On to Wisconsin

Hi all,
Guess we are slacking a bit on posts, I'll try and do a quick catch up. After Perry Lake, Kansas we drove across Missouri to Mark Twain Lake about 30 miles east of Hannibal. We had stayed at the corp park here in 2009 and thought it was a nice place to return.

 It covers 2775 acres abutting the large reservoir a huge mecca for water activities. It has three different camping areas and we chose the Ray Behrens Recreation Area. It is a pretty nice campground though there is so much foliage you really don't see the lake from any sites.
 As we had done the Hannibal exploration on our last trip here this time we were just relaxing and taking in the park. We did get in a good hike one day but were not impressed with the trails. They were pretty much overgrown and missing signs and tree markings faded. But we didn't get lost and got in some needed exercise.
 So after a couple days we continue our trek towards the land of cheese. But time yet for one more stop, we headed to Illinois and Shabbona Lake State Park. Our real goal here was to visit with Bob and Rose who we camphosted with in Arizona.

 As Bob and Rose are from the area this was their favorite camping spot as their kids grew up and Bob has been hosting here going on 15 years.
 The park lies just south of DeKalb, Ill and 60 miles west of Chicago. It boast a 350 acre lake that is one of Illinois best fisheries. It also has nice hiking trails which we found well maintained and got in a good 6 mile hike one day.
 Sadly the park has had to make many budget cuts and is operating on thin ice. While there we never saw anyone but the volunteer hosts about the park. One wonders how long they can last?
 We got in a great visit with Bob and Rose and they gave us a royal park tour. They also took us to a couple neat small town restaurants for some good food.
 So we finally hit Wisconsin Thursday yea!! Although we know we have a busy time ahead of us we are always glad to be back home.
 We headed up to Wisconsin Dells to attend our Excel Camping club spring outing. We had a good 10 units in attendance which is pretty good. We had a good time catching up with everyone and hearing how the winter went for them.

 Turns out that this weekend is a super big car show with over 1200 cars on display. The roads were pretty busy with cruisers of all types. On Saturday 6 of us guys loaded up to take in the big show. This is one of the biggest car shows in the state and really packs in the crowds.

 As we began walking down the first row of cars I  see my brother in law Dennis and sister Dar, not knowing they were going to be there. Dar then tells me our brother Russ is also at the show so we called and tracked him down and had a great surprise get together.