Paul and I have been making many trips to Wisconsin and back and find it hard to change our route much. We normally spend one or two overnights in the van. This trip was for my father’s memorial in August. We started out on the evening of Aug. 16 and slept in the rest area outside of Las Vegas, NM. Quiet enough and gets us on the road early. On this trip we decided to check out Manhattan, Kansas. We pulled into Tuttle Creek S.P but it didn’t look like a good lake to swim on that side. The Big Blue River that flows into the Kansas River was damed to create a large recreation area. It was starting to get dark so we moved on until we found a sweet spot. Brown’s State fishing lake is in the Northeastern corner of Kansas. Free camping and porta potties plus a quiet except for frogs, birds and crickets chirping. We did a little walk around in the morning when we awoke.

After spending a really nice time in Wisconsin, swimming in lakes, eating corn on the cob, and singing sweet songs, we headed back home.

Somewhere on 151 outside of Dubuque, Iowa, Paul and I hit a crazy storm. We listened to the radio which scared us with alert sirens. We pulled over by a corn field and waited until it mostly passed. I think there where gusts of winds around 80 mph. I was pretty freaked out. We got a late start traveling so we ended up in a rest area on I80 outside Omaha in Kansas for the night. (way too warm)

We decided to drive through Denver the next day on 285 and camp for the night in some cool mountain air. We stopped at a National Forest Park on the Kenosha Pass. Paul did some daring off road driving but we ended up in a legit spot for the night. Super pretty and chilly night air.

The way back on 285 is pleasant. We stopped for coffee and walked around Salida, a cute, artsy mountain town that is worth a visit.

The rest of the way we have traveled before but it was nice to change it up a bit.