home so it was off to choice number two which was grocery shopping. We found their car at the store so Sandy was able to surprise them there (they knew we would be back this week but they didn’t have the exact date). We met them for an early supper and then went back to their home to visit, extra good to see them!

 

Our site (Lucky 13) at Rainbow’s End.

 

It took her less than a minute to remember where the ball is kept.

 

Grandpa tries to talk some sense into KoKo.

 

I always need a nap after a visit with Grandpa.

 

We chose Rainbow’s End because it is close to our old hometown and there are several good friends that keep their trailers here for the summer. We will not have a sewer hookup while we are here so we are in the process of adjusting to that, for now John will try to keep up using our 10 gallon blue tank; we are next in line for a site with a 300 gallon holding tank. At this time of year this is a pretty quiet park (knock on wood), most of the regulars visit their sites on the weekends; after the family vacation atmosphere of the places in South Dakota we are enjoying the quiet.

One thing we are not enjoying is the weather, it is hot and extra swampy here this summer; they have received a lot of rain during the past two months so the water table is high, the ground is saturated and the air is full of mosquitoes. The humidity is predicted to improve by this weekend so we may have a break for a few days; good thing as we have some activities planned with Sandy’s family.