Highland Ridge Campground, Eau Galle Recreation Area, Core of Engineers, Spring Valley, Wisconsin

 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 up the Eau Galle River from the lake and a picture of the dam.  



        We're getting the hang of EDWDS sites (electricity, drinking water, dump site). We got through the week without having to break camp and drive the RV to put drinking water in our fresh water tank. 

        The park ranger and park host let us know about Chet, a mobile RV repair person in the area. Chet couldn't fix what he assumed was a "weak fuse" causing our intermittent problem, but he helped Scott with two back-up methods for getting our front slide out back in. 

        We found a vet who cut Annie's nails and sold us flea and tick medicine. Much easier process for getting the medicine than in big cities where vets seem obligated to do extensive (and expensive) testing and probing before selling you what you need. 

        I was surprised to find a wonderful alternative to the Dollar Store food in Spring Valley. A Butchery Shoppe has all kinds of meat, fresh produce, specialty cheeses, fresh baked bread and more. I shopped there three times, filling up our freezer for the next few weeks. 

        Another surprise was the Amish Community. We saw a large family spending the day at a day use area in the park. Many Amish farms were in evidence along the roads in the countryside. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Memphis KOA Journey, Marion, Arkansas

Image
 10-24-2024 to 11-7-2024         We traded a beautiful, spacious state park stay for a cramped, parking lot stay at a KOA by a noisy interstate. Reason for this unlikely trade was learning that the state park has no internet and very limited cell service. So we chose the KOA because we wanted to watch the election returns and the World Series.              After we got in the mode of being Memphis site seerers, it turned out ok.  Our first sightseeing walk was the Big River Crossing, the longest (about a mile) public pedestrian and cyclist bridge across the Mississippi. Great views and nice grassy trail at the end.  Entrance View from the river crossing          We went to Tom Lee Park several times, either combined with sight seeing or as the primary destination. It is a long strip along the Mississippi River that's fun to walk. There's a statue of Tom Lee, who saved 32 people in 1...
Read more

Prophetstown State Park, near West Lafayette, Indiana

Image
8/24/2023 to 8/31/2023         The main reason for choosing Prophetstown State Park was its proximity to Purdue University, where Scott spent 5 years in a co-op program (combination work/study) ending with a degree in industrial engineering. We visited 525 Dodge Street, home of the Dodge Street Boys for 4 1/2 of those years. I saw the street where they played four square continuously with loud music and somewhat frequent police intervention. They only went to jail once, and that record was erased with the help of a good lawyer. I learned a lot about Scott's college years as we walked around campus. It was the time of the Vietnam War and lottery system for the draft. He spent a lot of time protesting.  I           Prophetstown is a unique park with a focus on history. There is a Farm at Prophetstown, a small-scale working farm depicting life in the 1920s. There are several Sears Robuck prefab houses on site, furnished from that ...
Read more

Our New Home for the Indefinite Future

Image
 Fredericksburg, VA / D.C. KOA         We arrived in Fredericksburg on Saturday, Dec 7th, after a brief stop in Wytheville, VA, where our RV held up in the 11 degree weather. We are here for two reasons. The most important is to be near Sam and Kara and the grandkids. The other reason is that we have decided not to travel in the RV on a regular basis anymore. It's just gotten too hard.           Maudie was our first visitor. She came on Sunday and helped us get set up. Not only did she wash the windows before we put up the magna shades, she washed the whole RV with the window washer brush. Inside we cleaned out drawers and washed floors. You name it, she did it for us. She also worked hard to vaccum up all the yellow lady bugs that came inside while we were at Natchez Trace. We took a little time in the afternoon to play Oh Hell and let Maudie rest before driving back to Alexandria. The drive took her a little less than an hour...
Read more