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May, 2006
Stoughton to Portage May 1-7, 2006
Monday, May 1. After a weekend of getting together with cousins and their families in Stoughton, and nieces and nephews and in Sun Prairie, we drove up to Portage to spend the next week with Mike's brother Dan and Sharon.

Its been raining since mid-day Saturday and we had to dig out our cold weather clothes again. The season is still early spring here and many of the trees are just starting to bud and leaf out. The variations of green are just beautiful and so are the flowering trees all around. Yellow pollen dust is on everything and that is making us sneeze. We're tired of rain already and Lucy seems to be kind of stir crazy too.

Wednesday, May 3. The sun has appeared once again and the last 2 days have been beautiful. Yesterday, Mike and Dan went to see Mom early and we took care of our household maintenance (dumping, cleaning the tanks and filling up with water and propane). In the afternoon, we visited our friends, Connie & Bill at their home in Pardeeville. Although they have lived there for several years, this was the first time we had been to vist at this house. It is a beautiful home, nestled back in the pine trees and are surrounded by Amish farms. We had a great visit and even talked about the taboo subjects; politics and religion. It was late when we got home, so today we both moved rather slowly.

Thursday, May 4. After a morning visit with Mom, we headed for Madison to peruse the Half Price Book Store and trade in some of the books we've been carrying for a while. We also met some of my friends from Covance that I haven't seen since I retired. It was a great visit.

Friday, May 5. I went to a couple of garage sales this morning but it was a cold, gray, windy, and damp day. Dan & Sharon's kids came for dinner tonight so Sharon fixed a chicken lasagna and I fixed my old standard. We had a great time and got to see their grandkids again.

Saturday, May 6. Hung out and played with Brooke and Elizabeth today. They rode their bikes and I walked Lucy to the neighbor's garage sale, we played kick ball, they played in the motor home, and we all had a great time. After Ron picked them up, Pat and Roger arrived so we sat and talked, then went to the Hitching Post for dinner. Had a nice time but were home and in bed early. The weather was gorgeous again today.

Sunday, May 7. I fixed breakfast this morning after we all took our time getting up and moving. It was an R & R day for Dan and Sharon, so we layed pretty low today. We did go to see the newly released movie, RV (starring Robin Williams), this afternoon. It was good fun and a bit silly, but we had some good laughs. I would recommend waiting for it to come out on video. Another beautiful day - not a cloud in sight.

May 8-14
This week has been pretty low key. After doing laundry on Monday, we packed up and headed back to Stoughton. The weather has been miserable with rain all day Tuesday, clearing up on Wednesday, then back to cold, wind and rain again Thursday and Friday. It got down in the 30s and I even saw a couple of snow flurries. Since it was nice on Wednesday, I got my gardening fix by mowing the lawn and relocating some perennials with Pat.

We drove up to Wyocena to visit Mom on Thursday and the little Suzuki was tossed around quite a bit by the wind. We picked up sandwiches and had lunch with her. It was a good day to visit since Mom was feeling blue today after losing a dear friend.

We've been sharing the meal preparation, Tracey made a great pot roast and Mike made his Mrs Gumtow's casserole. On Friday night, we met my brother Ron and Sharon at the Broux House in Stoughton (wouldn't recommend the food there).

On Saturday, the Bridge family got together for lunch with Mom in Wyocena to celebrate Mother's Day a day early. It was just great seeing everyone together in one place again and it was a good day for Mom. There are some family photos in the May journal. Mother's Day was nice, just being with some family. We started the day out with a good biscuit and gravy breakfast, Pat & I went to Janesville for dog food, and we went to Applebee's with Tracey's family for dinner.

In the afternoon, I took Lucy for a walk and came across my cousin, Dawn, working in her garden so we chatted for a little while and I got the latest news from that part of the family.

Next week, we plan to drive to Gresham, not far from Green Bay, to stay at Captains Cove RV resort.

May 15-21
Wednesday, May 17. Today was to start another adventure, as we were heading toward an RV park in Gresham, WI for a week or so.

Before heading north, we had an appointment at Wisconsin RV World (just north of Madison) to get a fluid leak checked out. On our arrival at Pat's house back on the 8th, we noticed some fluid (a clear liquid and a reddish liquid) dripping from the front of the motorhome. Pat and Mike both thought it was probably hydraulic fluid.

Today's appointment determined that a hydraulic hose was leaking, the part would have to be ordered and that would take about a week to get it. It would affect the slide-out but it could still be used.

In addition to that, the clear liquid was determined to be coming from the water pump and it would be a problem if we headed down the road without having it repaired. The part has been ordered, but we have to go there tomorrow to make sure they have all of the necessary parts ordered, and the repair will be done on Friday. So...rather than drive back to Stoughton (about 30 miles), we decided to park at the Hoovey's house in DeForest, only about 10 miles from the repair facility. We are in the parking lot of a city park next to their house with our electric cord stretched across their neighbor's yard and plugged into their house. A storm cloud just went over and the sky is rumbling with thunder while a bunch of rain and hail were dumped on us.

So much for northern Wisconsin for a few days.

We delivered the motorhome to Graham's Auto & Truck Clinic in Poynette on Friday morning by 8:00,then we headed to Madison to shop for a wireless aircard from Verizon and Cingular. We decided on the Cingular package because it seemed that they had a much larger data range. As we were leaving the parking lot, I checked our phone messages and there was one from the MacKenzies and they were in Madison, just down the road from where we were, so we joined them for coffee. They made a brief stop in Madison before moving on to northern Wisconsin. That is one thing we really like about this lifestyle - that we are available for spontaneous activities that come up.

We drove up to Wyocena to visit with Mom, then headed back to Graham's and were finally out of there by 6:00. We were very impressed with the friendly service, the quality and experience of Graham and his staff, and the appearance of the place. Our extended warranty covered most of the $995 in charges and we had to pay $383 of the bill.

We had decided to stay at the Hoovey's one more night, so when we got back there, we all headed to the West Side Club in Columbus to meet up with Bobbie (Roger's sister) and her husband Dick. Had a great time with them and a wonderful lake perch dinner.

Saturday morning, we headed for Gresham, were on the road by 9:30 and arrived at Captain's Cove RV Resort at about 1:00. The place is very nice and we have a large drive-thru campsite. Its not very crowded but I suppose it will fill up as we get closer to Memorial Day weekend. Although the place is an RV resort, it is much more like the state and national parks we have been to.

We spent the remainder of Saturday just relaxing - didn't even get the chairs out because it started to rain just after we got setup. Sunday was a great day, starting with a nice walk around the park. I stopped to talk with a couple that had seen a bear run right past their site last night and they said some other folks had seen a mother and 2 cubs the day before. I'm glad I didn't run into them. The forest floor is covered with trillium and wood violets and the trees are a mix of white birch, maples and various evergreens. There is a small lake nearby.

The weather was sunny, but cool (mid 50s) today with a promise of getting warmer next week, although we have hear frost warnings for overnight. We disconnected our water hose so it wouldn't freeze and we made sure that we had plenty in our holding tank for showers in the morning.

Tuesday, May 23. Summer weather is here once again! Mid-70s are expected and its so nice to have the windows open and to be able to be outdoors from morning to night. A nice walk with Lucy started the day and a while later we took one of the resort canoes and paddled around the small Island Lake, it might be a mile around the shoreline. We saw several beaver dams but didn't see any wildlife, not even the bears that everyone is talking about seeing. I would really like to see one, but would hope that it would be from a distance.

Right now, I am sitting at the picnic table typing this journal. The cottonwood trees are shedding and the sky is full of little cotton clusters, kind of looks like large snowflakes. It feels pretty strange to have the computer technology at my fingertips, the aircard to connect me to the internet, yet I sit in the middle of the woods in up north Wisconsin. I kind of like my outdoor office, its better than any window office one could have.
Stoughton to Gresham
Gresham to Haven May 25-30
Thursday, May 25. We took our time getting ready to leave today and pulled out around 2:00 and drove through Green Bay on our way to visit Carol (a longtime friend since 1970) and Richard in Haven, just north of Sheboygan. Haven is a little unincorporated village about 2 blocks long and consists of a tavern, the fire station, Richco Industries, and a few houses. Just down the road is the PGA golf course, Whistling Straits, that was built in the last few years. Before the golf course you could see Lake Michigan, but now the roadside is lined with berms that block the views of the lake. When Richard got home from work and after catching up on the latest news, we walked to the Haven Tavern for a beer and burger.

On Friday, Carol babysat for her 2 grandchildren, David - age 3 and Jennifer - age 2. We had our hands full but had a lot of fun. In the evening, Carol's daughter Nikki, her husband Ron, their 2 children, Carol's son Matt and his girlfriend Moe came over for a visit. We had a great time catching up on old times and visiting.

Saturday morning, Carol's son Mark who lives in Milwaukee drove up and we had breakfast together and got to know him. Mike and Richard were doing car stuff and Carol and I went to a garden center and had a little tour of Sheboygan. Carol fixed one of our old favorites for dinner, a brat fry complete with brats, burgers, Sheboygan hard rolls, and German potato salad. It was delicious!

During the night, some strong thunderstorms came through and rumbled and banged for a few hours.

Sunday was a relaxing day just hanging out. In the afternoon we went to a birthday party where we met several of their friends and had a nice time.

On Monday, we went to see Matt and Nikki's houses, then went to Deland park on the lakeshore where there were several people flying many different kinds of kites. We also saw the remains of the Lottie Cooper, a schooner that was built in 1876 in Manitowoc but sank in a storm in 1894 near the Sheboygan Harbor. We stopped at the Mucky Duck on the riverfront for a snack and a *bleep*tail.

Tomorrow, we head back to Portage.

Created on 04/30/2006 10:33 AM by bridge
Updated on 05/30/2006 07:19 AM by bridge
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