Relaxing in daughter's house

Being on the road is fine, but now and then one needs to connect with family. So last Sunday we pulled our stakes up and slowly headed for daughter's house in Dodgeville, WI. While here, we always move into the house with her since we get to use the spare bedroom with our old "King sized" bed in it. This thing is so huge that I can toss and turn and never realize Sandy is nearby.

Of course another reason is that the drive into her alley is a little narrow to put the motorhome into her backyard. Or we could say that we don't want to park under the walnut tree. Any way, the motorhome was on a busy street for 2 days and is now off the street and into the church parking lot. She lives on a street that is a minor highway out of Dodgeville and it is amazing how much traffic comes this way.

Of course, while here I'm expected to fix (or work miracles) on a number of things. She has a list and it gets published when we arrive. (It used to be penciled notes on scrape paper but she has graduated to a computer list.) Some of the items are pretty simple like burn the brush in the fire pit. Others are more challenging like "water is dripping out of the front of the dehumidifier instead of the back."

But there are great rewards to being here also besides getting an update on family. She has a high-speed DSL line and surfing is a real joy when using her DSL line. We stayed three nights in Viola, WI where our air card was down to less than wireline speed. It was the real pits. The joy of being there was how quiet and peaceful it was. We did have a downer also. I had broken out the electric chain saw and cleaned up a dead tree on the river bank. To get to it required me to tramp through about 5 feet of tall grass and weeds. It turns out that the weeds must have contained poison ivy plus numerous no-see'ms and other critters of the itching variety. For the next two days, my ankles itched and itched plus I had two bad spots of poison something. Thankfully, we had some skin cream left over from the last time and it has made quick work of it after I finally remembered to apply it.

We're here until Friday when we'll pack up and head to the big Winnebago GNR (Grand National Rally) in Forest City, IA. For me the highlight is taking the factory tours where we get to walk among the employees instead of being confined to the overhead balcony. It gives one a much better perspective of how they are built. We are also committed to leading a seminar on "Living on the Road". When we were there in June for some service, we met a couple that had used their RV for 3 years, but had no idea that there are parking options other than what is listed in Woodall's or the Trailer Life Campground Directory. Our opening line is that the dealer has told them how to use what is in the motorhome, but he didn't tell them where to use it. It will be interesting.

Gene