Late afternoon yesterday, the clouds started to gather in the southwest.
In the middle of the night, we heard thunder, saw flashes of lightning, and then it rained for about 30 minutes. That wouldn't be any big deal in Wisconsin, but it felt pretty special here in the desert.
On our morning walk, without breaking stride, Callie lapped from the occasional puddle of water.
We unloaded the U-Haul truck last Friday and have been busy unpacking and crossing off to-do lists. None of the major cell carriers have good service in our neighborhood, which is between two mountain ranges.
The internet (fiber optic) was installed today, and that will make things much easier. Calls (WiFi calling) stopped getting dropped immediately, and I can write a blog post without timing out.
We live in a beautiful area. I missed mountains so much.
Yeah, it’s hot, but early mornings are pleasant, and that’s my favorite time of day.
They were the perfect couple for our Scamp and ready to take it on their own adventures.
We are relaxing on the spacious front porch of my brother-in-law’s cabin. It’s pleasantly cool with a view of the lake. Scott expects to join us next week.
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.
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| One last beer at Tumbled Rock Brewery |
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| One last free ferry ride (Wisconsin River) |
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| One last sniff of real grass |
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.
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| Milwaukee skyline |
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| The Romantics |
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| Friends since sixth grade |
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| 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!
This interesting rig was in our campground last night. The trailer appears to be a prototype from a California start-up company.
