Illinois – Thanksgiving

Illinois – Thanksgiving

Traveling
Joe and I have spent the last two weeks in Benton, Illinois at Gun Creek Corp of Engineer campground.  We came from a crowded expensive park to this beautiful park sitting on Rend Lake for $8 a night.  We will hate to leave it tomorrow but the park is closing on Monday for the season and we need to keep moving south. We have shared the park with deer hunters, fishermen, and some families who just want the peace and quiet of this park.  Crappies have been biting and the hunters have been getting their deer.  We know this because the deer carcasses have been hanging in the trees (not a pretty picture).  We have shared our campsite with a pair of eagles and sometime their adolescent offspring.  They sit in…
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Campground Etiquette

Traveling
Give me a minute while I hop onto my soapbox.  Joe and I have been campers for over forty years and looking back over those forty years things have really changed.  Campgrounds are getting busier especially on weekends.  Families are enjoying the great outdoors with bigger and better campers, their kids, their bikes, their dogs, and their fun which is great.  What they are forgetting is that other people are also camping next to them who don’t care to have their kids, their dogs, their loud music or televisions blaring into their campsite.  I wish when we checked into Winton Woods they would hand a list of “Campground Etiquette” to campers, not that they would read it.  Some campgrounds actually do include etiquette with their rules. Winton Woods County Campground…
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Ohio- Visiting Family

Ohio- Visiting Family

County Parks
We just spent nineteen days in Winton Woods Campground in the Cincinnati area.  This is always our “home” in Zach and Lauren’s area when visiting them.  We always leave there saying the same thing, nice park, a little too busy, too expensive, but our only option in that area.  One of the things we love about the campground is the 2 mile paved walking trail around Winton Lake. It was great spending time with our son Zach and his wife Lauren.  They love to find a new place for us to try for dinner and this time it was Terry’s Turf.  Their specialty is gourmet burgers which were truly yummy.  But as wonderful as the food was the ambiance was even better.  The place was very tiny, seating about 25…
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Wisconsin – Door County

Wisconsin – Door County

State Parks
Leaving Minnesota and the grandkids is always hard.  We will see Cate in a few weeks as she and Cassie are flying to Ohio for a visit with Zach and Lauren while we are there.  Also Christmas is just around the corner so we know we will see them soon.  The time between Christmas and when we return to Minnesota in the spring is the long stretch when it really gets hard.  Those grandkids know how to pull at the heart. We decided to investigate Door County this year on our way to Ohio.  We have heard many wonderful things about the peninsula and our daughter Amanda had been there the first part of September and she loved it.  We have never been to the peninsula so it was time…
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Six Weeks in Minnesota

Six Weeks in Minnesota

Traveling
So much to do and so little time to do it!  We had only about six weeks back in Minnesota after our great Alaskan adventure before we left for Ohio and then south.  Of course, we wanted to get in as much grandkid time as possible so they were our priority.  Each of them spent a night in the mini (one at a time of course) which was a lot of fun for them.  Cate especially loved the idea of spending a night in the small space and tried to talk Joe and me to let her have the big bed and we take the little bed.  It didn’t happen and she loved sleeping on the little bed.  Alex had to sleep on the floor because we worried about him…
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Back in Minnesota

Back in Minnesota

Traveling
We are back at our Minnesota location as of Aug 30th.  Hard to believe we have been to Alaska and back.  They say that times flies when you are having fun or time flies as you age and both of those are true for Joe and me. We thought we would recap some of the highlights of our Alaskan adventure Have been in the mini for 112 days and still counting (May 13th until present) In Alaska 53 days Drove 9,608 miles from St. Louis Park, MN on May 26th to St. Louis Park, MN on Aug 30th Dry camped (no electricity or water) 30 of the 97 days So many animals and birds   -  Wood buffalo and Yellowstone buffalo,  Elk,    Pronghorn deer,  Big horn sheep,  Moose and babies, Antelope, Mountain goats, Dall sheep…
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Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park

Campgrounds
We made it through the hot weather in Washington (without pulling that television out), stayed at a couple of really nice RV parks in Montana before entering Yellowstone.  We met a very nice couple from Florida who were on their fifth week of full-timing.  We spent a great evening talking full-time and Alaska.  They are planning on doing the Alaska trip next summer so we had a lot to talk about.  Hope we can catch-up with Ellen and Mario in Arizona this winter. As we were about to enter Yellowstone we spotted a few elk alongside the road.  Of course, we had to pull over and take a few pictures but as we were watching the elk a large herd of Big Horn Sheep came down the mountain very close…
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Our Alaska Adventure Coming To an End

Our Alaska Adventure Coming To an End

Traveling
Yes after fifty-three actual days in Alaska it has come to an end and we are making our way back to Minnesota.  We are currently outside of Spokane, WA in temperatures over 100.  I will never complain about the wonderful cool temps and rain we had in Alaska after these very hot days and the dryness British Columbia and Washington are seeing.  Because it took us six days to go through British Columbia without cell or Wi-Fi service, I’m a little behind in blogging so I hope I don’t get to long. Haines is where we stopped for a few days to get on the ferry to travel the Alaskan Marine Highway to Juneau.  I will cover Hanes in a nutshell – most expensive place we stayed at in our…
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Joe Gets His Wish

Joe Gets His Wish

Traveling
Joe has been asking people as we travel if they have seen a grizzly along the road.  Probably 50% of the people have seen one.   Joe said that is his only disappointment on our Alaska trip even though we did the bear adventure.    He just wants to see that big grizzly walking alongside the road.  Well he finally got his wish.  About twenty miles from the Canadian border on our way to Haines we finally saw that grizzly.  We slowed down to get a picture and of course the bear turned around and headed into the woods.  We got a nice picture of its back-end but at least we saw one.  Little did we know that a few days later Joe would have a much to close encounter with a…
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Valdez, Alaska

Valdez, Alaska

Traveling
  Well the drive from Glennallen to Valdez was two things – first Joe classified it as the “worst road” we have been on in Alaska (but he will change his mind a few days later) and second one of the prettiest drives we have been on. From Glennallen to Valdez is about 120 miles and about the first 90 miles were terrible frost heaves and expansion repairs.  To say the least it was a very slow, bumpy ride.  Our speed was between 45 and 50 mph.  Once we hit Worthington Glacier about 25 miles north of Valdez the road got better but then we were stopping constantly for the beautiful views.   Our first stop was Worthington Glacier which was pretty and we could have hiked to the base…
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