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.
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.
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| A view from above the rotunda |
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| Crest showing the state mascot, the badger, and the state motto "Forward" |
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| In the legislative chamber |
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| Legislative chamber showing the public gallery |
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| View towards Monona Terrace and Lake Monona |
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| 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.
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| At the zoo |
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| The Tundra Buggy, near the polar bear exhibit |
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| All the animals on the carousel were zoo animals |
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| 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.
