Corn Sweat at an Old Orphanage with Tornado Warnings

It’s about time I tell you about where the heck we are. Stoughton, Wisconsin, is a rural town south of Madison, home of the infamous water tower typo. I believe that paint job missing the second T lasted only a day, but ain’t that something?

That still cracks me up. Thanks, Doug! I shouldn’t laugh seeing as how we screwed up the Airstream club numbers on our trailer, but at least they’re the right ones (just a cockeyed).

We’re here because Stoughton is where I could find a campground that had a long-term spot for us over July 4, and it turns out to be a sweet campground. Just a little odd.

One hundred years ago, it was an orphanage. Now a family lives in the main building and farms (or leases to farmers) the surrounding land, plus runs a campground with a pool, a playground, a volleyball court, pickleball, and putt-putt.

Why does all this recreation on site not drive me insane? Because this place 1) is for monthly and seasonal campers only, so no weekend warriors, and 2) is locked down tight with rules. No visitors (dude!), no obnoxious behavior (that’s on the rules placard). Quiet quiet quiet. The seeming acres of mown grass and landscaping is in constant care of the many (could they be an army of clones?) diligent grandsons.

Giant black walnut trees inside the campground loop provide a bird oasis amid the corn. We’ve been enjoying watching a pair of house swallows raise their young in their own little camper, plus these sandhill cranes squawking everywhere we turn. Banjo doesn’t even think they’re weird anymore.

The surrounding corn is 10 feet tall, no joke. Probably due to all this rain, from several storms since we’ve had here.

Tracy has been Midwestern-nonchalant about tornado warnings, while I’ve been tuning into local weather on the TV and texting back and forth with Blogging Mentor Mark things like, “It’s coming directly at you!” And “Do you have a basement?” And “I don’t want to stand in the bathroom by the pool but I might!” etc. Tracy says I, too, will learn this nonchalance, but in the meantime I am learning a little local geography by watching these weather maps. And I’m having fun texting with Mark, when he’s not being forced in his office’s stairwell.

Here’s where Tracy and I have been feeling the same: both our hearts were broken when our offer on a house was rejected for another. It had been on the market for about a day! We have specific criteria for what we’re looking for, and it happens to be the same criteria as a bunch of other people in Madison. So, we keep looking.

In the meantime, in case we’re still looking for a house this fall when this campground closes, we’re also looking for an apartment. And, we’re filling up our storage unit with everything we own. Impressive amount of stuff we own, am I right? So full!

Also in the meantime, Banjo is enjoying this campground with its mown grass and wildflowers.

As are we.