Things are Fluid

As readers know, we are winding down our time in Wisconsin.  The latest news is that I will probably part ways with the Brew Hut on Saturday morning.  Looking at the state title, I've owned this Scamp for 8 years, and it's treated me well on many trips.  It has made it to eastern California, the Texas Gulf, the Outer Banks, and the Michigan's Upper Peninsula.   No complaints.  I bought it for 9k and will be selling it to a couple from western Wisconsin for 6k.  They are excited to be the next owners, having missed out on three previous attempts to buy a Scamp.

We thought hard about towing the Scamp to Arizona.  I'm going to have to make a separate trip for the truck anyway.  In the end, the long tow and the cost of storing the Scamp in Arizona made that idea less attractive.  I'm not giving up camping/traveling.  We have a plan, and it involves a downsize.  More on that  later after getting settled in Arizona.

The timing could be better.  We had hoped to stay in the Scamp until our house closing, but the Scamp's buyers are still working and have a wedding planned for that next weekend. So...we will be moving up to Julia's brother's cabin in northern Wisconsin for a week before returning to Madison to complete the closing.  

One last beer at Tumbled Rock Brewery

One last free ferry ride (Wisconsin River)

One last sniff of real grass

Saying Goodbye to Wisconsin and Friends

We've called Wisconsin home for over fifty years.  With the house inspections in our rear view mirror, it's full steam ahead for our move to Arizona in the latter part of July.

This past weekend, we went to a music festival in Milwaukee called Summerfest.  The primary purpose was to say goodbye to our friends Dave and Ruth, who live in a northern suburb. There wasn't any particular band that we wanted to see.  It was just an excuse to get together.   

 

Milwaukee skyline

The Romantics

Friends since sixth grade

Close friends

Dave lived a few doors down from me in the sixth grade. We've never been best friends, but he's the only guy from high school with whom I've stayed in contact.  When we took an organized bike ride together across the state of Wisconsin during the late 80's, he met his wife Ruth.  I stood up in their wedding, and Julia and Ruth both became very good friends. 

Dave and Ruth have both lived in the Milwaukee area for their entire lives and have no plans to ever move away.  I hope they will come visit us in Tucson, but I just don't know. Hasta luego, Dave and Ruth.  

Just before our Tucson trip, we booked a different campground close to the Wisconsin Dells area.  Things are much better maintained here, but it's pretty far from services and still gets really busy on the weekend. That gets us through to July 12th.  After that, we will spend ten days moving between a couple of county campgrounds that still had openings.  The U-Haul truck is reserved.  Adventures ahead!

 

Life by the River or If Momma Ain't Happy

Originally, we thought we might stay at this campground for at least a couple of months, as we tied up some loose family ends in Wisconsin and Iowa. However, there have been a few potholes on that road.

When we signed on for the month, the owner of the campground warned me that "he's only one guy", and things can take awhile to get some attention.  That only raised a little red flag. On the other hand, we might have thought twice if he had said: "The toilets may go ten days without getting cleaned, and the showers don't really work."

Now, you may be thinking, "what about the bathroom and shower in the Scamp?"   It's true that there is a small wet bath, but Julia doesn't like to use it, especially if there's a full showerhouse and toilets less than 100' away.

The showers here are coin-operated.  Two minutes for a quarter.  In theory.  Thinking that she needed a good six minute shower, Julia plugged 3 quarters in, and nothing happened.  I advised going to the other shower, and trying just one quarter.  The guys' shower starts up right away (with cold water).  After a minute, the water turns lukewarm, and I add more quarters, if needed.  The women's shower started right up, but sprayed sideways, soaking all of Julia's clothes and backpack.  After moving her stuff, she managed to get a decent shower in with additional quarters.

On the next day, Julia went back to the shower that "kinda worked" and stepped in when the shower warmed up.  She added two more quarters for a six minute shower.  As soon as she got wet and lathered up, the shower abruptly stopped without warning.  Julia was not a happy camper and has been taking showers at the school swimming pool since that time.  

Yes, she did tell the owner.  And he said, "I'm only one guy, you know.  But I'll look at it."  

He hasn't, so we took a road trip to another campground between Wisconsin Dells and Portage and signed up to switch over there in mid-June.   It's much nicer with lots of amenities and many guys making sure everything is clean and working. More expensive, but if Momma ain't happy, no one else is happy.  

The downside to all of this is we love this area.  We can walk to one of Wisconsin's best breweries. 

Scaredy Cat Oatmeal Stout

We see eagles and pelicans on the river walk nearly every morning.  It's a close enough drive that I've been able to play lots of advanced pickleball.  

And Callie gets a four mile walk in the morning and a couple of miles in the evening.

Kennel?

In other news, I made another trip to Iowa last week to further prepare my mom for a move to senior housing.  Julia and I will both go this week for the actual move, which will also involve Two Men and a Truck. Once she is settled, we can turn our attention to relaxing for awhile in Wisconsin.  There's a family reunion in mid June (Julia's side of the family), and then we're flying to Tucson for a week to look for a house.  Callie will stay behind at the kennel.

 

 

 

Winds of March

The winds of March bring change.  I saw my first robins this week while walking along Spring Creek.

My mother turns 86 today.  Happy Birthday, Mom!  We were supposed to go to Iowa for a visit, but she asked us not to come.  She is nursing a bad cold that has lingered for a week.

Julia called the realtor this morning to start the process for listing our house for sale.  We are in the last stages of getting things ready, and there isn't much more that can be done.  I loved this place for many years, but the time and expense for upkeep on an older home with its acres of land isn't that attractive anymore.  Wisconsin winters have also worn us down. With global climate change, less snow and more ice isn't a good trade-off.

We are nervous and excited about the changes ahead. Tucson is drawing further ahead as our next place to land, but we haven't made any final decisions yet and will probably take some time after this place is sold.  Renting for a year in Arizona, Colorado or even Mexico remains a possibility.

Ten Degrees and Getting Colder

 

Cold Sunrise

 

That's just the name of the song written by Gordon Lightfoot.  It was actually -13 F when I got up this morning (wind chill -24).  Tucson may have pulled back into the lead!  There's a lot of weighing pros and cons of Colorado vs Arizona by the wood stove.  Not much else to report.

I did enjoy a few games of pool and a beer with my brother this week.  We don't get together very often, so it's good to try to keep the lines of communication open, especially with my mother celebrating her 86th birthday next month.  He lives in Milwaukee and just started semi-retirement.  Our opposing politics and lifestyles keep things very casual and surface-level.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.   It's important to find common ground.  He and his wife have started going to concerts and recently saw the Steve Miller Band.  Music is one of our common interests.

 

 

 

August Update

It's a rainy, cool day in southern Wisconsin, but we won't complain as most of the rest of the nation goes through a summer heat wave.  

This month was marked by our 36th Anniversary.  Julia and I celebrated by going out to dinner at a small Italian restaurant bar a few blocks away from the State Capital. 

This has been a summer of projects in order to get the house ready to sell next spring.  We've been staining, patching, and painting. A couple of bigger projects involve hiring contractors to replace some storm windows and doors that have reached their expiration dates. 

In the fall, we will pack up the car and visit four different places to relocate/downsize in the West.  We've visited these places as tourists in the past, but we will be doing a deeper dive this time, trying to visualize what it would be like to live there.  If none of those places feel like home, we have back-up plans, one of which includes downsizing here in Wisconsin.  But we are in agreement that, if we're going to do a big move, this is the time in our lives to do so.  

Otherwise, we have settled into the Wisconsin summer.  We are both playing lots of pickleball.  I have a big tournament tomorrow.  The Madison area has lots of free music in the summer, and we've been getting out for that while the weather is good. 

Sidi Wacho at Sessions

Allie has been working very hard, as things are tense in the advertising industry with many layoffs.  She did find time for a trip to Mallorca, Spain for vacation and then remote work in Aspen for a week.  She paid for travel, but her accommodations were free with an invite from friends whose families had luxurious lodgings in those nice places.  There are pros and cons to the fast-paced corporate world in San Francisco.  

My mother has been moving forward with life after my Dad's passing.  She is selling a second condo they owned after first offering it to us.  My mother has a network of friends there, but I don't otherwise see the appeal of living in the middle of Iowa.  My mom has a valid passport, and we've offered to go with her to Scotland, a place that she is interested in.  Nothing planned yet, however.  

Callie says she is bored, and is ready for travel. 

 

What Callie wants, she usually gets.  We're Scamping next week along the Mississippi River.  

Waterfalls

 Yesterday, we hiked with our friends, Dave and Ruth, to Hidden Creek Falls near Cornucopia, Wisconsin.

Dave and Ruth have obligations today getting ready for their son’s wedding on Saturday. Julia and I headed south to Copper Falls State Park.

This was a short “absolutely no dogs”trail.  Callie was left behind in the pet picnic area. Temps were cool enough to leave her inside the truck, but she was mad. We made it up to her at “Dogs Allowed” Red Granite Falls.”

This was a delightful spot.

Perot State Park

After a long stretch of dismal weather, the skies turned blue, and we took the opportunity to hitch up the Brew Hut/Scamp and make our way to the shores of the Mississippi River for a mid-week vacant campsite at Perot State Park.

Wisconsin State Parks seem particularly busy this year.  Advanced reservations are required--even for the weekdays.  Weekends?  Forgetaboutit.  Many of the state parks are booked every weekend for the rest of the summer.  That's okay, we prefer mid-week getaways when the parks are just a little bit quieter.

We stayed for three days and headed home on Friday morning.

To get to Perot, we drove to La Crosse, Wisconsin and then north to the small town of Trempealeau.  Drive to the shores of the Mississippi River and turn right.  The campground is a couple of miles up the park road. 

The state park has a variety of hiking trails, but most of the ones near the river were closed due to flooding. That left the bluff trails, which are short but steep.

Brady Bluff trailhead

Some of the bluff trails were wooded; others were exposed and rocky.  The views were always good.

The generous spring rains brought beautiful spring flowers.

The Town of Trempealeau is fortunate to have a really fine historic hotel with beautiful views of the river, reasonable drinks, and occasional live music.

 

I think we all enjoyed ourselves and will be back again someday.

May Days

We've had a cold and wet spring, not conducive to much enjoyable outdoor activity.  But better days have arrived in the last couple of weeks.

Yesterday, my "country neighbor" moved his young steers into the woodsy field next to our front yard. 

"Davey", the hardest working farmer that I know, has his own calendar for farm activities.  These calves kept the barn (and a wellhead) above freezing all winter long.  A couple of weeks after the last danger of frost, Davey scoops out the barn, spreads the manure on his 20 acres of corn fields, and moves these guys across the road.  

I'm not sure what triggers his date for planting corn.  All of the big farms have the corn planted, and it's coming up ankle high already.  I've seen Davey planting corn in early July some years.  I think it's highly dependent upon his old equipment working (which includes his body because he is in well into his 70's).  

After getting my golden geezer card for reduced camping rates following my 62nd birthday, we haven't done much camping yet this spring.  The good spots for reduced rates within a few hours are mostly along the Mississippi River.   Between campground "repairs and upgrades" and flooding, those campgrounds have all been closed and won't open this year until late June for the most part.  

We did make one Scamping trip last week to Perot State Park, which sits on high ground above the Mississippi River north of La Crosse, Wisconsin. That trip will be the subject of an upcoming blog post.

 

Family Holiday and Birthdays

It's been quite the week.  Both Allie and Justin were supposed to join us at the house for Christmas.  But the weather and Frontier Airlines presented some challenges.

On Thursday night, Allie was scheduled to fly from San Francisco to Vegas to Chicago on Frontier Airlines.  Due to the blizzard conditions, a/k/a the cyclone bomb, Allie's departing plane never arrived in San Francisco.  The flight was delayed from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m and eventually, both the Vegas flight and the Chicago flight were cancelled.  

My dear daughter, not easily deterred, demanded a refund and immediately re-booked a non-stop flight to Chicago on American Airlines, scheduled to arrive only an hour after her original flight.  She boarded at 5 a.m. and arrived in Chicago at 11 a.m.

Meanwhile, in the Midwest, we were all warned to stay off the roads, due to life-threatening conditions.  There ended up being a lot less snow than predicted, but it was still -10 F with 45 mph gusts when I left the house.  Wind chills were below -40 F.  Except for a semi-truck being blown partially into my lane while I was alongside, the trip down was uneventful.  On the way back, the roads were icing up.  Many vehicles were in the ditch.  Semi-trucks stopped running on the side of the road, as diesel became semi-solid in the cold.

We stopped in Madison to say hi to Justin at his apartment and then headed for home.  Justin's caregivers were off work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so I would be returning the next day.

The trip to get Allie was in my comfortable, high clearance, four-wheel drive Nissan Frontier.  To get Justin, we needed to dig the front-wheel drive wheelchair van out of the snow.  Then I plowed the long shared driveway on the hill without the help of the neighbors who fled to their own family Christmas in northern Minnesota. Julia scraped our short, steep driveway so that I would have a better chance of making the last 90 degree turn with the van.  

On the way to Madison, the van developed a violent vibration at anything over 50 mph.  I was going to turn around, but Julia strongly suggested that I continue but drive slow.    Just past the I-39/151 exit, I saw a red pickup truck that slid off into a deep snowbank and somehow caught fire.  There wasn't anybody in the cab when I drove by, but the front of the vehicle was ablaze, and a cloud of dark smoke drifted across the road, stinking of burning tires.

I loaded up Justin at his apartment and headed back home.  The fire department was still at the scene of the accident, and the pickup truck looked black all over with broken windows.  We saw many more vehicles in the ditch north of Madison.

Eventually, Justin and I made it to our road.  Even though we had prepared the driveway adequately, the county had not plowed our public road on that day.  I tried to make it up the road, but there was just too much drifted snow from the high winds, so I needed to retreat backwards. The only way that I was going to get up was to plow the public road myself.  

I called Julia who walked down to the van. She sat with Justin, keeping the engine and heat running.  Then I walked home and retrieved my atv/plow.  It didn't take too long to clear the public road so that I could get the proper running start at our driveway with the van.

Justin and I have made this adventurous run up the driveway many times, but it's been at least a year.  I have one rule:  he must stay silent.  I hit the road at 40 and kept enough momentum to make it to the driveway at 30.  From there, it's a slow curve that we slide through to maintain enough momentum up the long shared driveway and then the 90 degree turn up our short private driveway.  We made it!  The family was all there.

Allie, Justin, Julia and her brother Scott

Julia is a Christmas baby.  I didn't bake her a cake, but I did assemble an ice cream cake for her.  My birthday is next month.  My wish list:  a lifetime Senior National Parks Pass.

The mechanical problem with the van must have been related to the extreme cold.  A day later, when I returned Justin to his apartment, the vibration mysteriously resolved. 

Justin's Shower and the Zoo

 Now that Julia is back home, we have been working to get Justin's apartment shower to be accessible.  There is a lip of four inches outside of the shower and a drop of about three inches into the shower.  The space in front of the shower is tight and faces his laundry closet.  

We bought a curb ramp to address the outside lip. It's a short and steep up for a shower chair moving sideways.  For the inside, we are trying out a perforated rubber mat on the bottom, paving stones on top of the rubber mat, and then another rubber mat on top.  This still leaves a way for the water to drain.  

His staff has been doing sponge baths for over a month, but the house manager isn't happy about that as a long term plan.  Justin is fine with the sponge baths and isn't thrilled about the potential bumpy ride in and out of the shower.  Even when he had a walk-in shower in the dorms, he was only showering once per week to supplement sponge baths.

Sunday morning, we will try it out and see if the plan (and Justin) works. We will go slow.  We practiced with the empty shower chair, but adding 180 lbs to the shower chair will be a significant change. 

We dragged Justin out of his apartment yesterday and walked over to the nearby Madison zoo with one of his caregivers.  Justin never wants to leave but is usually happy when he finally gets outside.  Yesterday was a nice sunny day in the 60's, and he didn't get too cold (Justin never wears long pants or shoes--even in the middle of winter).

We then ordered a Wisconsin fish fry for carry-out, and then watched some of the Milwaukee Bucks' basketball game at Justin's apartment.  Watching tv sports and playing video games is how Justin currently spends most of his time.  

I have to say that he has been doing a better job of managing his personal finances.  He successfully negotiated  receiving both energy and internet subsidies for low income folks.  Justin also has an appointment next week with Wisconsin Department of Vocational Rehabilitation to see about part time job options.  And he figured out a way to get an absentee ballot for his new address and voted!

Summer has moved to October

After about a week of lighting up my fireplace insert to keep warm in the house, summer came back with 80 degree temperatures over the weekend.  

Justin is all moved into his apartment.  In fact, he is so moved in that he almost never leaves.  Justin has a very narrow temperature range of comfort.  Above 80, and he's too hot.  Below 65, and he's too cold.  So when he called me up and asked me to take him to the Madison Farmer's Market today, I was glad to oblige.  

Justin lives only a couple of miles from the state capitol where the market takes place.  So he rolled out the front door, and I got some additional steps in after my early morning walk with Callie. Justin's chair is rated for 8 miles without a charge, but the battery is reaching the end of its life so we kept an eye on the battery.  Before we finished, we picked up some buffalo beef jerky for Justin and a big bag of Thai chili peppers for me.  

Justin wanted to watch the Wisconsin Purdue game in his apartment, so we parted ways.  I went over to the patio of Working Draft Beer Company and sipped on "Dad Bod" Stout, which Bill from Nebraska would have loved.  A simple oatmeal stout with chocolate malt (dark roasted barley).  Simple, full-bodied, flavorful and not too much alcohol.

 

Julia has been visiting our daughter Allie in California.  She should be returning home on Tuesday.  I better get the house cleaned up.

Lake Life

Mike and I have known each other since we were 18-year-old freshmen at UW-Madison.  At Spring Break, we drove my old VW Bug to Daytona with the plan to trade transportation for space on someone's hotel room carpet.  It worked for the most part, except for a night or two on the beach, which I learned wasn't as comfortable as I imagined.  

Mike's favorite story from that trip is when the car keys fell out of my pocket during one of those overnights on the sand.  We didn't really have a Plan B so we started kicking up sand from around where I slept.  Somehow, I managed to kick up the car keys to our mutual surprise.  Luck sometimes comes to the young and foolish.

I lost touch with many of my college friends over the years.  Mike and I reconnected through a Lodi friend who was someone that Mike worked and socialized with.  Mike and his wife Kathy lived in Madison, but sold that house and built a retirement log cabin on a northern Wisconsin lake where the winter is long, and summer is brief.

 

We had a great time, hanging out and telling stories of the old days.  Mike took us out on his pontoon boat where we slowly cruised for several hours.

Mike, me, and Brad

 

Fran, Kathy, and Julia

 

That night, Mike grilled up a big slab of flank steak and later made (from scratch) strawberry shortcake with whipped cream.

 

With Brad, Fran, Mike, Kathy, and Mike's son Robb staying in the cabin, we elected to bring the Scamp along.  We found an RV park about a mile from Mike's place.   We had some concerns about what it might be like.  There were no pictures or reviews on the internet, and the campground manager said that she had plenty of space on what would normally be a busy summer weekend with great weather. 

When we pulled up, we saw a trailer park on one side and tiny crowded cabins on the other side.  Our hearts sank, "Oh, no."  But a hand-painted sign directed us to the campground at the rear of the property on a deeply rutted gravel driveway.  Much to our surprise, it was kinda nice.  It took awhile to get level, but there was lots of space, and only a few seasonal campers, the nearest of which was more than a baseball throw away.  And it was quiet.

From the Scamp's back window

Reconnecting

During the last couple of weeks, Julia and I reconnected with college friends who we haven't seen in many years.  

We missed the wedding of Brad and Fran's daughter when Julia and I were sick with covid.  To make up for it, we decided to go for a hike at New Glarus Woods State Park.

Brad is more of a golfer than a hiker.  I'm not sure we convinced him that hiking was very similar to golf, except no waiting, crowds, clubs, or balls.  After hiking on a hot and buggy day, we found something that we all could enjoy at Bailey's Run Vineyard. 

Later, we played games at Brad and Fran's house in Verona.  It was there that their big dog, Harper, apparently decided that she did not like Callie's fragrance on my leg, so she bit me in the thigh--without breaking the skin.  Brad's theory was that Harper didn't like men in hats.  Okay, hats off for me.

It was the weirdest thing.  I haven't been bit by a dog in fifty years.  Julia calls me the Dog Whisperer.  Harper didn't stay mad long, coming over under the dining room table and laying her head at my feet.  Maybe it was the hat.

Brad and Fran were getting together the following weekend with another couple that we've known for decades and suggested that we all get together at Mike and Kathy's retirement home on a northern lake.    We've had a standing invitation to visit them, so we got the okay to tag along.  We would bring the Scamp to stay in.    That trip will be the subject of the next post.