Madison WI

We departed Shipshewana shortly after noon on Sunday.  Our destination was Blackhawk Valley Campground near Rockford IL, about 250 miles away.  We discovered this park when we stayed there in September 2014.  It is very nice, and it is also a Passport America member park, meaning half price camping for the Whitleys.  Several other attendees of the rally were headed to the same park, and a few were caravaning.  We would rather not caravan with others if we can help it.  We prefer to travel at our own pace and stop when we wish, without feeling beholding to others.  We worked hard to avoid the central Chicago area and the inevitable toll roads, and we were largely successful.  We bought 76 gallons of diesel near Joliet IL for $3.39/gallon (YEAH!).  GasBuddy rocks!

We arrived at our camp well before dark. At least 4 other parties from our CCI rally were already here.  After we got set up we joined George and Irene, and Jack and Mary Lou for happy hour.

About 10:00 Monday morning we departed for our next primary destination, Madison WI, to attend "FMCA's 92nd Family Reunion; Motorhome Showcase — "Escape to Wisconsin"".  After a short jaunt of only about 83 miles we were parked in Lot N at the Alliant Energy Center, only about 2 miles from the capitol in downtown Madison.  We would be dry camping at this event, meaning we would be camping without the benefit of electric, water and sewer hook-ups.  That's fine; we boon dock all the time, but this week it was HOT!  We could have paid $175 for 30 amp electric service, but they wouldn't turn on the juice until sometime on Tuesday.  Plus with 30 amp service we might only be able to run just on air conditioner.  Plus we would have had to park in the holding area Monday night, then move to our assigned site the next day.  We have an excellent working generator that craves use, and that will power our 2 air conditioners, and then some.  In the end we were comfortable, using our generator for a total of about 23 hours and using only about 12 gallons of diesel, for a cost significantly less than $175.  There were slightly less than 2000 coaches attending the convention, a smaller number than most past conventions.

The convention didn't officially start until Wednesday afternoon, so we had some time to explore Madison.  We visited Rutabaga Paddlesports, the premier canoe dealer in the upper Midwest.  We spent quite a bit of time talking with Darren, the owner of the company, and of course, we bought a new boat.  We last visited Rutabaga in September 2012, on our way home from the Boundary Waters, and guess what?  We bought a new boat.  Dorcas says we can't ever go back to Rutabaga again.

Ho. Ho. Ho. Christmas comes in July.  Our new Nova Craft Prospector 15

The convention featured hundreds of seminars with 12 seminar rooms running all day long for 3 1/2 days.  Seminars covered a myriad of topics:  Topics included RV technical, engines and transmission, generators, RV life style, health and fitness, games and so on.  Many seminars we had attended before, but some topics were worth attending again and some were new.  Dorcas and I mostly attended seminars separately, because there were conflicting topics we wanted to attend, or because we had different interests.  They also had Pickleball courts set up, so I played for about 2 hours each morning and a few afternoons, while Dorcas attended morning exercise classes.

There was also a big exhibition hall where hundreds of vendors were hawking their wares.  We dropped a few coins on a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), a refrigerator monitoring/control system that turns the fridge off when the unit is out of level and the boiler is overheating, to prevent fatal damage, and a towed vehicle braking monitor that will alert us when the towed vehicle auxiliary brakes are engaged.

We also attended a posh event at Monona Terrace which involved free food, beer, wine and entertainment, sponsored by a large RV dealer, RVOne Superstores.  Monona Terrace was designed in 1938 by Frank Lloyd Wright, a native of Madison, as gift to the city.  It acts as a visual and physical link between the state capitol building and Lake Monona.  It was finally constructed in the mid-nineties, decades after Wright's death.  Originally designed to contain municipal offices, it was ultimately built as a major convention center.

We also toured the Wisconsin State Capitol.  The capitol building is a very impressive structure built in the shape of a cross centered by a 265' granite dome covering the rotunda.  Each of the four wings house a major component of the government: both chambers of the Wisconsin legislature, the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Office of the Governor.  We were able enter each chamber except for the Supreme Court, which was being renovated,  Much of its art and carvings are adorned with the Wisconsin state mascot, the badger, a ferocious little guy.

A view from above the rotunda

Crest showing the state mascot, the badger, and the state motto "Forward"

In the legislative chamber

Legislative chamber showing the public gallery

View towards Monona Terrace and Lake Monona

Badgers were everywhere!

Madison has a very active cycling community.  There are tons of bike trails and many streets are bike friendly.  In the downtown area there were public-use cycles.

Finally we visited the Henry Vilas Zoo.  It is a fairly small zoo and the animals were often hard to find, but it was free.

At the zoo

The Tundra Buggy, near the polar bear exhibit

All the animals on the carousel were zoo animals

Feeding the goats

Strangely, we found no badgers at the zoo.  Go figure.

We departed the Alliant Energy Center shortly before noon Sunday and continued our northward trek.

Shipshewana

Our first destination was Shipshewana IN, home to a large Amish-Mennonite community in extreme northern Indiana.  Shipshewana was named for a local Potawatomi Indian chief.  We are here to attend a rally of Country Coach International (CCI), the national club for our brand of motor home.  This is not our first trip to Shipshewana.  We visited here August 2010 on our way to Michigan and Minnesota (again!).  On that trip we spent a day at an Amish farm where they also make replacement cooling units for ammonia absorption RV refrigerators.  We installed a new cooling unit to replace one I had recently installed, which turned out to be defective.  You can read that post here.

People often ask us what an RV rally is and what we do there.  Essentially a rally is a gathering of RV owners, usually who own a similar rig or have some other common interest, to socialize and visit.  It gives these RVers a reason to travel to a location or venue that they may not have thought to visit by themselves.  We share stories and experiences and close friendships are formed.  Eating and adult beverages are usually involved.  We belong to two manufacturer-related RV clubs and both have rallies 3-4 times each year.

Prior to our arrival, the area had many days of hard rain.  When we arrived the weather had cleared and was perfect for the duration of our stay.  During the rally we toured Shipshewana, over-ate, visited the Midwest's biggest flea market, over-ate, visited the Entegra Motor Coach factory, over-ate, visited Cook's Bison Ranch, over-ate, torued the Menno-Hof museum, over-ate, rode carriages to an Amish home for dinner where we over-ate and, finally, we over-ate.  There were also adult beverages involved.

The Amish shun automobiles and other modern conveyances
This photo and many others in this post courtesy of George H.

Dorcas and Irene in a quilt flower garden

Buggies all in a row

Boarding a wagon at Cook's Bison Ranch

Beefalo on the hoof up close

Hand-feeding the bison.  Have you ever been licked by a bison? 

Dorcas after the buggy ride to an Amish dinner.  Does she look full and happy?

An Amish farm

Myron and Dorcas boarding a buggy to the Amish dinner

View from a buggy

Preparing to be fed at an Amish home

Another view from the buggy

A Spartan chassis; the foundation for many fine diesel pushers

Near the beginning of the Entegra production line

I wonder what they thought of all these Country Coach owners viewing the Entegras.  I bet they were hoping for a sale.

A view of the cockpit through the D/S living room slide out

Entegra Motor Coach is the luxury motor home line of the Jayco Company.  They list for over $400K.  We're not buying a new coach any time soon.

We stayed at the Shipshewana Campground- South Park for seven nights, but now it is time to move along.

Upper Midwest 2015

After an extended absence from this journal (but not from traveling), Dorcas and I are on the road again.  We departed this day with the ultimate destination of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in northern Minnesota.  In the meantime we will attend a Country Coach International (CCI) Rally in Shipshewana IN and a major FMCA motor home convention in Madison WI.  After our canoe trip in the BWCAW we plan to loop through Canada, likely north of Lake Superior, and re-enter the US near Niagara  Falls and then attend another CCI rally at Watkins Glen NY.  Within mere days after the Watkins Glen rally in late September, we will dash back to NC and attend another motor home rally in Marion and then a canoe club gathering at Hanging Rock State Park the first week in October.  Whew!!!!  That's the plan and we hope to stick to it.

We left home shortly after the crack of noon.  On our way out of town we stopped at Bill Plemmons RV World and took on 18 gallons of propane at the ridiculously low price of $0.99 per gallon.  Bill Plemmons sells LP way below their cost as a loss leader to get customers into their store.  We fill up there every chance we get.  We also filled a 20# bottle and a 5# bottle.

We continued north on US 52 north and hit I-77 north of Mt. Airy.  When I say we hit I-77, I mean we hit I-77.  Traffic was at a near standstill and, according to Google Maps Traffic, would be that way all the way to the VA state line and then all the way to West Virginia.  We traveled at a blistering 10-15 mph until we got to Wytheville VA, where we jumped off and topped off with 70 gallons of diesel.

We crawled back onto I-77 hoping, hoping the traffic had cleared a bit, but it was not so.  To add insult to injury we encountered a severe thunderstorm.  Ironically, I don't think the storm slowed traffic any further; it could just go no slower.  The traffic congestion magically cleared after exiting the East River Mountain Tunnel at Bluefield WV.  We had traveled almost 75 miles, rarely exceeding 15 mph.  We never did determine the reason for the slow down.  It was a Saturday afternoon and most of the vehicles had Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania plates.  Maybe it was just a hoard of Yankees returning home from a summer trip to Myrtle Beach.  There was no corresponding back-up in the south bound lanes.  I love to put lots of photos in these posts.  Unfortunately, we were so disgusted with the traffic neither of us thought to take any pictures.  It was not a good start for our trip

We had no particular destination for this evening.  We had a few Walmarts spotted along our route. We intended to pick one and park about dusk.  Due to our day's slow pace we didn't go as far as we had hoped.  It turns out that we stopped in Gallipolis OH just across the WV line on the banks of the Ohio River.  Coincidentally, we had spent the night at this same Walmart on July 30, 2014.  It is a memorable spot because it is next door to Tudor's Biscuit World, home of the biggest biscuit sandwich and cinnamon roll I have ever seen.  You can guess where we ate breakfast.

The road goes on and on and on and on

After 2 nights at Fall Lake Camp Ground it was time to hit the road.  We departed Ely on September 3 with our camping gear finally dry and secure in the storage bay under the coach.  Our first stop would be for mechanical service at Precision Frame and Alignment in Elk River MN, about 30 miles north of Minneapolis.  We normally take US 53 to Duluth, then I-35 south to "the Cities", which is the quicker 4-lane route.  Today we had plenty of time and took the scenic route, US 169 from Virginia MN directly to Elk River.  That was a mostly 2-lane route that took us through Hibbing MN, the home town of Bob Dylan.  We arrived at Precision Frame about dusk, where they have RV hook ups, and set up for the night, ready for our 8:00am service appointment the next morning.  We stop at Precision Frame every year for coach lubrication and an alignment check.  The owner, Dick Lornston, is a nationally known guru on motor home tires, handling and suspensions.  This year the Element also needed some attention.   While Dick worked on the coach, I went to get badly-needed new tires for the Element.  The Element has a problem with the rear end and has been chewing up tires.  Dick checked the alignment front and rear and inspected the rear end, but was unable to definitively identify the problem.  Ultimately he seemed to agree with some other mechanics I have spoken to that said we needed new struts.  Unfortunately his schedule was such that he would not be able to get the parts and install the struts before we needed to leave.  He gave me some tips on how to mitigate the unusual tire wear and told me how to inspect the tires to help detect and diagnose any issues.  The new tires will make this easier.

Set for long distance driving

We departed Elk River about noon on September 5 with nothing but long miles ahead.  We had no other stops planned before our scheduled arrival at Virginia Beach for a Country Coach rally on September 10, a mere 1500 miles down the road.  We had options: we could do shorter days and take longer daily breaks, or we could make longer days and spend more time at a single camp.  Ultimately we decided to bust ass, then spend three nights at Thousand Trails Chesapeake Bay, just beyond Richmond VA and close to our ultimate destination Virginia Beach.

Matilda's place when we are driving

Our first day, actually a half day, we made 270 miles and spent the night at a very nice Passport America park (half price camping for members) called Black Hawk Valley CG, near Rockford IL.  The next day we made 370 miles and spent the night at Thousand Trails Indian Lakes near Batesville IN.  This is a favorite stop for us, and there is a hairdresser on site that Dorcas likes.  It is also free for us since we are Thousand Trails members, so this stop was a no-brainer.  We arrived only a few minutes before Goldilocks' scheduled hair cut, so I dropped her off at the shop and then made camp  while she was being shorn. The next day, continuing to gain momentum, we made 510 miles and spent the night at the Walmart Supercenter in Waynesboro VA.  We had dinner and then breakfast at the nearby Cracker Barrel.  Finally, we had a short day of only about 150 miles and arrived at Thousand Trails Chesapeake Bay near Gloucester VA, where we will spend the next three nights.

Whew!   Time to chill for a few days.

Out of the Boundary Waters - 2014

We put in the BWCAW on August 19 at Little Indian Sioux entry point and took out 14 days later at the same point.  We have used this entry several times before and had intended to travel basically the same route Dorcas and I did when we went by ourselves in 2011.  We had planned to make a leisurely loop with plenty of layover days.  At our second camp we all realized that we weren't as young and fit as we used to be, and that the portages were longer and steeper than they used to be.  Consequently, we shortened our planned route considerably to make an easier trip.  Ultimately we had a LOT of layover days.  We made a total of 4 camps: 1 night on Upper Pauness Lake, 3 nights on East Loon Bay, 3 nights on Heritage Lake and 6 nights on Lynx Lake. 

The weather was moderately cool; much the way we remember it being the first few years we came out here.  Most days the highs were in the mid 70s and the lows were in the mid 50s.  One night it did get down to 42 degrees.  That was the good news.  The bad news is we had more rainy and windy days than during most of our trips.  This put a damper on some of those layover days, and we spent more days on shore, rather than fishing and exploring, than we would have liked.

Our longest paddle day was actually our last day as we made our way from Camp 4 to the Little Indian Sioux River Entry Point.  That day was also a dreary day, and we were soaked in a down pour within 100' of the take out.  To add insult to injury we had a flat tire on the Element and had to carry our gear an extra hundred yards since we couldn't move the car.  Thankfully, I was able to inflate the tire with a portable compressor I carry in the car and then limp into Ely for repairs.

We drove back to Fall Lake where we found our motor home in the same condition as we left it (always a concern). We checked into the camp ground and took much needed showers.

The next day was sunny and clear, and we were able to spread out all our gear before packing it all up for our trip south.  We had a a nice dinner at the Chocolate Moose, a tradition for us.

For those that missed it last year, click here for a detailed description of our Boundary Waters techniques.

And finally, here are some pictures:

Our put-in at Little Indian Sioux River

Our route

We love our new chairs!!!

Chef Wayne cooking the fish

A dreary day on the lake

A dreary day at camp

Ducks on the pond

The day's catch

This lamprey was attached to a Northern pike I caught.  He immediately dropped off the pike and fell into the boat when he figured out all was not well.

Like a mirror.  A rare calm evening.

Matilda says "Hurry up .... let's go."

Matilda says "Hurry up .... let's go."

Matilda chillin' out at camp

A smallish Northern pike .... Certainly not a trophy catch.  But hey .... it's a fish!

A sloppy portage path.  Actually a beaver dam backed the water up over the trail.

A fair-sized small mouth bass

Wayne and Lynda enjoying the view from camp

A 5-star Boundary Waters kitchen

What are y'all looking at?

Another glorious sunset