Coming up the backstretch

Today we're in a park near Wisconsin Dells called Arrowhead RV Park. Except for the minor issue that it has exactly no 50 amp sites, it's otherwise quite nice. This is not an issue when the weather is mild and we don't need to run the basement air, but with these unseasonably hot May temps we've experienced this past week, we definitely notice not having that extra air conditioner. Fortunately, the roof cooler, which runs on 30 amp service, is working and does an okay job keeping things livable.

After leaving Mississipi, we'd been staying a couple days here and a couple days there until arriving in Amboy, Illinois, where we stayed for five days. That was a mistake. It was about three days too long! The RV park we chose was is the middle of nowhere. It was hotter than blazes and, as our stay was over the Memorial Day weekend, the park quickly filled up with campers, some of whom insisted upon sharing their joy with the neighborhood by partying into the wee hours of the morning. God bless the guy who invented earplugs.

For such a big park (and it is a gynormous park!) they had two very small swimming pools - one on each end. The pool was so crowded that we couldn't really enjoy it. There remained nothing left to do except sit in our cramped little tiny home and stare at each other. Suffice it to say, this was one of our least pleasant stays. To top it all off, as we were leaving, we ran into a line of cars and RVs stopped at the gate because of what one bystander called an "active bomb threat." All the traffic in and out was stopped. After about a half hour, and the arrival of law enforcement, those exiting the premises were checked out one by one against their list of registered campers, and we were on our way again.

From Amboy, we made an unscheduled stop in a little town called Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, where Mark's cousin resides. The town is dominantly Norwegian, and his cousin, Lora, is very involved in Norwegian history, art and music. She plays a uniquely Norwegian violin called a Hardanger Fiddle, which differs from a standard violin in that it has four main strings that are played and four harmonic strings that sit beneath the main strings and reverberate the sound. For a while, she had a shop there in Mt. Horeb where she made and sold Norwegian art, costumes, and fabrics. She is also very interested in the history of Norway, and tracking the geneologies of her ancestors, among whom are the Finnesgards. She has many of Mark's family and ancestors traced -- some as far back as the 1500s. I found our visit with her quite fascinating. She's a lovely lady and a wonderful hostess. On Tuesday, before we left, we stopped into a chocolate and pastries establishment for lunch, called Sjolinds, and enjoyed some authentic Norwegian food and sweets. Their chocolate bars are made there in Mt. Horeb and are fabulous-- all natural ingredients, and you can taste the difference!

Another fun fact we discovered is that the headquarters for the Duluth Trading Company is not Duluth, Minnesota, but Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin! We stopped in and I bought a hat. They are building a brand new corporate facility there (for anybody who cares) and will likely dominate the tiny downtown area. Mt. Horeb residents seem to be okay with the whole thing.

Tomorrow we're heading to Rice Lake, Wisconsin, coming up the backstretch to Minneapolis where we began this journey. Rice lake is the home of Northstar Bison, one of our favorite dealers in grass-fed and naturally raised meats.

Then we'll be pulling into Joel and Beth's driveway in Isanti on Saturday.

What a ride it's been!  I think I'm going to reward myself now with a piece of that Sjolinds chocolate.

Celebrations

Mark and I celebrate 10 years together

Here it is the middle of May already. How time flies!

We've spent the last two weeks visiting with family -- first with the Hoffmans in Valdosta, Georgia, then with my sister and her family in Lake, Mississippi.

In Valdosta, we camped at a military-owned campground south of the city that is open to the public. We arrived on our anniversary, so before we did anything else, we got ourselves all spiffed up and went out to a nice restaurant for dinner. We ate at the Steel Magnolia, on their rooftop. This year we celebrate ten long and mostly happy years together.

The first few days we were there, we drove over to their house and visited, where Mark enjoyed the swimming pool (I didn't go in). Then on Monday, Melanie brought the trailer and the youngest of the kids and parked across the road from us. James had to go out of town on business and wasn't able to join us. There wasn't much to do. Ironically, the only swimming pool was at their house, so the all went back one of the camping days to swim. It was about a twenty minute drive. The weather was hot, but not too humid most of the time.

It was a milestone visit for me: I reached out my arms to Olive, and she came to me for the first time of her own accord, allowed me to pick her up, give her a big fat smooch, and carry her around for a good long while. (No pictures to prove it - you'll have to take my word for it.)

Mark won her affections in exchange for yogurt. It was a price well paid.

In the evenings, the boys came over and watched movies with us. We said goodbye on the 10th and headed toward Mississippi, arriving in Lake in the early afternoon of Friday, the 12th.

While we were there, we also had the driver's side of our windshield replaced. On our drive to Gainesville the week before, we were the unhappy recipients of a rock kicked up by a passing car. We'd already had a few chips in the windshield, but that impact was apparently the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. We didn't even notice it until he stopped for fuel and cleaned the windshield. In any case, we were back on the phone to the insurance company, and made arrangements for a replacement while we were stopped in Valdosta. Now we have a beautiful (though leaky) new windshield ready and waiting for the next rock to fly.

If you look close, you
 can see the shiny crack

It was tricky getting the motorhome onto their property. They have a narrow drive with a ditch on each side. But with Carey's help, Mark managed it with no mishaps. The next tricky issue was finding a mostly flat spot. It took a while, but eventually we found it.

The girls and I attended a Mother's Day Banquet at her church that evening while the menfolk patronized the nearby Popeye's Chicken establishment.

Celebrating Mother's Day at Salem Baptist Church, Lake MS

Saturday, we all went out for a steak dinner to celebrate Mother's Day as a family, avoiding the Sunday madhouse rush. And Sunday we went to church with Doreen and enjoyed a lovely service honoring moms, as churches commonly do on Mother's Day.

Joy and her two kids are living with their mom these days while she gets on her financial feet, so we got to visit with them as well. Hannah is going on 11 and we celebrated Micah's 6th birthday on this past Monday. Joy took us to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and then bowling, something Micah loves to do. Neither Mark nor Carey (Doreen's husband) felt very well that evening, so they stayed behind and missed out on the fun. It was ten o'clock by the time we all got home, and wisdom required that we wait until the next day to have cake.

Micah's birthday dinner celebr

In all, we had a very enjoyable visit there. It was too short. Our original plan for ten days ended up shortened to a bit over five days, due to delays on our part and schedule conflicts on Doreen's. She had made arrangements to visit David in Washington DC, plans that were more or less in stone. So we said our goodbyes Wednesday night and left on Thursday morning, headed north.

Today we're in South Memphis. I've picked up a cold or something and have spent the day laying around in my pajamas sucking on cough lozenges and drinking tea with coconut oil. I have no elderberry syrup in my "medicine" chest [Note to self: keep a stock of it!], so I'm improvising with coconut oil, which (as everyone knows) is a magical cure-all. I can hope.

Tomorrow we're on the road again - next stop: Sikeston, MO... and maybe a little less heat.

Winding Up Florida

Paul's house

Our whirlwind tour of Florida is coming to an end. This past week we're parked at Travelers Campground in the little town of Alachua, a few miles north of Gainesville. The purpose of this stop was a family visit, so we didn't do too much else while we were here. We spent most of our time at Paul's house. The highlights were conversing and eating -- both very satisfying activities in a family visit.

The weather has been kind to us. Our week here in Gainesville has been dry (for Florida) and the humidity has been low enough to keep the warm temps comfortable. If it weren't for the biting gnats, we would have slept with the windows open, as the night time temps got down to the upper 50s. And, if it weren't for the fact that our motorhome heats up like a car in the sun, we probably wouldn't have needed the air conditioner at all.

I was introduced this week to the call of the mockingbird. This particular one found it necessary to carry on its raucous birdsong throughout the entire night...more or less right outside my window. Two nights in a row! It gave understanding to the phrase, "to KILL a mockingbird," as I would have attempted to do so, given the opportunity.

Here is a sample. (Please don't turn me in...I didn't get permission to share it! :-/ )

Last night was the first quite night, and my first thought was he may have finally found his mate, or another roosting spot.

It turns out, he probably DID find his mate, because this afternoon we discovered this little gem in the bicycles!

Beginnings of a bird nest

This is what happens when you stay in one spot for a week...in the spring. And I felt quite sad when the poor little bird, coming in for a landing this afternoon with a twig in its mouth, found its nest all in a shambles on the ground. He will have to start all over from scratch.

Such are the trials of life.

Hopefully he will conclude that a tree is a much better place for a nest.

Tomorrow we pull up anchor and head north to Valdosta for a week with the Hoffmans.