Wisconsin with good friends

What a fabulous time we had at Wyaulsing State Park in WI, while it would have been nicer to have bit more sunshine and higher temps the company more than made up for it. In the days preceding our time there Dave kept saying "if I see snow in the forecast we head south" so glad there wasn't and hasn't been any here. The lows bottomed out at 29 one night and the days were chilly 40's & 50's, a definite chill in the air.

Praire Du Chein, WI

Confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers

 We arrived about 11:30 Wednesday after a hilly 160 mile ride, our friend Mark had already switched our reserved site to a walk in near them, we are in the Wisconsin Ridge loop which sits 500' above the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers.

147E Wisconsin Ridge

We have shared breakfast and dinner with everyone and  found we can seat 6 for a meal in our rig.  Dave got in a little fishing with some success this time, enough to fry up as part of a surf & turf dinner. Lots of good food even got to cook some ribs, had pancakes with real VT maple syrup






















Before the weather got cold we got a few bike rides in and even walked a trail. Both couples we are here with have Golden Retrievers, we enjoyed taking Gracey on a hike-there weren't any signs so hope it was okay. We took the wagon road trail which went down and then back up, not a road I would have wanted to ride a wagon through.  What a pleasure it was to enjoy the company of a young golden who loves the world and people, we have enjoyed meeting a number of dogs here, Cinder the young black Lab next to us,  Mr Bear the handsome Rottweiler were just a few of our favorites. Being with Gracey and Mazey just reminds us of how much we miss having a dog in our lives, thanks Mark & Nancy, Roger & Eileen for sharing your furkids with us.

We had a fire every night we were there and talked late into the night, of friends we all haven't seen in a long time. Of how our lives have followed similar paths and we are all looking forward to this next phase in our lives. The one where we can take some time for ourselves, we've raised our kids, put years in at jobs and now it is time to enjoy the benefits of having done all of that. Mark & Nancy having been trying to sell their house for the last year or so to no avail, recently though things have started to change.  How nice it is to find out, again, some of the choices we made as young people in friendships is rewarded in picking that friendship up after a 18 year absence and it was like yesterday when we had all gotten together last.

Mark & Nancy are trying to sell a house in Fulton IL, they currently have folks renting the home who hope to buy it within the next six months. Saturday evening while we were sitting around a fire Mark received a call from his real estate agent, evidently the tenants tried to turn on the furnace to no avail, after calling a heating contractor it was determined the furnace had four or more cracks in it. What a way to end the evening, by Sunday morning Mark & Nancy had decided they needed to head home. Since the weather was getting colder day by day we decided to head on down the road so by 10:30 we were pulling out of Wyalusing State Park a day early :(

 

On Sunday we traveled about 160 miles to Colony Country Campground in North Liberty IA, $34 with a Good Sam discount and fhu’s,  a nice little park a few miles off of I80.  We got there early enough to do laundry at the campground and left a few dollars at Walmart. Looking at the extended forecast we decided to only stay one night, if ever back in the area for visiting it would be a nice place to stay for a few days. 

We were so sorry to have our visit with our friends cut short but understand the responsibility (leash) a home is and understand the choice they had to make and were not at all surprised when they told us. We will be back to IL in the near future so we know it won't be 18 years again between visits. Thanks again Mark, Nancy and Gracey (and Roger, Eileen & Mazey) for including us in your trip. 

Until next time...