A Great Visit with Christopher!!

Having a really good visit with Christopher here in cold country!!!  Cold my butt!! They are having record HOTs here!!  LOL!  I can't get away from the heat! But the days have been beautiful! I've really enjoyed my stay here with Chris & the Kolden's. They are a fantastic couple and I have really been blessed by gaining a friendship with them!

They have a long haired chihuahua named Jaxi (or Jaxy) that is almost the exact same size as Abbie...and it has been interesting watching them! Jaxi is the "queen bee" here, and she is tolerating Abbie in her domain!  There have only been a couple of flair ups...mostly quiet and actually some play time also! 

Chris has taken me around Madison and the Univ of Wisconsin campus...and the old homes here are just fantastic! They come in all shapes and sizes, colors and lack of color, and, the old outnumber the new by a long bit!

 There are many unique houses here, and many that are just flat gorgeous! I will have a post later that will just be pics of homes in the area, and business buildings...because they are worth the effort to show and also to preserve! There are several of the "corner lot" building downtown that I want to get some better pics of..you'll love them!

Chris took me to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens...and they are gorgeous! And basically free to the public! Awesome!

 There is also a Buddist Temple that was brought over from Thailand and reassembled in the garden! A complete temple...to include the gold overlay! It really is beautiful, but even with signs asking people to not touch...there are bare spots on the posts and even on the "walls". And it is in need of repairs/maintenance..but looks like the garden is not able to raise enough money to do it! Such a shame! It is well worth the investment in the future!!

 The gardens are just a beautiful work of art...really! They are very well kept up, there are several different "types" of gardens for the varied climates...and there is also a fairly large "greenhouse" that has the tropical forest plantings...and it is so well done! I really enjoyed our walk thru the gardens...I might still be recovering from it...but it was well worth the effort to see them! I might even have Chris take me back one more time before I leave!!

They also have what appears to be quite a few weddings in the gardens...a lovely spot for vows!!

    

Chris also took me for a drive through the UW Arboretum...it is a piece of land that will stay in it's "natural" state hopefully for a long, long time! There are a few homes still in the area, but they can't be enlarged or modified any longer, and once they are "empty"...they will stay empty, so it is like being in the middle of the wilderness while actually being almost in the middle of a city of 230,000 plus!! It is so cool...and as we were driving along, we came upon a gathering of wild turkey!! So neat!

I guess that is about all for now!  I need to transfer the rest of my pics to my Surface and then upload them to Pics so that I can do a better job of letting you see a bit more of Madison. 

I'll be here for a few more days, so I'm also going to try to get around for more pics when Chris has a couple of hours to spare! I've got pics of the State Capital from the other day when Chris took me to see it...it really is a gorgeous building. So I need to get all my pictures sorted out and folder-ed up...so I can find them when I need/want them!  Just all in one folder with one date is just not working any longer!!  LOL!

Stay tuned for more from the Trucking Frog!!

 🐸👍🚌⛺🐶🐱🍻  C'ya!!

A Really Nice Campground & Park w/Lake!!

 Cold Water Family Park & Lake was a really nice spot, especially when you consider that it is a county park! I was very surprised at just how nice it really was.

 The lake was gorgeous, especially in the early morning hours before the boats hit the water! And there were some really large fish popping the top feeding. But just so peaceful!

 I think what really surprised me were the amount of private homes all along the shore and how quiet it still was! There are some really BIG homes on the other shores...and I was surprised to see the size of some of the boats. But it is a fairly large lake, so they actually fit pretty well. There were a bunch of pontoon boats on the lake as well. 

 The area around the lake in the park area was just superb! It was very well kept up and really clean. Even though the place is just barely out of the city limits, you had the feel that you were off in the woods! The walking paths were either well kept gravel/dirt with wooden steps built into the paths, or they were concrete. Just a great job!

 And everywhere you walked, you could almost always see the lake thru the trees and bushes. I didn't get a good pic of it, but there was also a very nice beach in the park area. Quite a large, wide, sandy beach area! No ocean noise, but still just so nice!

 And the colors are already changing over to the fall season! They are just now making the change here. But the speed of the change is just amazing. Another week or so and it seems that they will really be blazing!

I'm all packed up and ready to roll tomorrow. Have my 20+ days of clean clothes done...empty tanks...full water tanks...and as you can tell, Abbie is ready to roll!!  LOL!  I finally figured out a way to keep her from laying all against my screen!!!  Heheheheh!

Stay tuned for more from the road with Frog, Abbie & Snickers!!

C'ya!!!

Frog is actually in a campground!!

Better look fast!  This is going to  be one of the rare times that The Frog & The Lilypad are actually in a campground!!  LOL!  I'm here with my "unofficially" adopted son & grandkids!!  

And it is a really nice county park and campground sitting on the side of a very pretty lake! Power & water at every site, dump station, nice playground for the kids, showers, pavilion for groups...it is just a nice place!

I'll post some more pics tomorrow or Sunday...mainly because I'm really impressed with the camp! 

Have had a really good visit so far...and it is amazing just how fast the kids grow!! Charlee (Brad's daughter) is growing like a weed and into a really cute kid!  She is a "cheerleader" at her little school...and today was, I guess, Spirit Day! She looked great!

Rah, Rah, Ree!! Hit'em in the Knee!!  LOL!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Keep checking back, there will be more pics soon!

C'ya!!

Finally!....In MI!!

I have made it into MI!  I started the night last night at the Menards in Ionia, MI...and ended up in at the Wally World across the street! They had the parking lot sweeper coming at Menards...hmmmm...think it was just a "polite way" to tell me I couldn't stay there all night!  LOL!  But spent a quiet night at Wally World.

 My favorite groc store is also right here!! ALDI! And this was the nicest one I've ever been in! It was just great! If you've not shopped ALDI, and have one close, you need to try them!!

It was a nice drive yesterday. Being on the back roads is so much more pleasant than on the Interstate Highways! And since Europa looks like she has a bit of age on her, and Sidekick is definitely not new, and carrying my propane & gas cans on a rack on Sidekick...and my "slow moving equipment" reflector on the back of Sidekick...I haven't been flipped off once yet!!!  LOL!  And yesterday I was driving thru small, old towns and LOTS of corn/maize/soy fields!!

And I do love seeing all the old courthouses! They are awesome!

Woke up this morning and talk about fog!  It was a pea-soup fog...kinda like we get down in AL! I mean really thick. When you walk outside and can feel it on you face...that is a fog!!  Took Abbie out at 0640...it is over 2 hours later...and it is still pretty doggone thick!  I had planned on being on the road by now, but I'm not getting out of this parking lot until I can see at least a 1/2 mile...would feel better if it gets to a mile!

I am very pleased with my BP this last night! Being on the road is very agreeable with my physical well being!!  LOL!!  Being back on my regimen is ver good for my "physical well-being"!

I'm still a bit cramped inside the house...but as I get pics scanned and get rid of a few more things...and re-pack/box more of the things that I will be keeping...it get better with each passing week. I would say "each passing day", but that would be a non-truth!!  Heheheheheh   But by the time I finish this circuit, I do believe that I will be in pretty good shape when it comes to room inside the house and what I've decided to keep.

Well, it's 0905 ET, and the sun is trying to cut thru the fog...not having a lot of success yet, but it's trying!  I'm about 60 miles from Brad's place...so once I finally get rolling, should be there by lunch!  And then going camping with them & a couple of their friends for a couple of nights. It will be a great visit...have not seen them in almost 4 years!!! How fast time passes by!!

Keep tuning in...C'ya out here!!!

Still ahead of Irma!! :-)

Spending the night in the Sherwin Williams parking lot!!

I've made it into "the Yankee lands"!!  Heheheh   Spending the night in Bedford, IN...and it was a good day's drive!  I think I'm about 382 miles out of Lake Isabella, MI. So will get within 120 mi of destination tomorrow, and make the rest of the run in on Wednesday.

Still watching the weather, and from the looks of it, I will make it to MI before the rains get there...or here!! But the winds are getting here first! It has gotten quite "breezy" here and on the road this afternoon!

Entering IN from Owensburg, KY...I almost missed it!!  I did miss the TN & Ga signs on the way up!!  But I have now been able to add three more states to my decal on Europa...up to 10 states since getting her on 1/31/2017!

Stay tuned...more pics and travels coming in the next few weeks!!

Staying ahead of Irma!!

We are on the road!! And so far so good!! That is looking out the front window at the exit from the Monteagel, TN rest area on I-24.  I'm deciding whether to park for the night or to drive for a few more hours...right now, I'm roughly 24-36 hours ahead of Irma...and I want to keep it that way.

Irma seems to have looked at my travel plans and decided to see just how well she could mess with me!!!  So this is why I'm so adamant about staying ahead of her and her "mess"!!!

So keep thinking good thoughts...Europa seems to be running well. MPG's are not quite as high as I would like, but I'm also running thru the southern end of the Appalachian Mtns...so when I think about it that way, I guess she is actually doing pretty well!!

More later...stay tuned!!! 

Gas Prices Dropping...Time to Roll!

I drove around Gadsden again the other day and stopped by the "new" river walk that they completed since the last time I was in town. It is on the east side of the river downtown and they did a really nice job with it. They put in some really nice "sitting areas" and the walk-ways are very well done. 

I've been watching the gas prices also the past few days. And during the past week, locally prices went from about $2.10 to as high as $2.49/gallon. And the run up to MI jumped over $40!  But this morning I got to looking at the prices and they have come down enough that the run is right now only about $23 more than a week ago. Sooo...that means that I will be heading out in the morning for MI. 

It's been a good stay here, but I have been here for a week longer than I had expected. So it is time to roll.  I'm going to just make a straight run up to MI. That way I'll be able to visit for 3-4 days, then back on the road to WI.

Today will be final packing/setup for travel. Have one thing to try to seal up well, base of the TV antenna on roof, then give Europa a bath, check air pressures & fluid levels, get rack mounted on Sidekick and set up for the road...then make sure that everything is put up so I'm not listening to things hit the floor while I'm driving!!  LOL!

So my next update should be from on the road!

C'ya out there!!

First Friday, Gadsden, AL

Today is "First Friday" here in Gadsden...I had forgotten about it! But the following pictures will be self-explanatory just what this evening is!!

If you like to smell exhaust fumes and hear the throb of many, many cylinders...then this is the place that you might want to consider if you ever get over to this part of the world!!