Vernon County Fair, officially Fall in Wisconsin!

     Starting out early on Wednesday we headed for Viroqua and Aunt Janelle's. Amy has a full work day, and going to set up at her house, while I help Grandpa start getting tractors ready for the World's Fair later in the month. We got 2 tires repaired on the hay wagon, so we could get Grandpa's CO-OP tractor and my Farmall B out, gassed up, then ready to go. 

 

    Thursday morning Amy had work again, and grandpa and I unloaded his big trailer so we can haul utv's and an atv to Hatfield next Tuesday. In the afternoon we went down to the fair and walked through the animal barns. I thought maybe just maybe I might run into some that I knew... but no luck. In the afternoon we packed up and headed for Cashton. We had plans to have dinner with Cass and Matt. Cass was in my class, Matt a year older. They have a wonderful place in Cashton and a great family. It was great to catch up after all these years!

    Friday morning I got some of this Blog caught up while Amy had the bulk of her work in the morning. We took off just after noon, loaded up to stay in Viroqua through most of Sunday. We caught lunch at Coney Island... a local Hot Dog joint in La Crosse for many years. We took a walk around the Fair again in the afternoon, then packed up Grandpa and met Aunt Janelle and Cousin Chad at Norwegian Hollow for fish dinner. Tractor pulls were starting at 7, so we headed back to the fair grounds. Vernon County Fair is dry, so nearing the end we got thirsty and walked across the highway for a couple adult beverages. Cousin Chad's ex-wife was bar tending, so we got to catch up with her, and met a gentleman that knew my dad when he owned a couple bars back in Cashton before I came along.

    We slept in a bit Saturday, well Amy slept in, I fiddled around on the tablet  :) Then went to the fair for breakfast. The portable food stands are pretty high, but the built in food stands are pretty reasonable. We watched a guy doing caricature drawings for folks, and signed up and had ours done!

 

We listened to some music and toured a few parts of the fair we had not seen. Saturday night's attraction was the Demolition Derby! 

 

 

 

    Like the night before, we slipped out about 30 min early to beat the crowd to the watering hole. Plus it was a convenient walk back to Grandpa's house.

    Sunday we got convinced to pack up Grandpa and join Aunt Janelle at church. Then a little breakfast out. We then ran out to the farm to load up the UTV's and ATV's for Tuesday in Hatfield, WI.

 

    It is pretty amazing, there is Grandpa, at 98 and 11 months, out there on the trails riding a UTV with the rest of us. It is such a blessing to still have him with us, and how able he is to go and do things still!

 

Labor Day on the road, and a busy weekend back at the boat!

    After seeing Merl and Tima off, we started packing things up for our own trip. Amy has meetings next week, plus I haven't been home since June to do any projects around the storage facility. About 2 weeks back the electric company changed out the meter, and I lost contact with my cameras, and computer equipment. It turned out to be a failed UPS power supply. 

    Before heading off though, we had been dealing on a trade with Dahl Subaru here in La Crosse. Amy's car was hit in the back the day after Christmas last year. The folks were insured, and all repairs were made properly, however it was 3 years old, had 40k miles on it, plus an accident. So it was time to trade it off. And so we did! Amy upgraded to the Onyx package, so she has remote start, a sunroof, and a few other extras.

    We headed out about noon on Friday for Northern Illinois. we took the big package of Walleye that Bart in Hastings, MN had given us and had a big fish fry, with corn and tomatoes left behind by Merl & Tima. Plus, as always, I had to make up fresh onion rings! :)

    Saturday morning I was off to Tennessee, while Amy got to have with family for 3 days before hitting the office for meetings! I got there, and had everything working in the office in a matter of minutes. I had left keys with 2 people, but unfortunately the copies didn't work. So I got new copies made (that work) so if this happens again, I don't have to make a special trip back just to power things back up.

    It has been horribly dry and hot in Tennessee this summer. Makes me really happy to be cruising in the North!!! In La, Crosse, WI, the first twinges of fall colors were starting to show. As you can see below, fall is in full swing in Tennessee. Backwards eh? Well the lack of rain has made everything start to go dormant early. As you can see we have a fair amount of leaves already on the ground!

    I got some of my lagging work done and headed back the following Thursday to IL. Then Friday morning we both set out for La Crosse. Amy didn't sleep well at her parents, she has really gotten used to our bed on Toscana. It's just home :)

    When we got back, the first thing I did was head over to the marina office for packages. I had a new Victron Multiplus II 3000w/120Amp inverter charger waiting, plus all the accessories. Our 30 year old Heart Interface Xantrax Freedom 2500 just wouldn't charge anymore. I have not given up on it, but since no inverter shop wants to work on it anymore, I gave up and replaced it. I'll go through it this winter when it's too cold to want to do anything outside and see if I can't get her working again as a spare. Now with the new Victron, I can see and control the unit anywhere from my phone. Makes it nice when you are away, I get an alert on my phone if Shore Power would drop. 

   

     After getting the work all done it was time to head "home" to Cashton, WI for Fall Fest. We went Friday and Saturday evenings. We ran into many old familiar faces between Walking around the carnival, The Lions building (where the beer and live music was) and a couple bars up town. I didn't really take much for pictures or anything, as I had a hard enough time trying to remember people when I hadn't seen most of them for over 20 years. Some folks haven't changed, while some really really had. I think the most amazing thing was Cashton has grown by about 400 people in 30 years but the town is down to 2 full time bars. That's crazy! I hear the country bars are back while the in town bars struggle. Times change I guess!

    Before we leave, we will make our rounds to a few of them, plus I just have to make at least one football game! AMy has meetings the last week of September, and it appears I have a boat move, KY to MN to get done that week as well. Oh and I can't forget Retreat's World's Fair tractor ride when we get back. It's going to be a busy final month here in La Crosse. We will have more pics and video from the rest of our Shore Leave excursions!! Next week's post will focus on the Vernon County Fair!

VERY Special Guests in La Crosse!

    Upon our return, it was a scramble, getting the boat cleaned up, organized, and the guest staterooms ready. We had very special guests coming to see us, and Toscana. Toscana's previous owners of 26 years, Merlin and Fatima Baenen recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary, and after 4 years and a couple invites, decided that wanted to come see Toscana atleast one more time. I don't believe they had any doubts, but they can both rest easy with their own eyes, seeing she will be well cared for in the years to come.

    First off, here is the link to their front page article in the Green Bay Press Gazzette: Anniversary

 

    After all the prep work, we settled down for their arrival on Tuesday. At 94 and 89, they just packed their bags and jumped in the car to drive over from Green Bay. They actually got off I90 a couple exits early. The I90 ALT signs kinda had them confused. They were in front of the Office Depot. I said you wait right there I know where you are I'll come get you! They followed me back to North Bay Marina, and after a quick potty stop at the bathrooms, we went to work unloading their gear and getting them settled. They both remarked how nice it was to see the "brightwork" (teak railings, stairs, accents, etc) varnished up like new again. Merlin brought some fresh vegetables, and a case of wine from his vineyard. Amy made her scratch alfredo sauce, with chicken and broccoli... Plus we had to have some of that fresh sweet corn as well!

    Wednesday we got up, enjoyed a great breakfast, and took them out for a nice ride down to Brownsville, and then back up to Lock 7, and back to the marina. A beautiful day, fairly calm water, just couldn't ask for much more! 

    You may notice Merl needed a hat, and I had the perfect one for him. One of my custom CO hats. After all, he was CO of this vessel long before me! After our cruise we piled in the car, and took them to Grandad's Bluff, a beautiful overlook over La Crosse! Pictures don't do it justice!

    We returned for a nice supper of soup, corn, tomatoes, and some leftover alfredo, capped off with some wine on the aft deck with a sunset!

    Thursday they got up, we enjoyed a nice breakfast, but it was time to head home. Merlin could have stayed a month I believe, but Tima was ready to get home. She loved the boat, but she struggles with seasickness. On top of that, they lost one of their sons in 2018 (fall before I bought Toscana) to a sudden stroke. Toscana holds much joy, and also much sorrow for them. We love them like they were part of our own family! This is also the joy of keeping the name Toscana... when I get asked about it I get to tell the story of these two wonderful people!

Back to La Crosse!

     As much as we enjoyed our brief stay in St Paul, it is time to be getting back to La Crosse. We have a pretty full schedule through Oct 1 when we start heading further back to Tennessee. The good part to that is there will be no shortage of things to write about!

    We started our day with a beautiful early morning view of St Paul's riverfront. The road bridges are all high and fixed, but there are 3 Railroad bridges that require opening for us to pass.

Commercial paddlewheelers docked.

Several boats on an island sandbar, including a personal sized paddlewheeler

    We did not get any still pics of the trip up the St Croix. It started with a Railroad and a highway bridge opening to get on the St Croix. The next 11 miles to Afton, well lets just say they were a textbook example of why loopers tend to not travel on weekends. So many boats... I thought I was on the gulf coast near Tampa and Ft Myers at times.

    Across from Afton, MN is the St Croix Yacht Club. It is just a sandbar peninsula along the river, but it is private, and the YC has run power out there. So all these boats that beach and have fun can plug their boats into shore power. But it is a private beach. Do not pull up there without an invite from one of the members. 

    Toscana is not a good choice of boat for pulling up on sandbars, so we anchored just upstream a bit, and took the dinghy to the beach. We met up with Ron and Nancy from Flying Colors. We had met them on their loop briefly at Cuba Landing, and were at the 2021 Fall Rendezvous with them.

We returned to Toscana for a small dinner, and a great sunset!

    We got up and underway fairly early on Monday. Since we stopped short at Afton to see friends, we continued on up to Hudson, WI. The RR swing bridge was closed, and I wasn't gonna have them open, to just turn around and come back through in 30 minutes... so we called it good there and set course for Red Wing, MN

 

 Once in Red Wing, you had to see the World's Largest Boot! 😅

 

 

     The best part of Red Wing, MN was, as it usually is, the people! Mary met us at the boat with a nice vase of flowers! As we were tying the boat up for the night, Mary mentioned well Dan is over there, pointing to the table by the Marina Store, but he is blind. I already knew they were gold loopers, so the alarm bells went of almost instantly, this was the couple Dave Fuller talks about! And sure enough it was. They had wonderful stories about their trip around the loop. He drove the boat, Mary was his eyes, and tended the lines. I couldn't do their stories justice, I suggest you make a trip up the river to Red Wing and hear them for yourselves!

 

    We also met another planning loopers Brian and Vicky, but we didn't think to take their picture. We took the dinghy across the river to Harbor Bar to meet them, and also catch up with the owner Brad. I had met him on my trip 6 years ago, plus after that found a documentary called On The Waterways, that featured a great segment on him and his Bar & Marina. We stayed and visited pretty late as I had to dig out the running lights to cross the river! 

    Tuesday, we got up and going early. The American Serenade was docking at the city dock as we left.

    We had a short day planned, but 2 stops. Lake City, MN to meet a fuel truck for $3.00/gallon diesel. Then we wanted to stop at Slippery's in Wabasha, MN. If the tumblers have not clicked yet, think of the Grumpy Old Men movies! We had the Raggetti's Spaghetti and Slippery Deluxe!

   

 After our lunch and a trip through all the memorabilia, we walked a few blocks south to the National Eagle Center. They have 3 Bald Eagles, and something else that we couldn't see, a hawk of some kind. The eagles are all here because they were injured in such a way that even after recovery, they couldn't go back to the wild. It's a neat stop and by far the closest look at a Bald Eagle you will ever get!

A friend passing by snapped this shot of us at Slippery's. He is the Harbor man at Hub's in Hastings, MN. He and his wife are traveling down to Lansing, then back during their vacation week!

    We spent the night at Alma Marina, with Bart and Kristen 2 boats over. They traveled with us Wed, both stopping in Winona. We anchored, they went into Dick's Marine. Our anchorage was in a back channel with several boathouses. Lovely view! 

    Our friend Bart took a drive with their daughter across the bridge in front of us, great anchorage pics from them!

A couple shots of Bart and Kristen's boat waiting for lock 5a

    Thursday we took our time getting going, and weighed anchor about 0830. we eased down through Lock 6, about 30 min behind Bart. We then anchored near an old campsite we used for several years when I was a kid. It's changed alot. Plus I found a good place to go, where we can anchor with Toscana and do an overnight fishing trip with Grandpa if he wants to come.

 

    After that we weighed anchor again, and headed back down river. past Lock 7 and the La Crescent Swing Bridge, we passed the La Crosse Queen heading up with some tourists, and found the American Serenade had passed us up overnight sometime since Red Wing and was docked at Riverside Park. We got nestled back into our home-away-from-home slip at North Bay and ready for 6 weeks in La Crosse before continuing south. Don't worry we have plenty of Shore Leave excursions planned to share with you over the next few weeks!