There have been some changes since Mark and Mom and I left Door County last fall, and I’m not just talking about COVID-19. It did feel weird to talk with my neighbor across the street and her yard from her, but that is perfectly understandable. There are other things that aren’t quite so easy. But first…
Mark and I discovered that we were only about half an hour from Wisconsin Dells, which we’ve heard people talking about but never seen, so we decided to drive there and see what it’s all about. As we got close, we saw a couple of “ducks”, amphibious vehicles.The first we saw of the Dells, we thought there must have been some great disaster here, but then we realized this building was built this way.The sign says, “Top Secret: Highly Classified Experience”. You can’t really see it from here, but the hole in the building behind the light pole has a dinosaur crashing through!This is a small dam on the Wisconsin River.Downtown Wisconsin Dells
The Dells looks like a fun place to explore some time, but we basically just drove through to get a sense of it. We’ll have to come back another time when we aren’t on our way home from afar.
We’ve never heard anyone talk about Montello before, but it’s a beautiful little town that would also be fun to explore.
From here, we drove up to Oshkosh (B’Gosh!) and had lunch. We have enjoyed this trip so much that we got to talking about retiring when Mark turns seventy in four years. We had been thinking we might go into some other business, but now that he’s drawing Social Security, and I will be in a couple of years, we got to thinking it might be nice to take some time to get to know our state better!
We made two more stops on the way home. We stopped in Green Bay to see if we could give Tucson a bath at Pet Smart. We could have, but all the baths were being used and we didn’t want to wait when we were eager to get home. The other stop was in Sturgeon Bay to get groceries for home. While we were in the store, we saw a man from my church and talked with him for a few minutes. He’s grown a beard since we were last here. That’s an interesting change.
A less pleasant change is that four new hotels are being built in Sister Bay. I suppose it’s good for tourism, but it means our quiet little neck of the woods isn’t going to be so quiet anymore.As we drove into Ellison Bay and turned onto our road, Tucson was beside herself with excitement. She recognized home!We pulled up in front of the house which seemed to be just as we left it. Upon closer inspection, our mailbox got knocked down by a snowplow that got too close this winter. The story came out as I was talking to our neighbor across her yard.As we walked around our back yard, there were all sorts of fallen trees and branches. We are going to have some clean up to do in the yard.
Also, inside the house I discovered several places where mice had left their little calling cards. I think it’s time we bring in an exterminator!
One of the pleasant surprises is that flowers I thought would have already come and gone are just now blooming. It was 70 degrees this afternoon and trees are beginning to leaf and bloom, as are the flowers. This is so much nicer than getting here when it’s still freezing and everything is bare!
Mark set the RV up in the driveway. I don’t want to move into the house until I’ve had a chance to try to clean it up, and maybe even get rid of the mice if we can find an exterminator who has time. It’s good to be home, but we sure have our work cut out for us!
