"I say, Governor!" *

Yes, but it was Governor Dodge this year for our camping outing with family. We, along with Mom & Dad and my brother, Terry and wife, Sandy spent 5 days at the state park. It had been quite a few years since we’d been there. The last time we were there the kids were all along and we had an uninvited guest during the night. We left a van window open and a 4 legged masked bandit got in and proceeded to open a bag of garbage that we were going to be taking out in the morning. Unfortunately the garbage had fish guts in it from a successful fishing outing. The van was a mess and later in the heat of the day it was also rather fragrant - in a not so nice way.
But, this year there were no visitors of that kind.
My brother, Kim and wife, Missy came 2 times for supper and bonfire. They live close by. Saturday we had supper at their house.
My niece, Eva and friend, Jason joined us for supper on Wednesday night.

None of them were masked and we didn’t have fish.

We each take turns making supper for the group. That is so nice. I only have to plan one supper.
The men golfed while we shopped on Thursday. The Land’s End store is headquartered nearby and they had their annual sale. Who knew?!? There were some great deals on their outlet prices.
We also hit a local winery. Well, we didn’t hit it, just drove up and walked in. It took us a while to find it winding through the hills.
After supper we usually played the game, Jocker. It’s a board game- sort of, with cards & pegs you move around. It’s Men vs. Women. We can get rather competitive. I do believe that the women ruled! ;)

It rained some of the time which limited Dale’s fishing. Actually he didn’t fish at all, hindered at first by the fact that he forgot his fly-rods. Oops!
Was it me that had taken them out of the truck a week before and didn’t put them with the rest of his fishing gear?
It wasn’t until he stopped at a bait shop and found rods that his hopes were again alive. But then it rained 2 inches during the night and the streams would have been too muddy for successful fishing.
So thankfully his fly-rod selection has not expanded – again.

The terrain is beautiful with many rolling hills. It’s called the Driftless Area. Apparently the glaciers weren’t that far south which meant they left no “drift” behind. (that’s the rocks, sand etc… they push along to fill in the valleys)
Mineral Point is one of the state’s oldest towns and is known for the mining of lead and zinc oxide.
It’s now home to many artists who you can observe creating in their shops. They also offer many different types of classes for people to take to learn a new craft.
There also was a great place where we enjoyed a pizza from a wood fired oven. The sculpture around the oven in the picture was created by one of the artists that we talked to who was originally from our area.












*From the Christmas Carol