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| For some reason, I took a lot of pictures of our camper at Ingalls. I liked this one the best. |
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| Annalise had to get a picture with the littlest kitten before we left. |
The morning we left for La Crosse was a beautiful one. A mist hung over the Ingalls Homestead and things felt pretty good. Ingalls was our last "real" stop of the trip. As we headed to La Crosse, I looked forward to some mountain biking, but our exploration of the west was behind us. For me, I came to the conclusion that I could do this full-time. Life on the road is full of decisions and something new around every turn. And when I think of everything we
didn't see, I know there's plenty of places yet to explore.
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| Lisa captured a plane crop dusting a field in South Dakota |
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| Annalise relaxes in Daddy's chair in La Crosse |
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| You gotta love having 3 girls and a dirty truck... |
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Give the kids some chalk and some asphalt -
they'll kill a couple of hours. |
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| Tubing and water skiing on this part of the Mississippi is pretty popular |
Our last “real stop” of the trip was picked primarily
because I found a mountain biking area about 3 miles from camp that looked like
it would have a lot to offer – difficult black diamond trails and easy-going
field trails. La Crosse, as a city,
I didn’t know much about until we got here. But now that we’re here, it reminds me a lot of Burlington,
VT but bigger. Good,
fun-loving people here at the campground – the place is called Pettibone RV
Resort & Banquet Hall (there were two wedding receptions while we were here) and the campground store doubles as a bar. I don’t think that campground/bar has ever been empty –
regardless of the time of day. Yep
– Wisconsonites can party with the best of them. Pettibone is also an RV dealer and had a showroom and store
(where I needed a couple items for the camper). While I was getting some supplies, everyone else started
looking at all the campers. It’s
fun watching the kids explore campers – they picture everything they can do in
them and where everyone would sleep.
Mommy found a couple that she liked and I ended up looking at 5th wheels - never too late to plan for retirement. :)
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| Laryssa works on her chalk creation |
Turns out that the spare tire cover that I bought wasn’t the
right color, so after dropping off everyone at camp to get ready to leave for our
mountain biking excursion, I went back to Pettibone RV. For kicks, I decided to talk briefly
with the sales guy about the one camper there that would be a nice
upgrade and that Gigantibeast could still pull. I was fairly shocked at the numbers. I wrote them down on the
back of his business card and presented them to the big boss… This was around 2 p.m. and lets just
say that until we went to bed that night, there were pros and cons lists being
drawn up by the kids, lots of thinking and debating and we ended up setting up
a meeting for the morning, Sunday, Aug 18 with the salesman to take one final
look… But more on that later. It’s time to ride.
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| Everyone stops to watch a deer that crossed the path |
The place we went to ride is called HPT which stands for
Human Powered Trails. I’m guessing
it’s because they don’t allow gas powered activities here, but that’s just a
guess. Turns out that for the
black diamond trails, you needed a lot of human power – more than most of us
had. Our first two trails were
named in Star Wars fashion: OB-1 and Darkside. You definitely had to be a Jedi master to conquer OB-1 and
none of us are Jedi masters. And
the Darkside was exactly what you would expect – smooth rolling downhills
followed by evil uphills. It was a
place that was challenging for Daddy; which meant a lot of walking for everyone
else. The kids survived and once
they got to the challenge park (a series of bumps, jumps and turns) they were
in heaven. A playground for
bikes. So while they played at the
challenge park, Daddy went off to explore some other black diamond trails and
had a blast! Lots and lots of
technical riding, careening downhills and single track – just what I was
looking for. While I did that, Lisa
did lots of thinking about that new camper – and researching better deals…
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I love Laryssa for this - If you can't read it, she thanked Veterans, Active Duty
& Harrison Russell Foley for their service |
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| A bat in the firewood |
So off we went to bed with lots on our mind. In the morning we would visit the RV dealer...
The place we went to ride is called HPT which stands for
Human Powered Trails. I’m guessing
it’s because they don’t allow gas powered activities here, but that’s just a
guess. Turns out that for the
black diamond trails, you needed a lot of human power – more than most of us
had. Our first two trails were
named in Star Wars fashion: OB-1 and Darkside. You definitely had to be a Jedi master to conquer OB-1 and
none of us are Jedi masters. And
the Darkside was exactly what you would expect – smooth rolling downhills
followed by evil uphills. It was a
place that was challenging for Daddy; which meant a lot of walking for everyone
else. The kids survived and once
they got to the challenge park (a series of bumps, jumps and turns) they were
in heaven. A playground for
bikes. So while they played at the
challenge park, Daddy went off to explore some other black diamond trails and
had a blast! Lots and lots of
technical riding, careening downhills and single track – just what I was
looking for. While I did that, Lisa
did lots of thinking about that new camper – and researching better deals…
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