Old Folks Home

 6/20/2023 to 6/27/2023          There are lots of great things about this park - spacious wooded campsites, a variety of well marked and well kept trails, a lake, friendly neighbors, gorgeous waterfalls and beautiful views.  But the thing we will remember most is that hoards of mosquitos bombarded us every time we got anywhere near the woods. They were also pretty bad right outside our door. Three or four would get inside the RV everytime we went in and out. The only time we spent outside was either in the screen house or geared up with DEET spray and mosquito netting. Apparently there was a very warm March in northern Wisconsin (thank you climate change), which gave the mosquitos and ticks a head start. The local people say they've never seen anything like this before. Here's hoping the Upper Peninsula of Michigan didn't have the same very warm spring.                    The hiking trails were we...

 4/13/2023 to 4/20/2023          The Highland Ridge Campground was very peaceful. The entire campground and hiking trails were heavily wooded. Camping sites were far apart. No need to put up a canopy or awning for sun protection. No sun could get through. Temperatures were in the 40's in the mornings and 70's in the afternoon. This in contrast to the 100 degree temperatures warnings we got on our phones about Travis County in Texas.           We saw several "Ice Castle" RVs in the park. Turns out the main purpose for these is ice fishing, although they work as RVs in campgrounds as well. Reminded us that these parts have a lot of ice and snow in the winter months.           The campground was very isolated from the park office, lake swimming area, and the day use areas. It took us about 45 minutes by car to get to the other sections. Scott did paddleboard on the lake one day. This is a view going u...

 6/6/2023 to 6/13/20   Guest Blogger Maudie:          I know I said I would do the blog, but, sadly, I was just too busy having fun.(Try not to be too disappointed ;))                 We had a great week with Maudie - at Volga River SRA and at Blackhawk Park. Lots of great hiking, paddleboarding/kayaking, fun meals, and lots of card playing. Not to mention early mornings by the fire, doing  Pilates together (sans Scott), and sharing a particularly small space after we had to stop using our front slideout.           Blackhawk Park is what Maudie calls an EDWDS site. Pronounced EE-da-woods, it means a site with electricity, drinking water, and a dump site.  So no hook up to water or sewer. There is a source of drinking water, but at this site we had to move our RV about a quarter mile to that source to fill up our fresh water tank.  An additional challenge here is a...

 5/29/2023 to 6/6/2023 Guest Blogger Maudie:      I write from the rolling fields of corn, far away in the lonely land of Iowa... Actually, forget the rolling plains bit. It's more like very flat fields of corn fields and flat and brown roads. The roads are hideous! I've been told I'm a very opinionated person so take this next bit about the roads with a grain of salt. (I mean I think I'm right of course, but I added the disclaimer just on the off chance you like ugly brown roads for some strange reason.) The roads are either brown concrete or brown gravel. The concrete is inherently unappealing to look at and by nature looks dirty and uncared for. Also, it's the same color as the dirt in the fields so there is no way to see a contrast between the two. Asphalt is better. However, you can at least drive on the concrete roads. Everything I said about concrete roads applies to gravel roads and you can't drive on them. When you do, a bunch of dust is kicke...