Ft. Massac

We were going to hop over to Illinois and pick up a quick cache, but ended up spending the morning at Ft. Massac.


It was built by the Spanish in the 1500's, taken over by the French, then the British, then the Americans, when George Washington garrisoned troops there.


This is a replica of the fort. The real one is just next door, all that remains is the location of the buildings. The buildings had the original hardwood floors (!) and rudimentary furniture like bunk beds (no mattresses) and tables. Some had fireplaces. I think those were the officers' buildings.


Clark (of Lewis and Clark) visited here, and there are plaques with his name on them in the old fort.


This is the view of the Ohio River from the fort. I suppose if the Indians had bridges, the fort-holders would be in much more trouble.

A big tractor had just come by to remove flood debris from the boat ramp. He just pushed it all back into the river.


The first row of stakes is in a moat. There was no water in the moat, but there was a faucet nearby. No crocodiles, either. The post in the middle is a flagpole.


There are steps up the flagpole. I thought it was a lookout tower, but it really is a flagpole.


We did find the cache. It was a nice walk through the woods to an easy find. The boys had brought along items to trade and went away happy. We then drove to the fort and found 5 playgrounds on the way. The boys were very impressed.

Caching and playing in Salem, Arkansas

We found a super park with a pond, ducks, geese, a playground, a hill, and ... a geocache. Here's the obligatory kid shot.


The boys try to lure some geese with corn. This park had one of those machines like you see at stores -- you put in money and out comes nerds or M&Ms. This machine had corn in it. We weren't sure if the corn was for the squirrels or the geese, but I'm sure they all enjoyed it after we left.

Arkansas 7

State Highway 7 through Arkansas is twisty.


But totally worth it.

Photo Meme

I stole this from my buddy Jana. (I mean really stole it. I even copy-and-pasted her words. Thanks Jana!!!)

Rules:

1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page of results, pick one image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic picture of the answers.

Questions:

1. What’s your first name?
2. What is your favorite food right now?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. What is your favorite drink?
7. What is your dream vacation?
8. What is your favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. What is one word that describes you?
12. What is your flickr name?

Mine:

Where was I?

It's been a long time since I left Madison...

I met up with Rich and the boys at my mom's, then we left, ummmm, Tuesday, yeah, that's right, for North Carolina. We spent the first night in Arkansas and tonight we're in Paducah, KY. I think the camera is nearby, but it's almost 10 and I want to get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight! Plus my friend Jana posted a great meme on her blog and I wanna go do it. :)

Leaving Madison

Just a couple of pictures on the way out of town yesterday. We did go back and find the cache I couldn't find the day before. It was a terrific puzzle and a clever hide, and I'm very glad I found it.

Here is the hospital I was born in. Of course, 42 years later, it's a mega-conglomerate health care center, and this is just one wing of it.


We drove west. On the AAA central states map, it doesn't look very far to Minnesota. Turns out it's a couple of hours away, but that's ok. Grabbed a geocache there, it was on a nice trail in some woods. Great to stretch your legs at. Then turned south into Iowa. Somewhere along the way, we passed the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum and highway. There isn't much prairie left, it's all farms. Here are some Iowa cows having a good time.


The drive through SW WI and SE MN is just beautiful. The hills are round, rocky hemispheres, covered in deciduous trees and grasses. The road winds along the creek at the bottom of these hills. The land is glacier-formed.

Three days in Madison

Hard to believe we're leaving tomorrow...but we are. It's been a lot of fun. We saw a nursing school friend of my mom's yesterday and did some geocaching today. There is nothing like standing on the street corner at a bus stop with your arm down the belly of an apartment finder magazine rack. And then not finding the cache. But I know where it is and we'll be back tomorrow before leaving town.

This is the view from most of the windows of the conference. It's not sunny, thank goodness, or I'd have trouble concentrating. In fact, it thunderstormed this morning and was still raining when we started.


This is a shot along a walk I took at lunch. That's Stu Hunter in front of me.


This is the apartment my parents were living in when I was born. It is in a run down neighborhood now.


This is the married student housing my parents were living in when my sister was born. I think married student housing is the same the world over.


We did find 2 interesting caches today -- an earthcache and a webcam cache. Thank goodness. After the apartment finder magazine incident, I needed cache redemption.

Wisconsin, where the air is sweeter

The air is certainly sweeter in Wisconsin. The scent of lilacs, honeysuckle, green grass, and clean forest hangs in the air. The temperature was in the 70's so we have had the car windows down, and each mile gave a different scent. Ok, it's not all bliss -- you can always tell when you're passing a dairy farm!

We drove to Mayville to see my grandparents and other relatives' graves, also the farm where my gramma stayed and worked in the summer. We looked for the house her father built, but didn't find it. Here is a picture of the dammed river that she used to ice-skate on in the winter.


Next, on to Theresa and the best brick cheese at the cheese factory. Brick was named because of the what they used for weights. We bought cheese and summer sausage and a couple of bags of cheese curds that may or may not be gone already. I'll never tell.


This is my mom's old high school in West Bend. It's now the junior high. We saw a bunch of kids with Badger Jr. High Triathlon shirts on. They were all wet. I think they had just completed a triathlon and were still smiling.


This is the old Amity leather factory. I have bought a couple of wallets from the factory store here in the past. Now it is Amity apartments that look pretty run down. Why do they call them apartments when they are so close together?


And here's a lilac bush at the site of my gramma's house. The house (trailer) is gone now, and the ground is very overgrown. She spent three years picking every dandelion flower and crushing it to pieces before ridding her lawn of them completely. They are still gone.


And this is her street. There is pink and yellow honeysuckle growing all down the lane, the trees shade it, and it is so quiet. Perfection, except for the deer flies and horrible mosquitoes.


I've got a class on Tuesday, and the conference on Wednesday-Friday. But we hope to drive to Wisconsin Dells one evening and I've got some geocaches to find as well.

Driving

We drove from Austin to Madison in two very long days. The first night was spent in the middle of Missouri, near Fort Leonard Wood, where Richard used to live years ago. Missouri is a beautiful state, especially in the Ozarks.

Can you guess where this picture was taken?


There's a wind farm either in north Illinois or south Wisconsin. I can't remember!

The adventure has returned!!

Summer must be here, this blog is active again.

I'm in Madison for a conference this week, took some pics on the way up that I'll post here later. I'm driving back over the weekend, picking up Rich and the boys, and we're headed out for a couple of weeks in North Carolina.

Enjoy the ride with us!