Year 2 Days 246 to 248 Cousin Steve

A few days ago, we bundled up LeuC and said goodbye to our lovely campsite at the Glen Hills County Park. We only had to drive west less than an hour before arriving at the Willow River State Park, near Hudson, WI. We will be staying here for 10 days. Actually, LeuC will be staying here for 10 days while Mary Margaret and I will be flying back to Ann Arbor, Michigan for a long weekend to take in a football game at our alma mater.

Willow River State Park is a lovely state park with three camping areas well separated from each other. There is one, campground 100 and where we are located, that is for large RV units, such as ours. Another area, campground 200 allows smaller RVs or tents but offers no electricity, while the third campground area, campground 300, is nestled deeps in the woods along Willow River. This area is for tents and smaller trailer campers, also without electricity.

Our site is surrounded with staghorn sumac bushes, all laden with their unique dark maroon colored berries. I remember being a kid and eating the dark, furry berries that dominate the sumac bushes in the late summer and early fall. Their taste is a tangy, lemony favor, which you can make a delicious tea from. Mary Margaret had never tasted this berry before so I suggested she do so now and she loved it.

The sumac bushes and a few young trees give our site lots of privacy and without the overhang of tall tree branches, our satellite dish has full view to the sky so we can get the various satellite TV channels that we have become used to. Having the ability of watching TV is still a novelty for us. Before, when we lived on our sailboat for 10 years, we had no TV onboard and really did not miss it. The sailing adventure, including visiting foreign lands and remote islands, was just so exciting that we did not miss watching TV. Now, as we traveling around the country, we are transiting to the concept of living back on the land which, quite frankly, is not nearly as exciting as sailing around the world. Thus, TV is once again creeping back into our lives, offering instantious entertainment, with a click of a button.

Regarding entertainment, yesterday, while it was pouring rain, we drove a few miles west and crossed the state line, entering St. Paul, Minnesota. We went to a movie theater and enjoyed watching Oceans 8. It was a fun movie to see and the theater only charged $2 since it was “$2 Tuesday”. Whoo Hoo!

We ended the day having dinner where “butter hamburgers” and fried Wisconsin Cheese Curds” were served. Both were delicious. The soft buttery accent made the hamburgers uniquely delicious as were the fried cheese curds. They reminded me of fried mozzarella, which I love.

Today, as the skies slowly stopped raining and cleared, we spent the day watching the series “Victoria” until dinner time rolled around. We were especially anxious for dinner to arrive as we had reserved a table for three at the Pier 500 restaurant in Hudson. Our guest was Steve, my cousin on my mother’s side of our family. I could not remember the last time we had met but during dinner, concluded it was way back around 1967 when my family stopped and spent a few days at his house. His mother was my mom’s youngest sister: my Aunt Corinne whose nickname was Corky. At that time, I was 12 and Steve was only 2 years old. While Steve and I have had a history of communicating over the years via email and Facebook, this was actually the first time we have met since becoming adults.

Mary Margaret, Steve and I had a wonderful time, sharing drinks and dinner (which he surprised us and kindly paid for!), talking about our lives, relatives and family histories. There is so much we individually know but also do not know. Thus, we were able to fill in some of those gaps of knowledge. It was wonderful. Steve is such a kind, friendly and wonderful person. He has grown up becoming such a nice person and it was such a pleasure to get to know him better. With luck, we will have him over to LeuC next week, after return from Ann Arbor and before we continue down the road, making our way toward the Pacific Northwest.