Sorry, haven't been ignoring you, just no cellphone/web coverage

August 1, 2015 Madison IL

White Rabbits!  This is our fourth month away - it has gone so fast!  This morning we are installing more of the toys, I have to be the boy (or as I prefer – project director).  We thought we should get started while the experts were all still within question range at the Rally.

Some RVs are already heading off, that is good, it shouldn’t be so busy when we leave tomorrow.

Weather has been great, sunny every day and about 15 knots of breeze which just cools it down enough.  Although we froze inside the exhibition hall - the aircon must have been set to winter in Wellington temperature.

August 2 to 4 Devils Lake WI

After replenishing groceries we head an hour up the road to Devil’s Lake State Park which was recommended to us by George (our mechanic), he has been coming here for 50 years.  This 10,000 acre State Park is the biggest and most visited park in the Upper Midwest and has spectacular 500’ bluffs around the lake.  Devil’s Lake itself is 360 acres but the maximum depth is only 45-48’, it's fed by springs and has no natural drainage outlet, just evaporation. The lake is lovely, surrounded by quartzite rock, which seems just perched there.  We can see rocks balancing on the bluffs, hope they stay there!

We are camped at Quartzite Campground, one of three campgrounds on the northern end of the lake.  The sites are quite spread out, on sloping ground with lovely shady trees.  The lake is quite a hike from our campsite, up hill and down dale, quite an exercise on the bikes – definitely need a swim by the time you arrive at the lake.  There are many day trippers also enjoying the lake and their dogs of course.  No powerboats are permitted on the lake but it is still busy with paddleboards, kayaks, canoes, tin boats and all sorts of floating devices, most of which you can rent.

The Nature Centre was worthy of the visit, showing live and stuffed (as in having a previous visit with the taxidermist) animals and birds.  It was interesting to see all the wildlife we might see in these parts: deer, raccoons, possums, skunks, bats and even rattlesnakes!  Bobcats are becoming more common here too.  The Centre had animal skins which you were able to touch, the skunk skin was the softest.  Pity they smell so bad, and they do, kind of like a very very bad sewage smell.

George didn’t tell us a rail line runs right along the eastern shoreline of the lake and goes right through the campground!  Trains here in the US seem to toot their horns at every crossing as well as for any other reason the driver can think of!

Again Kim put a (polite I hope) note on the door of a camper which has a dog locked up in it while the family went out for the day.  The poor little dog barked and whined the whole time they were away.  It happens very often.  Most of the time though the owners at least leave the aircon on for the animals.

Saw a Blue Jay in the trees today – just like on Hunger Games, knew it was a Blue Jay 'cos I saw one in the Nature Centre.

August 5 Wednesday

We are definitely not tiring of waking up to sunshine every day! 

Leaving Devil’s Lake today and heading west towards Missouri..  We are looking for internet and laundry facilities at our next stop.  Our little on board washer/dryer is not really suited for big loads of sheets and towels, unless you do them a couple of items at a time.

Just west of the lake we came across fields and fields of sunflowers, then saw later on the local news that it is famous.  There are 500,000 plants at the Pope Farm Conservancy, a 105-acre park in Middleton and lucky for us the first and second week on August is when the sunflowers put on their dazzling display.  I am kicking myself I didn’t have the camera poised.  That is a heck of a lot of sunflower seeds!

After three hours on the I 90 West we stopped at Pettibone Resort, La Crosse, still in Wisconsin.  Our campsite is right on the banks of the Mississippi.  Fishing and ski boats parade right in front of us, our concrete patio looks right onto the river.  We have a couple of shady trees on each side of us and first heard, then saw, a woodpecker in one!