Where are Cheryl and Dennis?: 2020

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Fall 2020 Virtual Learning and Winter Plans

Henry returned to school in September. Sheila and Ryan chose to send him to school even though they had a choice to go virtual. He rode the bus to school and had assigned seats with only one child to a seat. At least that is how it was supposed to work. His class was reduced to 14 kids and they did not leave this group through out the day. They even had lunch in their room. By the middle of October Covid cases began to rise so the Sheboygan School District decided they needed to suspend the in class teaching and go all virtual. We offered to assist by having Henry come to our house three days a week and do his schooling with us. As the weeks went on the school district continued to extent virtual learning until finally we were informed it would continue until at least January 25^th.

The past few years we have headed south for the winter and were on the road at least by the first week in December. We offered to stay until Christmas to help with Henry's schooling. We planted the seed that perhaps he could come with us once we headed south. Sheila felt it would be a great opportunity for Henry and his virtual learning could continue on the road. Once the announcement was made to extend the virtual learning into January we began planning in earnest for Henry to accompany us.

We had plans to return to Fortuna de Oro RV Resort in Yuma in January. However it is a 55 and over park and we could only stay there two weeks with Henry. We encountered the same at the other parks in Yuma as they are mostly 55 and over parks. We found a place north near the proving grounds but the cell service and the park WI-FI was not going to be adequate for virtual learning. The cell service is important as we use our phones as hotspots to access the internet. Some campgrounds have Wi-Fi but it is not always reliable. It was decided to look elsewhere. We found a KOA campground north of Tucson near Picacho Peak that looked decent and according to the owner has good cell service so we made reservations for the month of February. It is about half-way between Tucson and Phoenix so there will be lots of things to see and do within an hours drive.

So our plans for this winter are to leave Wisconsin right after Christmas and try to get to warmer weather as soon as possible. We are headed to south Texas to the Galveston/Corpus Christi area to stay for a few weeks then slowly make our way west to the Picacho Peak KOA. On the way we will visit a few places we feel Henry would enjoy. It will be a little challenging having Henry with us and managing his schooling but we are excited to show him lots of fun and interesting places.

Never too cold to fish!

Fall 2020

The Covid pandemic is still alive and well. Most businesses are open with restrictions and mask requirements. The number of positive cases was fairly low at the beginning of September but started to ramp up sharply. By the beginning of November Wisconsin was seeing in excess of 5000 positive cases a day. By mid November some hospitals were reaching capacity in their ICU's and were worried they may have to turn away patients. There is a general consensus among the health care industry that wearing masks and social distancing helps to slow the spread. However there are many people who don't believe this or are just disregarding this recommendation. Whether or not this is contributing to the spread is up for debate. However it seems like a easy thing to do to help to make this virus go away. Several of the pharmaceutical companies have been reporting that they are within a month or two of releasing a viable vaccine.

I am writing this on November 18 and so far only my brother Doug and his daughter Kendra have been the only family members that have contracted Covid. They were sick but are recovering. Other family have been exposed but tested negative.

Our main activities this fall have been taking walks in the Kettle Moraine Forest and taking bike rides. We also visited with Alex and Monica a few times and helped them with projects at their new home. They love their new house but since they moved in they have found out there has been some thievery in the neighborhood. Apparently the thieves stake out homes and when they see someone leave the house and leave a door open they will walk right in and take things. Mostly wallets, purses and keys. They were pretty freaked out about this. We helped them install a motion detector light in the backyard which will help to deter anyone from sneaking around at night. In addition they need to be more vigilant on keeping their doors shut and locked.

We had plans to go to Alex and Monica's for Thanksgiving. However the number of Covid cases increased substantially and Monica was exposed to someone at work. They did not want to expose us so they decided to stay home. So only Sheila and Henry came to our house on Thanksgiving. We smoked a turkey, made baked beans and Sheila provided a yummy corn and egg casserole. For dessert we had apple and chocolate pie. Not the traditional Thanksgiving meal but it was yummy just the same.

Friday, September 4, 2020

Summer of 2020

Once home our lives did not change much despite Covid restrictions. Restaurants that had been closed for dine-in were beginning to open with reduced capacity. Most stores were open with a mask requirement. However most large events and public gatherings were closed or canceled. Small outdoor events were still happening but we did not feel comfortable going to those. Our spring Lake Association meeting was canceled and voting was done by mail.

We finally completed our bathroom remodel that we have been wanting to do. Entailed moving an existing wall and installing a new sink and shower. We removed the old shower, sink, vanity and closet along with the drywall on those walls. Because of an existing gas line we could not move the sink so the new one went into the old sink location. By moving a wall we were able to fit in a full size shower stall. It is an old, crooked house so it took extra time to make things fit and still look nice. It turned out great and is a whole lot better than the old one!

We spent the last week of June and most of July campground hosting up at Richardson Lake Campground. Dennis spent the entire time there while I went back home a few times. Afterward we took the camper to Chippewa Falls to visit with my family. We parked the camper at my brother Steve's place which is where my parents live. We had not seen them since October so it was nice to catch up.

In June Alex and Monica purchased a house in Madison. They found a house, made an offer which was accepted all within one week! They closed on their house the end of June and we helped them move over the July 4^th weekend. We visited them a few times throughout the summer to help with a few projects in their new house. We also made a trip to Platteville WI to retrieve a pool table and pin ball machine that we had lent to our nephew a few years ago. He was ready to get rid of them and Alex now has plenty of room for them.

The remainder of the summer we spent at home hanging out on the porch and enjoying the lake. Henry visited often to swim, fish and kayak.

Bathroom Remodel

Completed Bathroom

The New House

Fun at Richardson Lake

Birchwood Lake

Those darn bees!!

Grampa's trailer sure is dirty!

Nothing better than corn on the cob.

Ready for exploring under water

What's a little rain!

Friday, May 1, 2020

Heading Home

4/23/2020 – Heading Home

It is been 5 months since my last post so I thought I better write something before I forget what we have been up to.

After my last post in Yuma on April 22 the temperatures in Arizona soared. Most days the high temp was over 100 degrees. We put up our screen tent with an extra tarp on the top to try increase the shade but even in the shade it was hot. We would run our single air conditioner but it was no match for the heat. Most days we were lucky to get the inside camper temperature to 92 degrees. One afternoon it just shut off. It came back on a few hours later which was a relief. Our plan was to leave on May 1 with our friends Steve and Li. They were staying in their recently purchased park model so were a little more comfortable than we were. We needed some relief from the heat so we decided to leave earlier.

On Monday, April 27^th we got up early and were on the road by 6 A.M. We were not sure where we would end up that night but wanted to get into the higher elevations and cooler temps before mid day. We made Flagstaff shortly before noon, took a break to get fuel, then got back on the road. Because of Covid most tourist attractions, parks, museums, etc. were closed. It made sense to just keep driving until we needed to stop for the night. Six hundred fifteen miles later we arrived at Enchanted Trails RV Park, near Albuquerque, just before dark. We were familiar with this park as we had stayed here a few times in the past.

The next day we drove 533 and made it to Brush Colorado and stayed at a nice city park. On the way we had a nice view of the Rocky Mountains on our left and prairie on our right. We avoided Denver by leaving I-25 at Colorado Springs, got on Hwy 25 up to Limon Co then Hwy 71 up to Brush and I-76.

Wednesday had us heading east on I-76 then onto I-80 at Omaha. After making a view calls and finding most city, county, state and private campgrounds closed in Iowa we were thinking we would have to boondock at a Walmart. However after more searching we found a Econolodge in Walnut Iowa with a small campground. Upon arrival we stopped in at the hotel. They said we were their first campers of the season and were not even sure if the power was on. We pulled into a spot and Dennis found a pedestal that had power. We were good to go! The campground was nothing special but was better than a Walmart parking lot. It was another long day of driving, 493 miles, but the weather had been excellent since leaving Yuma as we did not encounter any rain or high winds. After another long 470 mile day we arrived home on Thursday April 30^th.

Where we are parked: Enchanted Trails Camping Resort, 10 miles west of Albuquerque. 135 sites, 115 with full hookups. Mixture of 20/30/50 amps, restroom with showers, Dump station. All sites are pretty level.

Where we are parked: Brush Memorial RV Park and Campground, Located on the south end of town is the city-run campground and RV park offering 18 gravel sites, 12 electrical and water sites, restrooms, showers and RV dump are available. No reservations and the cost is just $25 per night, with a maximum stay of 7 days.

Where we are parked: Econolodge, Walnut Iowa – 15 site campground with electric and water. Sites and road were narrow. Would not recommend for a rig larger than ours especially in the spring when the ground is soft. Otherwise it served the purpose and at $25 and was a sufficient overnight spot.