Visiting our nieces

Our trip as far as Wisconsin had to include our two McIntire nieces’ families, Natalie and Jerry McIntire and Colin, and Paige and Tracy Thomas and McKenzie, Shelby, and Calvin.  The first stop was the very small town of Viroqua, WI.  Although it is a small town Hwy US 14/US 61 runs right through town so traffic is more like Fresno than small town USA.   We found a very nice local park to stay at. There was lots of room, 30 amp, and quiet. The only downside was we had no internet and very little phone service. The park is on Sidie Hollow Creek a local fishing hole.  Only small boats are allowed on the lake formed by the creek.  When we were leveling up we saw a group of boys carrying a string of about 6 12” fish up from the creek. They looked like something out of a Mark Twain book. We found out later that one of the “Tom Sawyers” was actually our great-nephew, Colin. Did I say small town?

 

We spotted the Amish cart and even the boat trailer at the creek, but no horse.

The day we arrived Natalie & Jerry had potluck plans and invited us to join them. We had a great time and Jerry even did a slide show of their vacation in Costa Rica. This was so interesting and they are now planning on spending 9 months in Ecuador. What an enriching experience for Colin. 

Their friends have a beautiful place in a wooded area with no other house in sight. We enjoyed their two Corgis, the good company and the fresh trout that Colin had caught that day at fishing camp.

We asked what we should see the next day and Natalie said Colin was really looking forward to doing some geocaching.  Now, we thought that was a great suggestion and we loaded caches from as far away as 30 miles. You just can’t be too prepared.  The next day we were ready with our PN-40, the etrex Hcl, and the TomTom loaded about 300 caches.

We found many of the caches were puzzle caches that had been placed in cemeteries around Viroqua. It was great discovering these beautiful, well kept cemeteries. Natalie has lived here for several years and never knew these places existed.

One of the caches that we found was at an old park. The description, “Welcome to Bloomingdale. This little park has the types of play equipment they don't allow anymore, since they are to "dangerous" Open center merry go round, steel slide with almost no edges, and a teeter totter!”  Now who could resist this warning? Not Colin and not Natalie!

All in all we found 8 caches, picked up 2 travel bugs, dropped 1 travel bug, Did Not Find 3, and just had a ball with Nat and Colin.  We had a delicious steak and chicken dinner at the McIntire’s complete with fresh asparagus and fresh strawberries from Nat’s garden over ice cream for desert. 

We left the next day for the Wisconsin Dells to see our other grand-nephew, Calvin, play in a baseball tournament. Unfortunately, Calvin’s team lost that game, but got the beautiful 2nd place trophy and Calvin was happy. They had done real well up to this game.

We all went to dinner at Famous Dave’s, Paige, Tracy, McKenzie, center; her friend, left; Shelby, lower left; Calvin, right; Tom & I. We remember the ‘olden days’ when we had to entertain the children while waiting for the food to arrive. That does not happen in these electronic times. Just see how the kids pass time now.

The Thomas’ left for Sussex, WI, for a late basketball game. These kids are very busy between all the sports, and cheerleading. And we went back to the RV park in The Dells.

The next day we drove to Sussex and stayed in the local Menominee Falls park. Though we did not have any hookups, the weather was pleasant, we had the whole parking lot to ourselves with security, and it was a bargain at $14.

 

We then drove over to see the progress on the Thomas’ new pool and see their new abode. At over 7,000 sq. ft. it is a little roomier than our 40’ Windsor.

 

The pool was supposed to be done by Wednesday, but because of the daily rain that has been the standard weather pattern, the pool looks like it will be delayed by several days.  We picked up Shelby and Calvin and took them back to the RV. We had lots of fun with the kids. We had no idea that playing with the RV door keypad could be so entertaining.  Shelby treated us to her interpretive dance.

Paige came home from work, Tracy went to a ball game, McKenzie was at cheer practice, and Tom & I had another delicious dinner prepared in tandem by Tracy and Paige with Paige and the two younger kids.  What a busy life this family lives. We had a wonderful time visiting our nieces and their families.

On the Road Again, Caching Places That We’ve Never Been…  Thanks for coming along.