Aug 31

Aug 31 Green Bay, WI. home of the Green Bay Packer football team is 26 miles from our camp ground. We went to the stadium to go on a tour and when we arrived the parking lot was quite full.
The Chamber of Commerce was having their annual "welcome home" luncheon for all the players and coaches. A player or coach was seated at each table. The tickets had been sold months in advance. As we were looking around we were approached by a scalper who had a set of tickets to his table for sale. We not knowing a player from the water boy we declined the offer. We did ride the escalator to the upstairs balcony and watched the players as their names were called be escorted to their table. (Until Security chased us away very nicely, when we told him we were from Oregon.)
Waiting for our tour we spent some time in the gift shops and Sharon had fun clowning around with the teams slogan of being a cheese head. (picture)
The tour of the stadium took us up to the Suites that average $35,000.00 per game. The Suite would seat 65 people and was awesome. (picture) We also got to go down on the field through the players tunnel to see what it looked like from a players view point.(picture) The one area they said they couldn't take us to was the 10 jail cells that they use during the games. They say 3 or 4 cells are used every game for the unruly. The tour was very informative how the Packers got their start and what all it took to get a stadium and an NFL team, with a zero bank account. We took lots of pictures for Sharons son Bill who is a die hard Packer fan.
The Packers are the only team owned by the local town people so they don't have the financial backing of the other football teams in the NFL.

Aug 26 thru 28

Aug 26 Touring the small town of Brussels we came across a farm auction, where they are entirely liquidating a farms home and barns. We thought it would be fun to stop for a few minutes. The few minutes turned into a few "hours". Its a good thing we live in a home on wheels or we would have furnished another room in a larger home. As it was we bid on several items we would have had to get a moving company to ship it to Oregon. Luckily someone wanted it worse than us, we had the "auction fever".
Aug 28 On the road again for Kewaunee, Wisconsin. No internet at the park unless you go to the office or rec room, open until 9:00 PM. When we went over there to use our computer They shut down at 8:30 (just as we were getting started) The next night we started earlier and they shut down the office at 8:oo. You couldn't win with those people! We had paid for 6 nights and they gave no refunds so we were not very happy with the park and we did a lot of sight seeing to stay away from them.
As we explored the town we saw they had red and white striped poles connected to the tops of the Fire hydrants. These were used to locate the fire hydrants in the deep snow they get in the winter(picture).

Aug 21 thru 24

Aug 21 Today we are headed for Brussels WI. The RV park was nice but didn't have wireless internet service. We went to Sturgeon Bay for dinner and sightseeing. Sturgeon Bay is the start of a peninsula in Lake Michigan. This area is referred to as "Door County" by everyone in Wisconsin.
Aug 22 We drove to Sturgeon Bay and found a charming coffee house that had WiFi. Sharon enjoyed the coffee, Kent enjoyed the baked goods and we felt like a couple of yuppies with our computer and cell phone.
Aug 23 Laundry day! We enjoyed a picnic lunch and a game of cards outside on the picnic table while our clothes washed and dried.
Aug 24 Today we drove to the end of the peninsula and rode a passenger ferry(picture) to Washington Island.(picture) On the way we saw several small Islands with old light houses that no longer require a light house keeper to operate.(pictures) There are bike trails all over the Island and they had bikes to rent or you could bring your personal bike on the ferry. Our bikes are hanging on the 5th Wheel waiting for Sharon's arm to heal.

Aug 16 thru 20

Now that Sharon has broken her arm it takes 6 weeks to heal. Our plans to ride the go-carts and slide down the water slides have been eliminated. She has a lot of pain and we are already counting down the days the doctor told us it would take to heal.
Today we drove to Spring Green, WI to see the “House on the Rock” a majestic dream retreat of Alex Jordan. It is a house perched atop a pinnacle of rock overlooking the rolling country side and high above the trees. There are 13 rooms in the house which are created around the rock and many of the rooms have rock fireplaces. The house was built to be lived in but before it was complete the builder had so many people want to see it that he decided to build and design it for tours. There were also 2 more tours of his years of collecting. He was a very talented eccentric man. We have no pictures of the house due to the stone and the darkness inside the house.
Down the road a few miles from the “House on the Rock” is Frank Lloyd Wright (world renowned Architect) personal residence called ”Taliesin”. It had tours you could go on to tour his home, and another one to see his workplace. The name” Taliesin” applies to the 600 acre property and other buildings of Wrights design on the estate. (picture)
After seeing the doctor we decided we would go to Madison to see the Capital building. It was designed with 4 front entrances all made to look the same from the inside. It was like being in a maze. The building looked like the White House to us. (picture). The Capital buildings back here are much larger than Oregon’s Capital building.

Aug 6 thru 15th

Aug. 6th Sunday
We arrived in Wisconsin Dells mid afternoon. We are like two little kids at Disneyland. The first thing we saw at the stop sign entering the RV park was an upside down White House which we felt we had to go see. We walked over to the amusement and decided we would walk around behind the building, "what a surprise" the half of the building was a false front and the other half was less than 5000 square feet.(welcome to deception).There are so many Water Parks, Roller Coasters, and Go-cart tracks all around our campground we don't know where to go first. We have a real nice campsite. We are about 30 ft. from the swimming pool and we can see the go cart track with cars going around from ourdiningg room table. The massive roller coaster is just across the lot 2 blks away. We can see all the riders going down the tallest peak with the riders arms in the air. The nice thing is everything is close but it is not noisy.
Aug. 7th After breakfast we sat by the pool with our morning coffee. We had the pool to ourselves so it was very relaxing. Later we explored the town to see what else it had to offer. This State is full of trees. All you can see on any road is trees so thick you can't see beyond them.
Aug. 8th The truck needed an oil change so we loaded our bikes and took the truck in for the change, then went to a bike trail that is 101 miles long. It is broken up into segments of 20 miles. The trail goes through a town or rest area approximately every 7 miles. We were told by a couple we met that just finished their ride that there was an Ice Cream store about 7 miles down the path. That was our incentive to get in a 14 mile ride. To make a long story short we rode 9 miles and never found the Ice Cream store and had to ride 18 miles total to get back to the truck. I think they snookered us real good!
Aug 9th Today is laundry day for Kent and cleaning house for Sharon plus baking some oatmeal cranberry cookies for Kent.
Aug 10th Another sunny beautiful day in the Dells! We spent the morning at the pool and the afternoon playing Putt-Putt golf. They gave the winner a free Ice Cream cone and that leads to a great incentive for Kent to beat Sharon who is trying to lose some pounds.
Aug 11th Today we drove the country roads with the bikes in back and stopped at a real neat butcher shop where we again filled our fridge-freezer. The butcher stores here slaughter and sell the local meat in the Shops that are connected to the stores, the meat is real fresh. We did another bike ride and started where we left off and rode 17.4 miles. From where we leave off is getting to be quite a distance from our 5th wheel.
We had dinner at a Casino and had fun on the machine didn't win any money but it let us play for a few hours.
Aug 12th It is a nice hot day that is perfect for getting soaked. We went on a Jet boat ride and the Skipper made sure we got real wet. The Skipper was real neat and made sure we had fun doing spins and stops in which water would come over the sides and bow.
Aug 13th We went to mass this morning to a beautiful old Church with huge stained glass windows. There were so many tourists we had to go across the street to the school gym where they had set up folding chairs and an altar. This space was also filled to capacity so next week we will make sure we get there early so we can attend in the old Church.
We packed a picnic lunch and went to a bike path that was closer to the 5th wheel. This wasn't as nice as the other bike paths you had to ride on the streets of town and along a path next to the river. This path is maybe 5 miles total. Kent saw some fishermen in the river and started watching them. Sharon decided to go back up the path by herself, when she got about half way up the trail she decided she should go back, so she turned around in a narrow part of the path, this was a BIG mistake. She fell and we found out the next day at Urgent care that she had broken her arm below her elbow. They put it in a temporary cast (green and yellow, Green Bay Packer colors) and they told us to see an Orthopedic Doctor the next day.
August 15, the Orthopedic Doctor removed the cast and said with that type of break it was better not to have it in a cast but to use it carefully to keep it from getting stiff. No Bicycling and Water parks. What ever she does don't fall or jar it.

August 5th

Today we are staying at the Elks Club RV Park in Rochester, MN. It is a beautiful location that connects to the city park. The park has a bike trail that goes for 6 miles through the city. We didn't get our bikes out to ride because we're only staying one night, but we are enjoying watching the bikers and people walking the path. There is also a Frisbee golf course here and a lot of young men are using it. The city of Rochester is about 12,000 population.
Every street has a Medical Center or Hospital. The whole city is centered around the Mayo Clinic and there are so many beautiful churches here close to the hospital. There are 5 Catholic Churches with in blocks of the Mayo Clinic. In the heart of the city we found a large Catholic Convent that was on top of a hill. The Convent was very old and huge with beautiful landscaped grounds that must have covered several acres. ( Kent thinks the Catholics own the city)

August 3 and 4th

Today we headed for Welcome, MN it is raining again and the Hwy is full of bikers heading to Sturgis. Sharon is so fascinated with the quantity she started counting them for one hour. The total came to 240 bikers, 165 rigs towing trailers which mostly held 2 or more bikes, and 70 trailers that held 4 or more. We are amazed to be in MN and are still seeing this amount of motorcycles heading for Sturgis.
Our camp ground is a beautiful country setting surrounded by corn fields. Welcome, MN is a small town of about 350 population but all the houses look freshly painted and the lawns are so green. After more than a month of dried up fields in SD we forgot how nice it is to see everything green.
August 4 It rained during the night again and the day is cool with sunshine. No wonder this state is so green. We went for a bike ride into town looking for a meat market that had locally grown meat. They had a large selection of Summer Sausage so we picked out one that had a combination of Cranberry, Pork and Beef in it. We filled our Fridge-Freezer with good corn fed beef.
We sat outside and visited with the RV'ers who had just pulled in. You learn a lot about places to go and see when going through a State. We have a lot of books on each States tourism but word of mouth is usually better.

August 2

We slept to the sound of much needed rain softly falling on the roof. It was so nice and relaxing we decided to spend another day in Mitchell besides Kent couldn't get Sharon off the couch and away from the window. Sharon woke up early and started looking out the window at the bikers that were going to Sturgis. The bikers were getting up, folding up their tents and packing and repacking their saddle bags to get everything to fit. They would roll up their tents and sleeping bags real tight and load them on the sissy bar to use as a backrest for the rider. Sharon became quite fascinated with the way they packed. Sharon told Kent that she could become a biker MAMA if he wanted to get a Hoag. (Harley Davison motorcycle, that's the extent of what Kent knows about motorcycles just the nickname) Some of the bikers came in large motorhomes towing the bikes or towing a large trailer with the bikes inside. They were the first to get on the road.

August 1

This morning we left for Mitchell. SD where we are spending the night. The drive to Rochester,Mn. is farther that what Kent wants to drive in one day, he is getting real spoiled. It is a dark, gray day and they are getting some badly needed rain. The fields here are all burned up and a lot of the crops are lost already.The rain smells good and it reminds us of Oregon which we miss so much.
The highway is full of motor cycles on their way to Sturgis, SD for the big bike rally on August 7th. It is unbelievable to imagine how many bikes there are traveling to that event.
It was raining so hard when we set up camp we decided it would be a good day to do laundry and clean. A lot of the bikers pulled into this campground and quit early for the day. It sure doesn't take them long to set up camp and I bet they don't have as much laundry as we do either. We are going to spend a couple of days here, it is a nice place and fun people to visit with.