We had only three days at Perrot State Park in Wisconsin, right across the Mississippi from Michigan, near La Crosse. I’ve mentioned this before but it’s increasingly relevant: more people than ever are in RVs camping. Other full-timers tell us they never had to bother with campground reservations until this year, and now they’re having […]
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Old Friends, Primo Beer, New Toys
YAY! Seeing Tracy’s best friend, Dave, was our central goal for coming to the Midwest this summer, and with the virus we thought we might have to sacrifice the visit. It took a severe thunderstorm to get us stuck at the brewery where he and his wife were working for the day, but thank you […]
Love Me Two Times, Iowa
We’re back in Iowa—in Elkader, the small town where Tracy’s best friend and his wife live. We weren’t keen on visiting (hence the second take) because they’ve been dealing with all the decisions and stresses you’re faced with as small business owners these days (they own a brewery and tap room here). After Wisconsin though, […]
What We Do in the Heat
We’ve been doing three things in Madison, WI: hanging out at a distance with old friends, walking miles of park trails, and sitting in a stupor due to the heat. Sometimes we’ve combined #1 and #3. Peeps I so enjoyed a visit from someone Tracy went to UWM with [that’s University of Wisconsin-Madison to you […]
Wisconsin Welcome with Beer and Cheese
Potosi Brewing Co. We stayed at another Harvest Host last night and our first one that’s a brewery, the very old Potosi Brewing Company on the Wisconsin River. It was our great luck that the tap room has an outside dining area, so we sat out there and were waited on (thank you Potosi!) for […]
Tracy’s Social Hometown
We came to Iowa to hang out with Tracy’s people, and Iowa is continuing to deliver. Or, to overuse that Field of Dreams reference, if you show up with your weird new travel trailer, the friends will come! We’ve walked, driven, and biked through old neighborhoods here in Cedar Falls and its sister city, Waterloo, […]
Finally, a Sunrise to Ourselves
Turns out that’s what Banjo and I were missing the most here in this full campground without an easy place to walk. Don’t get me wrong: there are beautiful trails around the lake and all over Cedar Falls, but everyone else thinks they’re great, too. Dawn Walk This morning I got us out of the […]
So Far in Cedar Falls
We’re in Tracy’s hometown, and I tell you what. You know when you’re driving through someone’s old stomping grounds and at every corner they say things like, “Well that entire complex is new,” and “I think my dad had a special dinner there once,” and it goes on and on and is annoying? I actually […]
Photos from Des Moines
We leave here tomorrow, and I can’t sleep because we stayed up late playing that Firefly board game. It wasn’t until we were cleaning it up that I saw a severe storm on the radar, so we had to pack away all the outside living room stuff while being pelted by moths and beatles in […]
Old Ties and Companions
The title here is from a Mandolin Orange song with lyrics that are quite melancholy, but the music and title make me think warmly about old friends, so it works here. The first time I drove up to Iowa with Tracy, I was overwhelmed by his high-school friends: their sheer number, how many of them […]
