Awake: 5:05am Temp 67 sleep 5+50 sunny overnight @ Milwaukee, WI.
After 8:00am, I walk down to the campground office & pay the fee for (1) night. After my breakfast, I call Larry & let him know that we are only an hr away. He says: “come on up but give another call when you’re a few miles out.”
I-94 between Milwaukee & Madison is fairly smooth & we find Larry & Sally’s hangout without any ado, so in lieu of calling, we park half off the shared driveway of (3) homes, detach the Suzuki & drive the remaining 400 ft to their house. Both he & Sally were working outside. We are happy to see them & they are happy to see us.
I talk with Larry about a different parking spot this time; instead of backing up close to his garage, would it be ok to park on the circular drive in front of the house. Larry liked that idea. He then showed me a septic clean out access pipe very close to where we will be parking; so basically we have a full hookup: water faucet from the front entrance of their house; 50 amp electricity from the Jacuzzi/exercise room, & sewer disposal unit inside the circular drive.
Kathy & I are here visiting Sally & Larry again because they did us a nice favor during 2005 in San Diego. Now we want to try & return the favor by doing a “work camp” program. Since we were here just last yr, we have a fairly good idea that we’ll be busy during most of the time & that’s just fine with us.
I walk down the driveway, get our motorhome & park it in the approved, designated spot. There are a few tree limbs touching the rear roof area of the bus so with Larry’s permission; I’ll trim those off later.
When we drove in this afternoon, Larry was in the process of changing a flat tire on his deceased father-in-law’s 1988 Cadillac parked close to the double garage. Larry wants to sell this car so I volunteer to vacuum the trunk, back & front seating areas, + under the hood. This Caddy was used by their son Alex for awhile but has been outdoors for the last (9) yrs & still looks good for that amount of outdoor time. During my Caddy clean up time, Larry mows the grass on the east side of their house with the Series 23 Bob Cat mower, & then repositions their Horizon by Itasca motorhome on that side where he has gravel.
Next, Larry drives the cleaner looking Caddy; I drive his (1) ton Ford diesel pickup & we both go to his semi-retired production factory (2) miles away. The battery in the Caddy is about (2) yrs old & not keeping a charge. This battery has the “Wal-Mart less than (3) yrs full replacement” policy so guess what our next stop will be!
Back to the factory we go with a new battery for the Caddy. Maybe tomorrow there will be a “for sale” sign on that beauty.
In the meantime, Sally & Larry are expecting a special guest & a long time friend for dinner. We met Arnie last yr about this same time. He’s quite a guy: (81) yrs young, very active, in great shape, sharp mind etc, but his wife, Mary, of 61 yrs had to be put into a care center about (6) months ago. He visits her nearly every day but it’s so obvious he misses her a lot.
Meanwhile, Sally & Kathy have been painting outside; restoring 2 very old yard statues, a jockey & a lackey. The girls are doing a marvelous job of making them look new.
While Sally & Kathy prepare dinner, Larry, Arnie, & I gather in the covered, screened in porch area, have some wine, & talk a little aviation.
6:45 dinner: Salmon, mashed potatoes, Caesar salad & bread.
Evening time; some interesting stories from Arnie: ranging from the war yrs onward to building and running a factory & raising a family. Then it’s time to say our goodnights & goodbye to Arnie for now. It was fun & a fair beginning for our work camping goal.
Lights out: 11:22pm
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