Day 4 - Approaching Twin cities

Travel   From: Elkhart, Indiana   To: Willow River SP, Wisconsin   Distance: 503 mi (809 km)   Travel time w/brks: 10 hr 02   Distance since start: 1,553 mi (2,497 km)

Saturday 6/24/2006

We got up at 3:15am and were able to start pulling out of the campground by 3:50am. Shortly after we hit the road the main laptop just went into hibernation, taking out our navigation system. After some experimentation we concluded that (a) the big laptop was had no battery life left and (b) the recently purchased and installed power inverter had died. It is not unlikely that we overloaded it with two laptops. It does not have an external fuse so if you overload it for a while I guess you have no recourse. We now had to scramble with navigation. Ahead of us we had Chicago and not much of a map.. but it worked out Ok actually. Lots of road construction and narrow lanes. Thankfully, we came through early on a Saturday morning. By 6am we were already on our way out of the city. One of the interesting discoveries is that our EzPass (RFID toll payment used on the east coast) was accepted in Illinois, but not in Indiana!

We stopped for fuel at a Flying-J just over the border into Wisconsin. I discovered that they sold power inverters there and decided to buy a new one, with twice the power instead. The new one was so configured that it could be used (a) from the cigarette lighter, (b) with crocodile clamps on the battery and (c) through direct wiring to the battery. Better yet, it had its own 40A fuse. This made it possible to get a quick start by just using the cigarette lighter. Only one problem: the tip of the provided cigarette lighter plug had an old-style 15A glass fuse in it that had melted. We quickly proceeded to a rest area just a mile up the road, where we ate breakfast. I asked one of the truckers for a 15A glass fuse. The driver asked me if I was still living in the stone age... no fuse. Fortunately, we have the big Carrier Atlas we can use. We took that out from the trailer and tried to make use of that instead. Our combined fueling and breakfast stop took a bit over an hour.

Isabella cleans bugs off the windshield at the Flying-J

The road up towards the Twin Cities (St Paul and Minneapolis) is fairly flat and good. This is cheese country with plenty of farms on both sides. I called Lilli over the phone, since we did not have a chance to hook up last night. We asked her for details on how to get to this night's campground since we did not have enough details on the Carrier map. It sounded easy enough. As we listened to the weather radio we discovered that we had crossed over into a new time zone (Central Time Zone). Isabella took a nap, holding the bright red manila folder with campground reservations in her hand. After a while her head bowed forwards and her lips straddled the edge of the folder as she slept. When she woke up her lips were bright red. The color from the red manila folder had transferred over to her lips! We got a good laugh from that. We drove through some heavy rain, but it only lasted 10 minutes until we got out on the other side. The temperature dropped from 79F (26C) to 65F (18C) in a matter of minutes. The weather service indicated that there might be more of that later on this evening. It is interesting to note that we've had good phone service (GSM) pretty much consistently along the Interstates. We'd heard this would be the case, but we can confirm that it is actually the case.

We have a camp site reservation in Willow River State Park, in Hudson Wisconsin. This is just a few miles from the Minnesota border. This is a very nice park. We got there at about 1pm, with plenty of time to look around. Our reservation was not in the main campground but in a small area for RVs. We had no idea what to expect, but it turned out to be a great spot, next to a beach by the lake. But the downside was no water, only 30A. So we'll have to economize on what we brought with us in our tank. While the campsite cost is rather cheap ($22), booking it over the web using Reserve America added a $10 reservation fee. Then, when we showed up, the State Park wanted to charge for a Wisconsin State Park Pass ($10). This basically doubled the price of the site. Nevertheless, it was a very good site and the kids found plenty of things to do.

Two dragon flies down by the river

One of the dams in Willow River State Park

Erik using his new fishing rod for the first time, looking up at the dam

The sun was shining and it was in the upper 70s (25C). Erik made hot-dogs on our BBQ for everyone. We sat down under the awning and ate. After that I decided to take a quick nap. Erik wanted to go and try out his new fishing rod. It turns out no license is required if you are 16 or under. The other kids followed. When I woke up, the kids were not yet back, so I decided to debug the electrical problem in the back of the trailer. After some putzing around, I discovered that the culprit was that I was sold the wrong light bulbs by Camping World in Elkhart and that I had inadvertently shorted out the entire rear 12V circuit.

Looks Ok from the side (quick glance over)		But underneath you can see the "problem"...
12V breaker box, hidden behind folded down couch		Tiny reset button you can push with tip of screwdriver

When the kids got back, Karl went for a swim in the lake and then over to the playground. It started to rain. We all huddled under the awning. There was no wind. Erik prepared dinner (grilled meat with potato salad). We sat inside. The kids watched TV and I got ready for bed. We all concluded we wanted to come back to this campground in the future.

Beach at Willow River State Park in Hudson, WI; next to our trailer basically

Campground   Name: Willow River State Park   Our hookups: 30 Amp only   WiFi: No   GSM service: 3 bars   TV Channels: A few (air)   Cost: $42/night22 + 10 (reserve america) + 10 (wi sp day pass)   Reservation mode: Reserve America/web

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