Wisconsin and Family Moments

View Trip east to Voyageurs National Park in a larger map
Wisconsin is a beautiful state. But like Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota, the highways are rough on a vehicle (and ours being a house, it is especially egregious.)

We crossed the state in a short period of time and settled in at our spot at Kettle Moraine State Forest. A word of caution to those who plan to travel into and stay in Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources facilities. They charge $10.00 per day for out-of-staters to use the facility. You can buy an annual pass for $35.00, which we did, but that made the price of our four day stay go up by a third. It wasn't so bad about the pass, it was just that found out about it at the gate with no mention on the website where we checked the prices for our reservation. The price on the web reflected a non-resident price for the spot, so we thought that was handled in the reservation.

We will say this, Sally sent a note to the web designer and got a response back within two days that the problem as we saw it would not happen to others. WDNR has the pass information on the pricing webpage now. And it's quite a nice place to stay - pretty little lake and nice campsites. Convenient to Lake Beulah. We probably will be back next year.

A moraine is a glacial formation. As sediment was pushed by the ice and exposed by the melting glacier, it created rolling piles of dirt that hardens over time. Lakes and ponds are created when water has trouble escaping the hardened soil, creating Kettle ponds. There are two divisions of the Kettle Moraine State Forest. We stayed at the southern division. It is in a triangle created by Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison. This is a very popular area for escaping the city. Therefore is difficult to get reservations, especially around the 4th of July holiday. This rural area of corn fields and small towns becomes quite crowded.

Bob and Maggie, parents of Katie who, with Sally's son Stephen are the parents of our grandson Grady, are the owners of a house on the waters of Lake Beulah.

They have an annual vacation with the families each 4th. Bob grew up in Chicago area and Maggie is from Milwaukee - they have been coming out for many years. There is a lot of great family history in photographs.

There is swimming, boating and general relaxing recreation for some of the hard working folks. Locally, they are known as the "floaters" since large groups take floats and inner tubes our the the buoy and enjoy the water and a cold beverage or two. We definitely joined in on this hot weekend.

Lots of other fun as well visiting with Grady and his cousins. Here he is being introduced to corn-shucking. He wasn't very interested - but he loves corn on the cob!

And he loves riding on the boat!

Again, we want to thank the Murphies and Foys for allowing us to share some time. Enjoy the pictures.

As we wound down our time down in eastern Wisconsin, Sally flew from Milwaukee to Birmingham to attend a class reunion of sorts. Her sorority had a gathering and she took advantage to see some friends (let's not use the word old here).
Tom stayed at the motorhome and swam, bought supplies for our journey and washed clothes. He also got to watch a NASCAR race, the first at home in several weeks of being on the road. Everyone seems to have had a good time.

Tom moved the motorhome to a truck stop on the highway before picking Sally up at the airport. The journey to Voyageurs National Park was about 650 miles in a planned time of two days. We chose to start on Sunday to get a jump on the travels. We ate at Culver's (for about the forth time), a chain of fast food restaurants with "butter" burgers and frozen custard. Not good for the waistline, but good food. We stayed one night in a truck stop and the other night in a rest area, which makes the trip faster (not to mention less expensive).

While checking the map, Sally noticed we had a special attraction on our route. We stopped at the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. It was interesting and fun.

Interesting and fun are the things we like to do most. So join us next time to hear all about Voyageurs National Park and our travels around northern Minnesota.