Bo Wood Campground

Our next stop south in Illinois was a Corps of Engineers Campground on Lake Shelbyville. 

COE campgrounds are interesting to me. We are usually the smallest rig in these campgrounds. Bathrooms are exceptionally clean.  Campsites all had concrete pads, 50 amp electrical service, identical fire rings, and a hooked pole for hanging trash. It was almost like the place was run by the military. Wait, it was run by the U.S Army. 

For my friends who enjoy boondocking, this represented the other end of the camping continuum. There wasn’t much hiking here so we enjoyed the lake views, sampled Illinois Amish country, and had some great stuffed pizza at a jaw-dropping low price.

The Stag beer in my hand, a second Stag, two large glasses of wine for Julia, the pizza and generous tip were less than thirty dollars. The pizzeria, Rosariti’s, near Sullivan, shared space with a gas station. Five stars—if ambiance is excluded from the rating. 

Stag was originally a local brew to Illinois. It is now owned by Pabst and has a similar flavor profile—best served very cold.

Scamping at Starved Rock State Park

I've lived in Wisconsin for over fifty years now.  During that time, I've been trained/conditioned to belittle the flatlanders who live to our south in the State of Illinois. Every summer weekend, a long procession of folks from Illinois drive up to Wisconsin for outdoor recreation.  The idea of someone from the Badger state heading south to Illinois for outdoor recreation just seems upside down. 

Nevertheless, one day in the early spring, I was reading a magazine article about Starved Rock State Park, and the photos were amazing.  In fact, the scenery reminded me of things I'm used to seeing around here at Devil's Lake, the Wisconsin Dells, and Gibraltar Rock.  

Starved Rock is just south of Interstate 80 and only about an hour from the southwest edge of the Chicago metropolitan area.  That means less than three hours from my house in Wisconsin.  So as tourists from Illinois headed up to the Dells in late April, Julia and I headed south into Illinois on a Monday morning.  

In April, you could make camping reservations at Illinois State Parks three days in advance of camping.  I could tell that there were going to be open campsites.  When we arrived, there was a helpful map at the campground entrance detailing which sites were available for the next 1 or 2 days.  We made a list of likely spots and quickly found one to our liking.  

The day was still young, so we were off to the trails.  The first thing we noticed is that this is a very heavily utilized park--even on a weekday afternoon in April.  Many families, young children and dogs were on the trail.  Thankfully, all of the other dogs were leashed. That makes all of the difference in the world where my dog Callie is concerned.  She still doesn't like other dogs, but the situation is at least safe and controllable.  If she is overly aggressive, I just scoop her up into my arms and walk by the other party.  She doesn't like it, but she puts up with it. 

The further that we hiked away from the main parking lots and lodge, the fewer people we saw.  That was okay because we were here to see nature.  And there was a lot to see.

 

We stayed two days and nights  There was plenty of time to relax at the campsite.

And in town.  We spent a pleasant late afternoon at the Lone Buffalo brewpub in Ottawa, Illinois.

With such great natural beauty and good beer, we wondered why we had not previously ventured into northern Illinois for camping.  We decided to press our luck and continued south.

Catch-Up

For the last several months, I haven't been posting in real-time. 

The first reason for that is security.  I've blogged before about one of my neighbors who had some trouble with the law.  As far as I can tell, he is on some kind of work-release program and not allowed to drive.  I don't think he is living in the house, but I'm not completely sure.   When we were in Texas, another neighbor called to let me know that the outlaw's adult sons were parked in my front yard for a couple of days and had walked up to their Dad's house. 

Nothing was stolen or damaged, but it did give me pause to question whether or not I should be "live blogging" my whereabouts/plans when no one is at home.  

The second reason is that our family has been going through some tough times, and I haven't felt like writing during those times. I've mentioned that Gene, Julia's dad, has really struggled for the past couple of years post-stroke.  After a number of weeks in hospice, Gene passed away on April 1st.  We were advised that it would probably happen before that, but my brother-in-law Scott predicted that his Dad would hold out for April Fool's Day, and he was right.  

Justin made it through the semester and is now fully vaccinated. There were some hiccups along the way.  One of Justin's caregivers had to leave suddenly when his father died from Covid.  There wasn't enough back-up to make things work so Justin ended up unexpectedly at home for awhile.  At least, we weren't in Texas when that happened. 

We have been sneaking in trips when we can, including a two week Scamp adventure to southern Illinois and Iowa, which I will be blogging about in future weeks.  The summer is up in the air, but we hope that more trips will be possible from time to time.  

Justin will be home for a couple of weeks and then is heading back for summer school to try to catch up a little after a reduced-credit semester.  He turns 21 this week, and there may be a masked, socially-distanced, limited shindig of some kind.  Justin doesn't really like alcohol, and overindulgence is a really bad idea for someone dependent upon a power wheelchair,  but he said he would like to try a very spicy Bloody Mary. 

Scamping in Iowa

 In early April, we retrieved the Scamp from the pole barn and headed for Dubuque, Iowa. Open campgrounds are not widely available this time of year in the Upper Midwest, but we found a couple good ones about thirty minutes south of Dubuque not far from the shores of the Mississippi River near the town of Bellevue.

Our first campground was the county-operated Spruce Creek, and it was a steal at $22/ night and a choice of waterfront sites. In fact, we could choose any of the campsites here because we were the only ones camping. It wasn’t too hard to find the perfect spot.

One of the reasons that no one else was camping is that the flush toilets and shower house were not open yet. There were pit toilets and the Scamp’s bathroom, so we didn’t mind. We passed several days hiking area trails and watching the barges go up and down the river. The town of Bellevue has locks to facilitate the barges. There is nothing better for the lazy man than to watch the locks in operation. 

Bellevue State Park has a campground and many trails. With a few days of rain in the forecast, we eventually moved to that campground, which did have open hot showers and was a couple of dollars cheaper than the county park. Our campsite didn’t have the river at our steps, but the views were incredible.

We prepared nearly all of our meals at the campsite, but we did make it out one night to a local eatery. The food and drink were good.

However, even though we are both fully vaccinated, the restaurant seemed too crowded. Pre-pandemic, it was easier to overlook a coughing fit at a nearby table. But, man, it just doesn’t feel right yet. I will take my chances outdoors.  To beat the crowds, camping for a week in April along the Mississippi River in Iowa is highly recommended.

We didn't smoke marijuana in Muskogee

 When I was a teenager working on my uncle's farm in southwest Iowa, we listened to a lot of country music.  My cousin and I preferred rock, but most of the radio stations that came in clearly were of the country variety.  So I was exposed to Merle Haggard at an early age.

The song Okie from Miskogee starts off:

"We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee
We don't take our trips on LSD
We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street
We like livin' right, and bein' free."

 

We listened to a bunch of Merle on the way north from Fredericksburg, Texas.  Over time, I've grown to appreciate traditional country music and bluegrass.  To me, lyrics are everything.  They don't have to be about something that I agree with, but they should be interesting.  Merle Haggard has a lot of interesting music.

 

When we drove into Muskogee at the end of our travel day, we immediately noticed some things have changed.  For one thing, there were marijuana stores all over the city.  We counted at least a dozen as we drove through.  The song was released in 1969.  Nothing lasts forever.

I don't have strong feelings about the legalization of marijuana.  Neither Julia and I use it, but the criminalization of a practice that seems pretty far down the list of damaging behaviors...well, we definitely don't need any more non-violent offenders in our nation's jails and prisons.

 

Fortunately, while the marijuana dispensaries held little interest, Muskogee has a really good brewing company.

 

 

Brewpubs and microbreweries have become very popular in the last decade, but not all produce exceptional beers.  A lot of times, the beer is just mediocre. Sometimes, the focus is on the food instead of the beer. It isn't enough to brew different styles; the execution is important too.  I was really happy with the quality of the brews here.  Julia loved her wheat beer "Mama Tryed." I ended up with the Okie IPA, and it was very good.

After a long day of driving, sitting down with a fresh-tasting beer and watching some local musicians perform was exactly what we needed.  The bartender was into his job and offered to let us taste/sample whatever we wanted before making our choice. Well, the chocolate peppermint stout wasn't to my taste, but I'm sure that somebody likes that flavor combination. The sours were really interesting and pushed some envelopes, including a Hibiscus Sour.

On the next day, we made the final leg of our journey home.  That concludes the Texas trip in the spring of 2021.  More adventures are on the way--some in places just as unlikely as Muskogee, Oklahoma.  The Scamp is ready to go, and I'm ready for some hiking.   

Texas Wine Country

We started taking winery tours during the 1980's in Northern California when we lived in the Bay Area.  Julia went on so many of the tours with family and friends from Wisconsin that she was sometimes recognized by the tour guides.  "Hey, weren't you here last month?"

Back then, the tastings were free, and pours were generous.  Many of the wineries were on two lane rustic roads.  We spent many weekend afternoons on the picnic grounds of a selected winery, enjoying fresh sourdough bread, brie cheese, and a bottle of wine. Eventually, Napa became popular and more expensive.  We began visiting wineries in Sonoma county and then Mendocino county,  searching for that undiscovered gem.  I don't think there's much undiscovered wine country in California anymore. 

Fast forward to March of 2021.  On the way back from the Texas gulf coast, we decided to stop in Texas wine country.  I can tell you that Texas is trying really hard to emulate California wine country.  Tastings were $15 to $20 at the places that we tried.  One difference we noted right away is that many of the wineries are located along a four lane highway, and many of the vineyards are not located at the same location as the tasting rooms.

Our Airbnb was, well, I'm not going to even tell you how much that cost.  I will admit that I couldn't find anything under $125/night.  The place was called Cowboy Orchard's Guesthouse.  It was very nice in a quaint Victorian way.  We enjoyed the front porch swing and the backyard space.

 Fredericksburg itself is a charming, historic town.  We spent a lot of time just walking around and taking in the views.

 

Our first wine tasting was downtown at the Fredericksburg Winery.  The tasting room host was delightful and an excellent saleswoman.  I didn't care for the wine a bit; Julia thought it was tolerable and bought two bottles. For whatever it's worth, Julia is much more of a wine connoisseur than I am. 

After that experience I was ready for a beer.  We headed over to Altdorf Biergarten and Restaurant for German food and beer with outdoor dining.  

 

On the next morning, we needed to walk off some of that rich German food and drink.  We started with Cross Mountain which turned out to be a very short uphill hike and then a short nature trail hike near the trailhead.  We then headed for the Fredericksburg Nature Center.  We enjoyed these short trails also but still needed to walk around the adjacent park to get some more steps in.  

Julia was now ready to begin wine tasting in earnest. Since I was going to be the designated driver, she tossed me a bone and agreed to first have lunch at Pecan Street Brewing in Johnson City, Texas.  After lunch and a beer on the backyard patio, I was ready to assume my duties.

 We then visited two wineries.  The first was Hilmy, and it was lovely.  The wine was delightful (red and white), and we enjoyed the on-site vineyard.  The tastings were held outside.

The second winery was Messina Hof.  Tastings were held outside here also.  Julia enjoyed the wines here, but preferred Hilmy.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Fredericksburg.  If money were no object, we would probably return often.  I did note that there was a municipal campground near the Fredericksburg Nature Center.