Wednesday, October 30, 2024

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!



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