Father Son Time

 Justin has made an excellent adjustment to apartment living in Madison.  We are coming up on his lease renewal and putting together the paperwork to make that happen.  

He gets a small rent reduction because the developer earned affordable housing credits by offering a small amount of apartments at the 80% level for median income.  Of course, Justin receives way less than that in the form of Social Security income.  He needs to re-qualify each year for the rent subsidy, which is a paperwork pain but not an eligibility issue.  

We were hoping that he would qualify for either Section 8 housing or a Section 8 voucher by now, but fully accessible Section 8 apartments have a very long waiting list, even though Justin meets just about every "preference" possible for eligibility.   People don't generally leave those apartment until they die, locking in rent that is equivalent to 30% of the tenant's income or a similar voucher. 

Today was Justin's last day of work at a community center reception desk.  He is very proud of finishing the assignment after a rough start due to wheelchair issues.  He finally received a new wheelchair and has been putting it to good use by rolling home over four miles after work, if the weather is good.  He has applied for an Information Technology training and internship next, but that program won't start until fall if he gets past the interview. 

Thankfully, we had time to play after dealing with the paperwork issues.  We ordered pizza out.  I brought beer.  And we headed up to the rooftop patio.  The people residing in the penthouse next door are definitely market rate payers, but the roof patio is free to use for anyone in the building.  We're often the only ones up there.

The deep dish pizza was ordered from up the street.  My beer was Pulp Culture, an excellent hazy IPA from Working Draft Beer Company on the east side of Madison. The hose over Justin's shoulder is connected to a water bag on the back of the wheelchair.  Very handy and accessible for Justin, especially since he doesn't like beer.  

After stuffing ourselves, we took a walk in the park along the lake across the street.  Lots of people out on a hot and humid evening. 

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.

 

Back Home

We crossed Mexico in two days, taking the toll roads the entire route and staying overnight at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel in Saltillo. There were two quick police checkpoints south of the border. One was after Saltillo, and the other was after Allende. We turned in our Temporary Import Permit (TIP) receipt at the Banjercito kiosk near Allende. My credit card was refunded with the original $400 deposited before our arrival home. By noon on the second day, we crossed the border at Eagle Pass, Texas. 

After two months in Mexico, we immediately treated ourselves to brisket bbq in Eagle Pass. It was delicious and was the last serving of the day. The place was packed, but we found a picnic table out front where Callie could hang with us. There weren’t as many leftovers as she would have liked. There was a Homeland Security checkpoint about an hour after Eagle Pass.

We stayed at a Motel 6 in Abilene and then drove to Cameron, Missouri for an overnight at the Red Roof. On the fourth day, we stopped in to say a quick hi to my parents in Iowa and were home by early evening.

We had a small plumbing issue upon arriving home. When I turned the well pump back on, it exposed a weakness in the plumbing pipe near the washing machine. I was able to get a valve turned off so that we had water in the rest of the house until the plumber was able to replace some parts a couple of days later.  A tree was down in the back yard that needed to be chain sawed up. It will provide heat in the form of wood stove firewood in a couple of years.  Some big white pine branches were down in the front. That was cut up into suitable pieces for our outdoor fire ring this summer.

Spring is starting to arrive here in Wisconsin. The sandhill cranes have arrived, and there are some purple wildflowers popping up in the woods on the hill. It’s 4:30 pm, and still warm enough to sit outside on the back deck in short sleeves, sipping an Octoberfest beer still in the fridge

Mazatlan: Dangerous?

We've met many expats in Mazatlan who agree that the topic of today's blog is probably the hidden danger most people need to be worried about when visiting this city.  It's the sidewalks.

Safe sidewalk

The above photo shows the Mazatlan Malecon, which is probably the safest sidewalk in the city.  Even this sidewalk can be slippery due to the grit that builds up with its heavy use.  But we don't know anyone who was hurt here.

We talked to at least three people who fell and hurt themselves on the sidewalks of Mazatlan.  In the worst case, the woman fell, knocked out three front teeth, and sustained facial cuts and abrasions.  We had lunch with her today, and her attitude was good.  I didn't have the guts to ask for a picture.  

How bad can the sidewalks be?  Well, I took a few photos Wednesday to give a representation.

 

Experienced long term visitors learn to walk in the street, which may be safer but is obviously not safe either.  

None of this is to minimize the impact of certain organized criminal elements that are here, but we didn't talk to any visitors who had problems in that regard.  Those same elements are heavily invested in hotels, restaurants, and other tourist businesses.  The last thing that they want to do is kill off their best local customers.  But the sidewalks on the other hand...

Allie's Time in Mazatlan

I dropped our daughter Allie off at the Mazatlan Airport after a two week stay here with us.  I hadn't driven the truck in six weeks so it was good to start it up and let it run for the hour round trip.  I do not like driving on the back streets here though.  

The neighborhoods are very poor once you get a mile east of the ocean, and the roads are poorly maintained.  Some potholes are big enough to swallow up a small pickup truck.  And traffic is busy with motorcycles and bicycles darting in and out of traffic, pedestrians walking across the road, without looking, and cars occasionally passing on the right shoulder where there simply doesn't seem like there's enough room to get by.  As a result, I saw a lot of vehicles with bent mirrors, dents and scratches.

Anyway, I think Allie had a good time hanging out with her elderly parents.

Mescal and Tequila Festival

All-Star Baseball game

The baseball game was very different from ones that I've attended in the United States.  A musical band playing traditional banda music was set up on first base line and played loudly throughout the entire game, never taking a break.  Then there were the fireworks between innings.  Spectators drank hard with the equivalent of four dollar beers flowing like water. And people spent freely on unfamiliar snacks, such as potato chips mixed with a bunch of sauces, shaken up in a bag, and served soggy.

We did a lot of walking, taking Allie to places that we had discovered before her arrival.

Allie and Julia both went para-sailing.  I did not, preferring both feet on solid ground.

We took the ferry to Stone Island and did lots of relaxing.

 

 

Allie is already planning to visit us on next year's trip.  Unfortunately, we don't have that trip planned yet, but our time here in Mazatlan is winding down.  Allie is back home safely in California. We'll be starting back home at the end of the week.

While Machu Picchu was on Julia's bucket list, this Mexico trip was on mine.  It's been everything that I hoped for.  However, while the experience is still fresh in my mind, the next post will be about things to watch out for here--and they aren't the same things that our State Department talks about.