A Trip to Sheboygan

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Another obvious day trip was to Sheboygan. Chris spent many of her formative years there but hadn't been back since a trip after college. This was going to be a real test of her memory.

What I find odd about not just Sheboygan but much of Wisconsin is the complete lack of creativity in road naming. Most of the more major roads are named "EE", or "K", or "DK". And to the best of my ability, I could find no rhyme or reason to the naming. If one cross street had been named Road G and the next one named Road H, I probably could have lived with it. I guess my engineering desire for order gets in the way - something I should get over.

The drive was easy enough and we even managed to find the road her childhood home was on. But as we turned down the road and I asked which house was the one she lived in, we ran into a little problem. She remembered it as the third house from the corner. But when she lived here, it was a new development with newly planted trees and many vacant lots. I guess 30 or so years of being away can have that affect.

We slowly drove down the street, which wasn't too hard since it's only a few blocks long and a dead end at that. Of course the people that were out sitting on their porches probably found it odd to see a car with NY plates "casing" their houses!  After we hit the end and turned around, Chris did decide which house was hers and it happened to still be the third one from the corner!

Next we went to a nearby little park. Chris and her friends would play there. It is an old Indian Burial Mound. The sign she remembered at the entrance was still there as was the viewing port into one of the mounds. Personally it seems a bit creepy and might explain why Chris to this day doesn't like scary movies.

Since we couldn't find the geocaches in this park, we needed to drive around town some more. We eventually found both her grade school and high school, although both were not exactly where she had remembered them.

We stopped at the pier at the center of town and walked around a bit. There were dozens of people out fishing off the pier that afternoon. Many of the fishing poles were just laying on the pier maybe 4 or 5 feet  apart. Then I noticed that most of them had a bottle or can about a foot away from the pole near the reel with the fishing line looped over it. I reckon that is the "fish on line" detection system, but one guy was using a nearly full bottle of beer for his - I hope he doesn't catch something and waste the beer.

I think Chris enjoyed her trip back home. We took a different way back to the campgrounds and did make a big discovery. We now  know the answer to this question - "Where's Waldo?" Oh, and by the way, "V" street runs thru the middle of town! 

A Day Trip to Milwaukee

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One of the day trips Chris wanted to take while in the area was to the Milwaukee Zoo. She had gone there as a child and had many fond memories. We picked a warm but reasonably nice day and got there shortly after it opened.

Our first stop was  at the gorilla exhibit. The building is rather large but at each window we saw  the same thing - nothing. Apparently they were being fed or still asleep. Finally we saw some acrobatic spider monkeys. Guess we will need to stop back later.

We wandered around all corners of the zoo getting to see a wide variety of animals. The most entertaining was one of the bears. It was pacing back and forth over a 30 foot section of its outdoor area adjacent to the dropoff keeping us safe. As it got to the right side, it would do this interesting 180 degree turn, nearly falling into pit below. It kept doing this over and over for the five minutes we stuck around.

Vibrant Peacock

Baby Giraffe

Finally Saw Them

Wrinkles

After spending nearly six hours at the zoo, we decided to leave and do a brewery tour. The Miller factory was not far away, and if we hurried, we would get there before the last scheduled tour of the day. The visitor center is quite nice with a decent size gift shop. I found a few shirts I would have liked, but I would have needed to get rid of others in order to have room in the motor home.

They have their own motor home!

We ended up having a very large group of close to 25 people. The tour itself starts with a short movie explaining the history of Miller and all the brands they have purchased over the years. Then we head to the packaging building. The volume and speed numbers were staggering. One fun fact was that a tractor trailer full of bottles of beer would last you 22 years of drinking a six pack a day!

Next was a walk to the old underground cellars built over 150 years ago. They were designed to have the cavities between each cave be filled over the winter with ice from frozen ponds and then stay cold year round. I was surprised at how nice the mural was in the cave we toured.

Mural in the cellar

Next we crossed the road and headed to the beer gardens. They let you have three 8 ounce glasses and have 6 different brews to choose from. Not bad for a free tour. Some of the buildings reminded me of Kodak Park with the combination of old and new and some brick buildings many stories high with no windows.

After we nursed our drinks, we decided to try a geocache that was in downtown Milwaukee. It had well over 500 favorite points. From the description, we had no real idea what we were looking for. We initially drove by the location which was pretty much an alley between a couple non-descript buildings. We ended up parking a few blocks away and walked back. We looked around outside a little bit but eventually realized it must be in one of the buildings.

We noticed a line of 6 or more people standing at a entrance to a building nearby. We looked around there, but it wasn't even clear what they were waiting for since there really isn't much signage. We  talked to one woman who was heading out a different door and discovered it was a restaurant and was an interesting place with decent food. Since we were hungry, we decided to give it a shot so we got in line and waited.

Each group got called in one at a time by Miss Moneypenny - she was sort of the hostess. The first question was "What's the password?" Each of us needed to whisper it into her ear. Chris apparently got close just by dumb luck when Moneypenny said she was only off by one word. Turns out Chris whispered "I'm looking for a geocache." Since neither of us knew the password, she forced us to perform 3 Chinese ninja poses with sound effects! After the fact, we discovered that there was video camera in the entry and it was broadcast to TVs throughout the dining area.

The whole resturaunt had a spy theme. We were greeted by our handler (waitress) and all customers were called agents. We asked her about how to locate the geocache and were told she might be able to help us out. After we put in our drink orders, she came back with them and a sheet of instructions that we needed to follow. After ordering dinner, we start walking around the other areas in the elaborately decorated restaruant. At first we though our sheet would lead us to the geocahe, but turns out all guests get the same sheet and are all trying to figure out where the instructions lead you.

While we were exploring and being completely confused what we were to be doing, our handler came and found us to say our food was ready. We headed back, had a really good dinner. After finishing our meal, we still had our original mission to complete. We went back to the one bar where the bartender was also a magician. We stood and interacted with him and were quite amazed how good he was at card tricks. Especially since we were standing within a few feet of his hands the whole time.

Finally we asked him if one of the cases we saw on the shelf behind him were the geocache, but alas they weren't. But he did tell us to go to the main bar and ask that bartender. Sure enough, the ammo can was hidden up on a shelf behind a picture at the back of the bar. We signed in feeling accomplished even if not completely sure what we had just experienced.

West Bend Wisconsin

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We got lucky when we called our first choice for a campsite in West Bend and they had a site for us for the full 10 days we want to stay. Now that we know exactly where we are going, we can hitch up the Jeep and head out. The timing was good. A thunderstorm had rolled through the area earlier in the morning but was east of us now and the weather looked to be good for the drive.

It wasn't until we got on the outskirts of Milwaukee that we ran into a fair amount of traffic mainly due to construction. Generally I don't mind driving the motor home, but when the lanes are defined by Jersey barriers and traffic is weaving back and forth, a wide rig that's 57 feet long isn't all that much fun. But things got better as we headed north from there and soon the drive was back to normal.

Lake Lenwood Beach and Campground turned out to be very nice. Our specific site was a bit of a challenge to get the big rig into, but once there, it was nice. Here are a few shots from around Lake Lenwood.

From the beach area looking towards the campgrounds.

From the campground area at sunset.

Spike at your own risk!

Cannot say I have ever run across an all steel volley ball pole and net setup like this.

I guess if you break a bone, or get a concussion, you can be called for some sort of net interference.

Just seems to be a pretty severe penalty.

We decided that we had to do Wisconsin's oldest geocache. It is only about 12 "crow" miles from our camp. But we also wanted to do a cheese making tour. We found one in the general direction of the state park and headed there first. Widmer's Cheese Cellars was in a smaller building than I was imagining. When you walk in, there is a small (no more than 10 people) viewing area overlooking the cheese making equipment. The viewing area was nearly full of 4 older couples watching the video and the guys making the cheese.

We talked with one of the visitors and discovered they are a group of fellow RVers on a long trip from Sun City Arizona. We shared a few stories and they shared the large cheese sample tray that was brought out for them. After they left we watched the workers a little more and picked out a few different cheeses that we liked, then we left before the other half of their group showed up.

One tank was being emptied of curds while the second one was being cooked and mixed.

The geocache we wanted to do is in Pike Lake State Park. Unlike Illinois, Wisconsin charges for entry into it's parks. $11 per park, or $35 for an annual pass for non-residents. We decide that there will likely be other state parks we want to check out so we went with the later. The park ranger at the desk was nice and knew all about the geocaches in the park. He mentioned the one right outside the office, but I had already signed the log before going in.

We have managed to find the oldest active cache in 14 states so far. Not all of them have been in the nicest locations, but this one was at the top of one of the highest points in SE Wisconsin. Okay, maybe it's not much more than a hill but it was a nice trail up and there is even an observation tower at the top - one that Chris reluctantly climbed all the way to the top.

View from tower on top of Powder Hill

After enjoying hikes on a few more trails in the park, we decided to head to the town of Slinger. There are quite a few geocaches with a very high number of favorite points and we wanted to see why. Here are a few pictures of the fun we were greeted with. For those non-geocachers out there, the following caches are not the norm but do exist.

A gadget cache right outside the Slinger fire station. It was complete with lights and sirens!

One of the several free library stations scattered around the town with a hidden compartment to hide the log book.

Chris went for that one extra piece of cheese she probably shouldn't have.











Here I am launching a rocket - sort of.

Heading Towards Wisconsin

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Our next destination is West Bend Wisconsin. Each summer, the town has a mega geocaching event that brings 100's of cachers to the area. Our schedule won't have us in town for the event, but there are plenty of good caches to attempt none-the-less. The drive will be about 600 miles and keeping with our "not in a hurry" pace, we decide to break it into three 200 mile days.

Our first day gets us most of the way across Indiana with a stop in Crawfordsville. It's just a Walmart, but it is miles off the expressway so road noise is minimal. We park right next to a pond (okay just a retention pond) and discover they have a reasonable wi-fi signal. I had not planned on being here so I didn't have nearby caches loaded yet. When I checked, the nearest cache was 8 feet away!!! Sure enough, I look out the window and there is a lamp post right there. LPCs are not our favorite but it will do. Hope no other cachers came by hoping to log this one while we were here.

This is our sunset view at Walmart

We selected a campground for our next stop. Hickory Hollow near Utica Illinois is part of Passport America so it is only half price for the night. We got in early enough to explore the area and discovered there are multiple state parks within a short drive and Illinois does not charge to visit them! Our first destination was Starved Rock State Park - voted #1 attraction in Illinois. We stopped at the visitor center and caught the last half of the video talking about the history of the park.

Now to explore the park a bit and do some of the geocaches and earth caches. One of our destinations was a cache with 60+ favorite points. IL River Byway Starved Rock Lodge cache was supposed to be some elaborate Italian bench but as much as we looked, we couldn't seem to find it! We decided to head into the lodge to ask about it only to discover the bench just inside the door.

There were also some trail hikes  both at Starved Rock and nearby Matthiessen State Park. Since I was nursing a sore leg, we limited our hike to just two earth caches. The first is named St Louis Canyon. The first quarter mile is simply down a closed road to the former parking lot. As we start the trail we discover sand in between all the rocks. Not just any sand but the kind you would find on some beautiful Florida beach. We followed the trail along a little stream for a bit longer and started to here two things - the sound of people laughing and falling water. As we came around the bend we were greeted with the sight of a 80 foot tall waterfall. It turns out the type of sandstone here produces the fine sand found all downstream of the falls.

Next was a walk to the Giant Bathtub in Matthiessen State Park. We had a little trouble with our navigation using the handheld GPSr once we were down at water level. Probably a function of the tall walls on either side of us. Eventually we just followed the trail signs and headed towards the voices of others already enjoying the "Bathtub". On our way there, we spotted this tree that was still managing to hang on even though a large portion of its roots were exposed.

Even though the campgrounds are nearly on top of I-80, we were in one of the sites at the rear and had the air conditioning on so we had a good night sleep for the drive into West Bend.

10 Days in Cincy

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Our first extended stay now that we're on the road was in the Cincinnati area. I always enjoy coming back here when we have the chance. Years ago I went to college at the University of Cincinnati so I am fairly familiar with the town. And better yet, I have two sisters and several other family members living in the general area.

On the Saturday before the 4th, we had a family get together and wedding shower at home of one of my sisters. Getting to spend time with family is always a fun time. Catching up with everyone and hearing their stories and explaining our downsizing trials and tribulations was a great way to spend the afternoon.  

The evening brought its own excitement. A home, no more than half a mile away, started shooting fireworks. Initially we were thinking they were just going to be the typical homeowner setting off what they had bought at a store. But a few minutes into it, we realized this was a professionally done spectacular! As my one brother in law stated, this guy must have "stupid money" to be able to put on such a show.  It lasted at least 40 minutes and was better than most fireworks displays I have seen in my life.  

We stayed at East Fork State Park for the 10 nights. It is a very nice park with lots of sites, although very few with full hook-ups and we were not lucky enough to reserve one of them in advance. Surprising to us, we did not have too much trouble conserving water and holding tank capacity for the whole time we were there. Maybe we will do okay when we head out west and do some serious boon docking? 

The other great feature about this park is the geocaching. This past April, there was a large geocaching event here at the park, and a whole slew of new caches were placed. In between family visits, we managed to get in some reasonably good hikes with some high number of caches found. We didn't come close to clearing out the park, so there will still be plenty of caches for us on our return trips to the area. 

We also got lucky and happened to catch up with a couple we had only met last year at a Newmar rally in West Virginia. We knew they were planning on going full time in their motor home, but hadn't stayed in touch to realize they had already done so about 3 months earlier than us. They happened to be back in the area as well so we spent a few hours catching up and trading downsizing stories.  

As it turns out, this couple was staying at the FMCA campground area in Newtown. We had been considering becoming members before, but the convenience of the camp here to my family was the clincher for us. I suspect when we are back in town, that's the place we will be staying. 

We also managed to at least sketch out what our travel plans will be for the next 9 weeks until we will be back in Cincy. A couple travel days to get to West Bend WI. From what we know of that area, it is a geocache rich region since they have a large event here each year. Our schedule will not put us there during the event, but it still should be good.  This will also be a good spot to do some day trips to a few towns where my wife spent time as a kid. She has all sorts of places she wants to try to find. I suspect it will be a real test of her memory.  

After West Bend, we will head up just a bit further north to Door County Wisconsin - a peninsula just northeast of Green Bay. Then it's onto the UP of Michigan for awhile before stopping in the Mackinac Island area. We haven't scoped out the rest of the trip south in case we run out of time before needing to get back to Cincy.

And the Journey Begins

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I had expected that after getting rid of most of our possessions in the prior nine months, the last week of preparations would be easier. Maybe I should have remembered my working days where those final project details seem to take way more effort to complete than I had anticipated. It seemed like every time I walked into a room, I got distracted from what I had been doing and started something else that needed to be tackled. Even though we are too old to pull all-nighters anymore, there were a couple very short nights of sleep in order to get things done. My stream of consciousness cleaning style may not have been the most efficient method, but it eventually worked.

Many of the things that weren't good enough for donation to Goodwill seemed to disappear as we set them at the curb. Sometimes I wasn't even halfway up the driveway when the car would stop to grab some treasure. And for those things that were suitable for Goodwill, the lady was impressed with our organizational skills - apparently she doesn't get many donations from a couple of former engineers!

The highlight of those last days had to be when we disabled that damned CraigsList account. No more calls, texts or emails asking if it was still available, or if we would take $25 for something we just posted at $100.

For others wanting to tackle this same process, we have a word of advice: set your move out date 1 or 2 days ahead of the actual date, and stick to it. We managed to get everything done, but ran out of time to say proper goodbyes to some of our friends. We were just hitching up the Jeep in the driveway when our lawyer called to say the closing went off without any issues.

Our first planned stop was in the Cincinnati area, but the reservation wasn't until Friday, so we had Wednesday and Thursday night to kill. It worked out fine given how drained we were. The first two nights were far from glamorous, but they were just what we needed. A Walmart stop near Erie and a Cabela's near Columbus. There were even a few geocaches at each stop that allowed us to get out and stretch our legs.

An added bonus in Columbus was the Skyline Chili only a mile walk from Cabela's AND a newly opened Graeters Ice Cream within walking distance. They still had their "Grand Opening" signs in the windows. Of course is would have been better if it had been a 6 mile walk instead of 2 miles.

Here's a picture of our celebration on our first night being homeless. Champagne and chocolate has been a favorite choice of ours going all the way back to our college co-op days. We made sure our dog Shelby got in on the action, even if it was just in spirit.

Part of the time we spend in Cincinnati will be to figure out what we plan on doing for the 2 months before needing to come back here for a mid September wedding. The rough thinking is a loop around Lake Michigan, but normally we would have planned out all our stops by now. It will be interesting to see just how free form we allow ourselves to get. I guess being the consummate planners is one of the bigger "ruts" we need to get out of.

The Countdown Continues

We are now down to 11 more nights before hitting the road full time. Since our last post, we have been working hard to empty the house of our "stuff". To say it has been a lot of work would be a bit of an understatement. I think originally, the problem had been more of an emotional one of parting with my possessions. But now I am ready to go, so it has simply become a logistical one, just a very time consuming task. The good news is that we are so very close to being there. 

This past Friday, Saturday and Sunday was our big moving sale. We managed to have the things setup in advance but we were up until nearly 2 AM pricing items. Ten minutes before we were to open, our neighbor walked up the driveway to help us with the sale. He commented how many people were waiting out front. I assumed he was yanking my chain since he can be that way at times. 

See , we have a 1200 foot long driveway, and are unable to see the road from our house. I had placed an "Open at 9AM" sign on a wimpy sawhorse at the end of the driveway to keep early birds out. As I rode the zero turn down to get the sawhorse, I saw about 30 people standing there with cars parked all along the road. Apparently the sign had worked. Once they saw me, they started up the driveway, looking a lot like the crowds you see at stores on Black Friday morning!

As I passed them, I suggested they get in their cars and drive up, but most opted to walk. I'm guessing that some of these people haven't walked 2 tenths of a mile in some time, but fortunately I did not find any customers passed out along the driveway when I checked later! In hind sight, I really wish I had mounted my GoPro camera in the corner of the garage and done a time lapse video of the first day of the sale. 

By the time the sale ended, we estimate that 80% of the stuff sold. Even better, two Craigslist buyers stopped by to look at the John Deere tractor, and the Ram pickup truck that weekend and both of those vehicles sold and are now off our books. Obviously selling these was good, but after having a chance to get to know each buyer, I feel like both my vehicles have both found great homes. The truck will even get to go on some camping trips as the tow vehicle for a young couples' new travel trailer much like it had for us when I first got it. 

After the sale, we allowed ourselves to take a several day break when my sister and brother in law came up to visit. We had a nice time and managed to get in some winery visits as we explored the Finger Lake region of New York. For those of you unfamiliar with this area, there are hundreds of wineries scattered all around the Finger Lakes. It will definitely be one of the many things we will miss once we leave the area and will be one of the reasons we will use to come back in the future. 

Now the work is to pack up the rest of the things that are worth donating to the Ronald McDonald house. And recognizing that some of the stuff is only worthy of the recycling center or the landfill. Some friends stopped by tonight to get both our king and queen beds. So tonight we will actually be sleeping in the motor home - even if it's just parked in our driveway. Hard to believe, but it has been nearly 9 months since we have camped in her. 

I suspect we will be on the road by the time we do our next post. First stop, the Cincinnati area for a family get together. It will be fun to see most of the relatives and will likely fit in a visit or two to Skyline Chili and Graeters Ice Cream, some of my favorite from my college days there.