2017 Jul 05 - Gathering of Aframes at Blackhawk Park, De Soto, WI

It was an uneventful 350 mile drive on Wednesday to Blackhawk Park, about 35 miles north of Prairie Du Chien, WI. It rained cats & dogs while we were stopped for lunch in Dubuque, IA for lunch, but cleared off just as we hit the road again.

Thursday, we drove down to Cabela's in Prairie Du Chien to browse around and get out of the heat.

Friday, we took the short drive across the river to Lansing, IA and amused ourselves at Horsfall Variety Store. We've been there before, but it's always a hoot. You can Google it if you like. We filled the tank at the gas station across the street with "cheap" Iowa gas. We had the obligatory potluck that evening.

We heard that Lock & Dam #6 in Trempealeau, WI, about an hour's drive north on Rte. 35, was going to be open to the public from 10 till 2 on Saturday, so we headed up there for a look-see. It was pretty interesting. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

The picture of the barge sideways in the river is actually a picture of a picture. It happened on 7/5/17, but we didn't see it. The pilot must have been watching the pleasure boaters. LOL!

2017 Jun 20 - Alto Rally in Stone Mountain State Park, NC

It's about 750 miles from Springfield to Roaring Gap, NC where Stone Mountain State Park is located,so we stopped at My Old Kentucky Home State Park on the way down and on the way back.

We left home on Tuesday and got to the rally on Wednesday. Talk about in the boonies! It was a beautiful park, but there wasn't even a cell phone signal for any of the providers. Well, what do you expect when Roaring Gap is the name of the nearest town?

We had great weather except for a little rain one night, which is the best time for rain when you're camping. The official count was 44 Altos and 119 people. There were people there who had ordered their Alto, but didn't have it yet. There were also wannabes there who were kicking tires before ordering.

We had a meet & greet, a pot luck, and a breakfast, all based on the 'bring something to share' principle.

We hiked to Stone Mountain Falls and to the View of the summit which was at the Hutchinson Homestead. You might notice that I noted that there were 330 steps leading to the base of the falls. Of course, those same 330 steps had to be climbed to get back to civilization! I'm getting too old for that stuff!

When we left the rally, we took some real curvy, switchback mountain roads to get to I-65. The new Honda Ridgeline handled it beautifully while getting 4 - 5 mpg more that the Ford Explorer did.

All in all, It was a good trip. We met to very nice folks and are looking forward to seeing them again.