Welcome to another monthly recap! I skipped writing June and July recaps because they were mostly spent either at home preparing for Croatia, in Croatia, or at home recovering from Croatia. But August was almost fully spent back on the road! We spent the month exploring Wisconsin and packed in a lot of fun stuff, as well as visiting friends, family, and coworkers who live in WI.
Where We Camped in August
After spending a few days at the end of July at Blackhawk Valley Resort in Rockford, IL we headed up to the US Army Corps of Engineers Blackhawk Park in De Soto, Wisconsin for a couple weeks, and then over to Blackhawk Lake Recreation Area in Highland, WI. We did not do this on purpose- it was truly coincidental that we stayed at 3 Blackhawks in a row. We chose the Rockford one because we had some free camping nights to use, the De Soto one because it’s near where my brother lives, and the Highland one because of some specific activities we wanted to do nearby. After the last Blackhawk, we stayed a week at Astico Park in Columbus, Wisconsin because we had a wedding to go to in a nearby town. We then went up to Calumet County Park, which is near the headquarters for Josh’s work. We ended the last couple days of the month back home for a short visit.
This is the most moves we’ve done in a month so far and our shortest stays. Since this is our first year as full-timers, we want to test out different paces of travel. Even though we moved a lot in August, other than heading home, our drives were all under 2 hours.
I’ve got a couple campground guides up so far from our August adventures:
- Mississippi River Bliss: USACE Blackhawk Park Campground, De Soto, WI
- Your Ultimate Guide to Camping at Blackhawk Lake: A Highland, Wisconsin Gem
What We Did in August
Events
We got to go to a few fun events this month- public and private. While staying at Astico Park (not far from Madison) we attended the wedding of our friend Cory. Our friends Liz and Anthony also went and ended up staying with us at the camper, so it was fun to get to hang out with them. It definitely felt weird getting all dressed up and coming & going from the campground though!
Also while camping at Astico, we made it out to the Dodge County Fair twice. We love a good county fair- I grew up with a great one, but our home county now has a crappy one. The Dodge fair was awesome and everything a county fair should be. There were tons of open exhibition entries, a robust 4H program, the standard midway and rides, and lots of free shows (including all grandstand events). On our first day we checked out some of the exhibit buildings, had dinner, and watched the Badger State Truck and Tractor Pull. They had two lanes set up and were alternating so there was never a long wait before pulls. We went back a few days later to see the rest of the buildings, watched a frisbee dog show, watched goat/duck/pig races, and then the demolition derby.
One of the museums I looked at while staying at Calumet County Park was the Charles A. Grignon Mansion, but the website didn’t have up-to-date hours. So I looked on Facebook and I’m so glad I did- because they day we wanted to visit anyways they were hosting a Civil War reenactment! After touring the house and watching part of the reenactment, we left to do some other activities in another town, but ended up circling back at the end of the day for the final big battle. We like house museums like this anyways, but events like these add so much more to the visit.
Outdoor Adventures
River Rat Challenge- One of the most fun outdoor activities we did was to complete the US Fish & Wildlife River Rat Relay Challenge. The challenge involved visiting various sites and writing down the animal from the signs at each site. We did it all in a day, which meant driving through Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota because of crossing the river in different places. It made for a tiring day, but we saw some neat sites and felt accomplished doing it all in a day.
Hiking- We did a few small hikes in August, but nothing big. We hiked up Cardinal Bluff in De Soto, visited Avoca Prairie– the largest natural tallgrass prairie east of the Mississippi River, hiked Bloomfield Prairie in Dodgeville, High Cliff State Park, and of course checked out trails in the parks we stayed in.
Kayaking- Last time we stayed near the Mississippi (palisades link) we never had good weather for actually paddling on the river, but from our Blackhawk Park campsite we were able to launch right from our campsite. We also did some paddling while staying at Blackhawk Lake.
Observation Towers- An unintentional theme of our time at Calumet County Park was climbing observation towers. We found them at High Cliff State Park, Ledge View Nature Center, and Columbia Park.
Museums, Historic Sites, Etc.
We did less hiking in Wisconsin than Southern Illinois, but we did a lot of museums, historic sites, and other activities. While staying at Blackhawk Park, we went to the Driftless Area Education and Visitors Center– an amazing nature center, the Genoa National Fish Hatchery, took a tour of the Hixon House Museum in La Crosse, and took a trip to the town of Viroqua. In Viroqua we went to Driftless Books and Music, which is thought to be the largest used bookstore in the state. We also visited the Public Market, got dinner at Tangled Hickory, and of course got gelato at Magpie Gelato.
Our two big draws to staying at Blackhawk Lake were visiting Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin and also House on the Rock. We’ve been to this area together before, but Taliesin wasn’t open yet for the season then. We did a 2.5 tour of Wright’s architecture school, personal studio, and home. It was a great tour and we even got to sit on one of his personal couches! We went to House on the Rock together back in 2018, but it’s so huge and trippy that we felt like we barely remembered any details going in. When telling people our plans for this leg of travel, a couple different people independently told us they hate House on the Rock, but we love it!
When we stayed at Astico Park the main reason was for the wedding and we spent a lot of time at the fair- but we did visit a few other neat sites too. We went to Swan Park in Beaver Dam to see the historic springhouse, Columbus’s “jewel box” bank designed by Louis Sullivan, and one of the 3 visitor centers at Horicon Marsh.
We did quite a bit of exploring while staying at Calumet County Park. We visited High Cliff State Park (which has both effigy mounds and ruins), a laser rock show at the Barlow Planetarium, Ledge View Nature Center (every nature center we went to in Wisconsin was amazing), LaClare Creamery for a self-guided tour of the factory and goat barn (and of course to buy cheese), and had a whole adventure day in Kaukauna and Appleton. On our adventure day we started with a visit to Kaukauna High School to see their galloping ghost mascot statue, then over to the Charles Grignon Mansion, then to see “This Big One” tree across the street, then to Appleton. In Appleton we went to the History Museum at the Castle (best known for their Houdini exhibit), Houdini Plaza, and a replica of the first commercial hydroelectric plant in the world.
We also spent almost a whole day at the Green Bay Botanical Garden. Josh met the horticulture director at a work event and we went to create a video tour of the gardens. Josh had a tripod & camera to capture the director’s tour, and his IT guy and I both ran around getting b-roll and plant closeups. Besides just the fun of filming together, the gardens there are amazing and it might be one of the most whimsical places I’ve ever been.
Botanizing
I caught up on observing Midwest prairie plants for Inaturalist, but didn’t see anything too exciting or rare this month. Probably my botany highlight was visiting Ledge View Nature Center and see lots of spooky season plants!
Life As Full-Time RVers
After spending a good chunk of the summer at home and in Croatia, it felt really good to get back on the road. We were both feeling stagnant at home and getting on the road again helped re-energize and motivate us. It actually felt more normal to be back on the road and in campgrounds than being at home felt, so we’ve definitely adjusted well to life on the road so far. August was a little different than our previous time on the road, though, since a lot of our travel was chosen around events and seeing people. We chose to camp near La Crosse to see my brother, camped near Madison for a wedding, and camped near Appleton for Josh to attend in-person work stuff. I kind of like having these touch points to plan around, though, to give us a base line of where to go- but then we still get to fill in in between on our own.
So, What’s Next?
Next up we’re spending a couple weeks at home to do some projects, visit people, and attend a couple fun events. Then we’ll be heading east to Indiana. We’ll be attending a native plant symposium in Schererville and then we have tickets to the Indiana Dunes Century of Progress Home Tour. After Indiana, we’ll be doing a couple driving days in a row to make it to western Pennsylvania for a planting project for Josh’s work. We’ll be in that area a couple weeks and then we’re heading to the Washington DC for a couple weeks. We know we want to come home at some point for the holidays, so we’ll be circling back after DC- but we haven’t decided yet our pace and where we want to visit in between.
