Wisconsin

The grand Mississippi River - wide and slow.

Seems like the river has lots of inlets and coves.

Arriving in WI.

Would you believe there was a Cabela's almost the instant we got in WI and we just had to stop.

This store was probably one of the smaller Cabela stores we have seen but it was still interesting.

They had a nice display of mounts.

Here is a mount of a striped bass like Bill caught in Texas.

We stayed at a Corps of Engineer park, Blackhawk Campground, near DeSoto, WI,  right on the Mississippi River. 

We saw this crane just across the cove from our campsite.

One of the fun parts of this campground was watching the turtles.  Someone told us that there are about 10 different species of turtles in this area.  The one below is a painter turtle.

Here is the under side of him (or her?).  See the cool designs along the sides.  Someone showed me how to turn them over but when I turned this guy over, he hissed at me. 

This is another turtle who was seemed to looking for a place to lay her eggs.  She would stop every once in a while to dig but we never saw her settle into a spot.

What a gorgeous sunset on the river.

We spent one day in LaCrosse and saw some amazing homes.  Had some brats for lunch. Nice treat.

Part of the reason we stayed in WI was to visit Jerry and Mary Ann Barth.  Jerry was a rural carrier for Bill in Eatonville.  Jerry traded with a rural carrier from WI in the early 1980's and they have been there ever since.  They had a farm, raised sheep, put up hay, etc. near Viola until Jerry retired from the Post Office about 11 years ago.  We have stayed in touch and have visited them at their farm and in Yuma where they winter.

We are getting ready to BBQ to celebrate Bill's birthday.  From left to right, Bill, Mary Ann, Jerry and Pete.

The weather was perfect for the BBQ.  I got everyone to pose for a picture.  From left to right, Pete, Bill, Mary Ann, Jerry and Suzy holding Milo.

From left to right, Bill, Teri, Mary Ann and Jerry.  The guys went fishing a couple different days.  Jerry served as their guide.  They caught at least 7 different species of fish including northern pike, crappie, perch, blue gill, sunfish, pumpkin seed fish and catfish.  Dang, I forgot to send the camera.  It was a great visit.

A view of the Mississippi River as we left the DeSoto area.

Our next stop in WI was another Corps of Engineer park on Eau Galle Lake. It is a beautiful lake.

We had just mentioned that we hadn't seen much wildlife on our trip and then we saw this deer.  It was late evening as we drove around the lake.

We saw a lot of the historic YT while exploring from Eau Galle.  See our next post on Wisconsin and Minnesota.