Lazy Days staying busy

Here we are in the Lazy Days campground just outside West Bend, Wisconsin and this will be a bit of a catch up post.  These lazy days have had us busy!

We tried to slowly meander across Minnesota, and we did spend several days there, but the lure of cheese curds was just too great,  They do have a big mall in Minnesota though, the Mall of America and that was a siren song to Jeanne.  The largest mall in the nation.  Floor after floor, wing after wing of corporate stores filled with that sound of everyone talking at once creating a buzz that fills my head with pressure…..well,  Jeanne loved it and that’s enough for me.  Besides the cacophony of a thousand teenage girls talking at once, I did see a serious threat to civilization there.  Minneapolis has a large Muslim community and there were dozens of hajib wearing service workers and customers, many more than I am accustomed to seeing.  But that was not the threat.  The Minnesota Vikings team store is located there and I had to take evasive measures not to get any Viking on me.

We stayed in Welcome, MN.  How do you not stop and stay in a town so welcoming they put it in the name?!  We rolled out toward Chippewa Falls Wisconsin and Minnesota tried to kill us!  The midwest in general has tried to kill us, sometimes on travel days we even get the pleasure of experiencing the same thunderstorm twice in the same day!

This particular storm was following us from behind in St. Paul and we knew we were literally less than 2 miles from a Sams Club.   No such luck.  High wind, sideways rain and no visibility took us off the freeway at the next exit where we drove by braille into a shopping center where we parked sideways to have the buildings block the wind and sat it out.  Its hard to tell in the photo but the parking lot was a lake.  Minnesota is the land of many lakes after all.

So, this turned out to be a great opportunity to have breakfast and after oatmeal and bagels we were back on the road.

We left the land of Lutheran Vikings fans and made our way to Chippewa Falls.  A holy site.  The home of Leinenkugels Beer.  Once known as cheap beer Leine’s is now riding the craft beer phenomenon and is a famous state institution.  I just figured since I’ve been drinking it since well before I was 18 (legal age back in the olden days) I should see where it comes from.We had a great time on the tour and I recommend it if you are in the neighborhood.

While we we in Chippewa Falls we stayed at an inexpensive and rather odd RV Park.  The oddest part was our discovery in the woods behind the park.  We went out for a walk and low and behold we discovered a forgotten kingdom.  It turns out a Ren Faire grounds sits rotting whilst its owners feud about its future.  Complete with a equestrian field for jousting, this must have been a great place in it’s day.  We hope it reopens someday!

From Chippewa Falls we made a run for the Holy Land.  Green Bay!  Lambeau Field.  Nuff said.  One of the things we did while I still had my full income was to buy tickets to see Billy Joel play Lambeau Field and this was truly a milestone in our new life.  We had traveled from Bakersfield CA, roughly 3000 miles over 44 days to be here!  What a native born Cheese Head to do?  Why have a brat at Krolls West of course!

Billy Joel was fantastic and we spent 10 days at the Apple Creek Campground in De Pere, WI.  Just 15 minutes from the now soggy, not frozen, tundra.  The weather was touch and go right up until concert time and funnels were seen from the parking lot while tailgating.  But in Wisconsin spirit, nothing slowed down the party and the show was a huge success and legendary singer/songwriter Billy Joel commented that he had seen all of you freeze your asses off on TV and was treated to a chant of GO PACK GO!

It was here in De Pere we were reminded what a severe thunderstorm looks like and the park was hit by up to 80 MPH wind gusts and crazy rain.  The wind came in all at once, like a fist, with no foreplay and the Box Elders could not withstand the hit and several snapped.  Once bough came down just brushing the back of the jeep and another about ten feet from the motorhome.  Seeing as how we were under a huge willow tree, Jeanne and I sought cover in the office just in case the coach became an accordion.  All’s well that ends well and other than some clean up noting was damaged.  We did see half of a 100′ tree snap off and land right between two trailers.  You couldn’t have fell that tree any better!

From De Pere it was off to Milwaukee/West Bend to spend a month at Lazy Days Campground, on little Green Lake for a month with my sister Betsy and her family. This is a campground we highly recommend, especially on a monthly basis.  It’s on a converted farm with a sandy lake beach complete with pontoon docks to swim to.  If you are used to and require manicured sites with sewer and all the resort accessories, you may not like it, but if you just enjoy a peaceful beautiful place run by a great family – stop on by!