Friday, May 27, 2016

Jubilee College State Park

Jubilee College State Park
Memorial Day Weekend
May 27-29, 2016

Last minute campground choices were limited when we decided to go on a spontaneous camping trip for Memorial Day.  We settled on a small state park in Illinois that was nearby (3 hour drive) that boasted a few hiking/biking trails and a "fishing" pond.

James accidentally reserved a handicapped site, but luckily State Park oversight in the state of IL has reached an all time low due to budget cuts!  We felt terribly guilty for the mistake, but the campground hosts were understanding.

Due to the handicapped status the two adjacent campsites had some unusual features.  The HC site was entirely on a concrete pad with no tree cover.  The site next door (ours) required a sharp turn to back up over a pretty sharp incline.  It was muddy and dark when we arrived, and generating the momentum and correct angulation to get the camper onto the (barely visible) gravel pad (totally overgrown) was really difficult (there was marital infighting involved, insults were hurled).  Leveling the camper was even more difficult, as the blocks kept sinking into the muddy ground, our battery was dead, our breaker kept blowing, and to reach the power at the next site over required an 80 ft (sadly, not an exaggeration) extension cord.  Did I mention that our battery was dead, so we needed power to put the jacks down, yeah.  That was a late night trip to the Peoria Wal-Mart.  Thanks, Mike.

Once set up, we went to bed (2 am).  The next morning, we let the good times roll (luckily not back down the hill and into the street - they rolled strictly in the metaphorical sense.









Then Pinnicks arrived





Thursday, May 12, 2016

Brown County State Park

Brown County State Park
Nashville, IN
Dances with Dirt Gnaw Bone
May 12-15, 2016

Friday, April 22, 2016

Devil's Lake State Park

Devil's Lake State Park
Baraboo Hills Campground
Baraboo, WI
April 22-24, 2016

Drove down Friday - this is the trip we weren't sure I was going to go on, but my dad bailed on the Trolley Run.

Went for a hike on one of the trickier climbing/rocky loops on the East side of the lake on Saturday with all the girls and Grammy/Poppy.




Beach area obviously undergoing some construction in preparation for summer...watch out for those water bugs/leeches/whatever?


Beautiful views of the East side of Devil's Lake from the beach area




Practicing for the following day's technical climbing...








Sarah went for a long and technical, hilly run on Sunday and had to be extracted around mile 20.






Nearing Palfrey's Glen


Wild turkey out in a field


Very slippery boardwalk!  It had started drizzling a little at that point.


This is not a sight you want to see at mile 20 of your 13 mile run...

Mike had the camper all packed up and ready to go at that point.