Uncertain Times

It's been about a year since I took the Scamp on a multi-week trip.  To most people, that doesn't seem like that long.  To me, it seems like forever.  Worse, despite my earlier optimism, this year's extended fall trip is slipping through my fingers.  

Why?  My adult son Justin is in a power wheelchair full time and totally dependent upon care giving.  He is able to move his fingers and head/neck, but that's about it at this point.  While he has been supplied with caregivers under Medicaid for the past two years, the agency terminated services when Justin's college closed the dorms in the middle of the spring semester, sending him home.

We were led to believe by Justin's care manager that finding another agency was not a problem, but that's not been the case.  He has received twelve rejections.  We don't know exactly why because we aren't privy to the negotiations that take place between the care manager (operating with Medicaid dollars) and the care agencies.  She blames Covid, but we just met with an agency that denied that Covid was the issue.  Rather, the issue is finding enough staff to cover the needed hours and obtaining the authorization from Medicaid for the needed hours.

As an example, because Justin has an advanced form of Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, transfers between bed and chair or toilet/shower and chair are very difficult and must be completed by mechanical means (a Hoyer lift).  I used to just pick him up and move him (150 lbs), but that can now cause dislocated shoulders or broken ribs for Justin, so his doctor told me to stop doing that.

One agency told us last week that two people are now required to move Justin safely with a Hoyer lift.  We've always done it alone. The new requirement would create a whole different set of staffing needs and hours not yet approved by the state.  We were also told that we could continue doing it with one person because we are Justin's family.  So it's not safe for a professional caregiver to do it, but his untrained father, mother or sister can do it.   I can only shake my head.

Early Morning Fog

Meanwhile, daughter Allie is moving to northern California at the end of August.  She will be staying with one of Julia's college friends until she can find her own place and a job.  We are nervous and excited for her.  After graduating from college last December, it's time to follow her dreams. Such a weird year.  So much uncertainty. 

Anniversary Camping

I have a very good wife. However, if it were not for the pandemic, we would probably celebrating our 32nd anniversary at a fine restaurant. A small silver lining, I guess. We are camped in southwestern Wisconsin at Gov. Dodge State Park for another mid-week adventure.

About a month has passed since our last state park campground, and I have to say that occupancy has significantly increased, even though it’s the middle of the week. Fortunately, the sites are large and well-spaced. We aren’t using any of the public shared spaces, although many people are using the bathrooms and showers.  

The weather is amazing in the kind of way that almost makes up for Wisconsin’s long winters: mid 70s during the day and 50s at night.

After a beautiful night by the campfire, we got up this morning for fresh-roasted Peruvian coffee made with a manual drip cone, followed by a big egg scramble and Julia-baked zucchini bread. Then we walked out of our campground and hit some beautiful uncrowded trails.

I haven’t been to this park in over thirty years, and I’m not sure why. I had the mistaken view that it was mostly flat and open. There are some beautiful restored prairies.

However, a lot of the park is heavily wooded and hilly. Our favorite trail is the Lost Canyon Trail, which leads to another side trail and to waterfalls.

We have a bunch of issues to work through with our adult children after this week’s escape. Getting caregivers for Justin to return to college is always a challenge, but we’ve hit a major roadblock at the moment. Allie has been pitching in as Justin’s primary caregiver, but she wants and needs to start her own life after graduating from college last December. 

For a few days, we will hike, have some good food/drink and enjoy each other’s company in the great outdoors.

Not Much, How About You?

I wish that I had something exciting to blog about. 

I've been puttering about the house mostly.  This week's big project was replacing a garbage disposal leaking from the bottom.  From my research, a disposal is pretty much burnt toast when that happens.  I watched some YouTube videos to see if it was a do-it-yourself and pretty much concluded that I would be calling a plumber on this one. 

Then I watched a video by this young woman named Sarah that convinced me that I could do it myself.  Honestly, she had the best video on this installation, although her language and enthusiasm might be a bit much for some.  Lots of people must agree on the video's value because she has almost 700,000 views, despite only a couple of thousand subscribers.

Anyway, with Sarah's help, it was a very quick job and easy swap out.  The broken disposal came out easily.  The new one went into place with more difficulty, but no leaks so far.  I'm not very handy, but YouTube is an amazing resource and a confidence builder. 

I also swapped out my shower pump in the Scamp, which stopped working after 19 years. 

Old Shurflow Pump

I couldn't find an exact replacement, but I found something that worked for about $40 on Amazon. 

I rarely use the shower, but I do take sponge baths with a bucket of water.  It's quite handy to pour the bucket of water over my head when done and have the pump take away the water to the gray tank.  Gravity would be preferable, but my Scamp wasn't designed that way, so it has a pump.

Yesterday, I took my usual walk out into the country during which I pass by some bees.

The first thing you might notice is how high the bee boxes are stacked. During the winter, they are stacked about four high. The beekeeper keeps adding boxes throughout the summer to give the bees room for expansion and honey production. 

We had a storm last night that rocked the bees' world. 

Dominoes

The bees in the toppled tower were understandably upset.

Other than that, we are just muddling around here in the fly-over state of Wisconsin, hoping that our tower doesn't topple.  If things don't get too bad, there will be a fall trip with the Scamp either north or west

Goose Island County Park

Overall, we had a really good time camping at Goose Island County park.  Mid-week is the way to go in Wisconsin this summer.  Early in the week, the campground was perhaps half full. 

Callie was a big fan of the park.

Julia joined me on Wednesday for the rest of the week. She brought her kayak. She put in at the park's boat landing on the north end of the island and followed the current to the federal wildlife reserve's boat landing on the south side of the island.

We got in our steps each day, but we were also glad to slow down and just take in the views.

By Thursday, we felt like we had experienced all of the park, so we drove up to La Crosse for some hiking at Hixon Forest.  Many of these trails are for both hikers and mountain bikers. We did a short loop here.

The trails in the Upper Forest felt crowded with mountain bikers, so we headed to the Lower Forest, starting at the Bicentennial Trailhead.

The maps gave no clue about elevation change.  The Bicentennial Trail is a wide dirt trail that pretty much went straight down the bluffs.  On the way back up, we took the very scenic Rotary View Trail, which was twice as long with many switchbacks (5.4 miles round trip).

From the top, we had expansive views of La Crosse all of the way to the river.

By Friday, the campground was getting busy, and it was time to come home. 

Gathering of Waters

I've almost always lived by a big body of water.  When I was growing up, we lived a few blocks from Lake Michigan, and I lived close to that lake as a young adult in my first apartment.  During college, I lived on the shores of Lake Mendota (dorms) and then Lake Monona (slumlord's student housing). 

When I worked in San Francisco as a paralegal, our office had views from the Alcoa Building of the Golden Gate and the Bay Bridge.  As a young lawyer in Green Bay, my office faced the Fox River.  Even now, there is a trout steam at the bottom of my hill where I live, and the Wisconsin River is a short drive away. 

Having said all of that, I'm a poor swimmer, fisherman, and boater. What I do enjoy is the calm that water brings to me.  Today, I drove the slow roads from Lodi to the Mississippi River.

 

I made one stop for gas at a Kwik Trip in Viroqua.  I needed some hamburger buns, so I paid inside.  Besides myself, I saw one other customer (an old guy) wearing a face mask.  A half dozen other customers were unmasked.  I was in and out in less than two minutes. 

Kwik Trip's cashiers wore masks and plastic face shields.  I was impressed.  When I was last in our local Kwik Trip for propane, none of the employees were even wearing masks.  Better late than never.

Unlike our state parks, the county park that I'm staying at required check-in at the office.  The employee wore a mask, and hand sanitizer was available.  I was the only customer, and in/out in less than two minutes.  Lot of the campsites have views of the river, but those sites don't have much privacy or distance.  My site is mostly shaded (with electricity) and has good privacy/distance from my neighbors. 

By walking five minutes, I find what I came here for:

The gathering of the waters doesn't change what's going on in the world. But it changes the way that I feel.  For that, I'm thankful.  Callie and I took a long walk along the banks of the Mississippi.  There will be more of that in the coming days. 

Surreal

Surreal: defined by Merriam-Webster as "marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream." Things were getting better in Wisconsin during late spring.  The economy was shut down, but we flattened the curve. 

That's all out the window now.  Since re-opening, we've doubled our daily case rate, closing in on 1000/day of positive tests.  The percentage of positives is creeping up.  It's only a matter of time before the death rate does too. 

Our governor, slapped down by the Wisconsin Supreme Court who voided his stay-at-home order, said that he doesn't have the authority to require face masks.  Then he says that he might do it anyway.  Madison imposed its own face mask order for indoor public places.  That goes into effect Monday.  Milwaukee is still thinking about it.  Here in Columbia County, the bars are open, drinks are flowing, and the band is playing "Dance Band on the Titanic."

Me?  I'm going camping with my face masks and hand sanitizer.  Who even knows what fall and winter are going to look like?