This is the final installment of the solo trip with Eva to Wisconsin. Tammy will be following us home in her vehicle when we leave in two weeks. So now let’s dig into the Solo Trip with Eva part 5.

We arrived at the campground right on schedule at 2:00 P.M. I was going to have my boy Bob (son-in-law) help guide me into my spot, but he was running late. I swung it in myself and had everything set up by the time Bob arrived. All that remained was to get out Eva’s Coolaroo, her water, and the satellite dish.

In keeping with the entire trip so far, it was another really hot day. Bob and I had a beer and kicked back. It was nice to finally be somewhere for more than one night. However, my third “trouble comes in threes” incident was on the horizon.

The next morning, I went to visit Tammy at Corrine and Jeffs place and when I came home, I found that someone ran over my G2+ Satellite dish. Looked like a tire directly impacted it. That is a seven-hundred-dollar dish. It probably goes without saying that no one left a note for me or came over to fess up. I ordered a new satellite dish from Winegard for almost $800.00 with tax and shipping.

The next day, driven by morbid curiosity, I took the satellite apart. To my surprise, it hadn’t been damaged on the inside. I pushed out the dent with my hand, reconnected the dish. It worked perfectly. Then I called and cancelled my order but did place a new order for just a dome. The dome was only $65.00, much better than replacing the satellite. I did buy a new tripod because one of the legs had been crushed. Buying just one leg from Winegard was just as expensive as buying a new tripod on Amazon.

So, one would think that now my troubles were over, but they really weren’t. Later that day we began to get really horrible weather reports. The local weather guy was saying that all hell was going to break out that night. He said “These are not ordinary thunderstorms. These have winds of 60,70,80 miles per hour, real potential for tornados, and don’t even get me started talking about the lightening”. Then reports of tornados on the ground in Fort Atkinson, Rome, and Johnson Creek started coming in.

That put me into a bit of a panic, mainly because of Eva’s fear of thunder. I contemplated loading her into the truck and driving north but that storm was tracking that way too. In fact, the Harley Davidson celebration taking place north of us in Milwaukee was evacuated due to the storm. At that point I decided the best bet was to boogey on over to Jennifer and Bobs with Eva. We could campout in their quiet basement until the storm was over. I did run into some pretty torrential rain on the way to their place.

About 11:00 P.M. Eva and I went back to Cliffside Park, and I worried about what I might find. But everything was exactly as I’d left it. By then, we were both exhausted. In fact, Eva cried to get into her crate so she could sleep. That has never happened before.

The next day we got up and the campground was really wet from the rain. At that point I knew we couldn’t take any of the trails until things dried out. A few days later I tried again but the trails were in terrible shape. it’s obvious to me that there hasn’t been any trail maintenance in a long time. So, our first try at getting to the lake was foiled.

On the way back from the trail a park ranger asked us how far we went on the trails. He asked us if we had seen a tent anywhere along the trail. They had apparently found a bunch of camping supplies in the woods but no tent and no people. So that was strange, I hope he called the sheriff after our conversation.

A few days later we actually made it to the Lake via the trails, but it was pretty muddy. Later I found a tick crawling on my leg. So that made me do a real close inspection on Eva, but she was tick free.

Now, as a bit of background to the next issue, just prior to leaving our home in Texas, I tweaked my back. in fact, I thought maybe I would need to postpone going to Wisconsin but I kind of worked through it. However, it has been getting worse as the trip continued. There are certain things that really set it off. When that happens, it is almost impossible to walk for a few hours.

There came a time with a week left at Cliffside where I broke down and went to an urgent care. They gave me steroids and muscle relaxants. At least that would get me back to Texas. I hung out with Bob and Jennifer while I waited for the CVS to open and got to meet their new dog Daisy, she is soooo sweet.

The second week was much better from a trail perspective. Eva and I took many trips back to the overlook at Lake Michigan.

The second weekend came, and I met Tammy at Corrine and Jeffs house, and we all headed to the Rennaissance Faire, in Bristol. This is very close to Jeff and Corrine’s house. I would say that this is about the fourth time I have been to this Faire. If you have never been to one of these, it is worth it just to people watch. I feel about it now the same way I did when we first went – it’s huge, hot, and bizarre (or as I like to say “Interesting”). It rained before we went which added to a high humidity level as well. The food there is a little pricey but very good. It was great to hang out with the kids.

The plan after Cliffside was to go to Des Moines Iowa, then Topeka Kansas, and then on to Dodge City. That all changed with weather reports a few days before our departure. The weather in that direction was going to be horrible. The storms in Iowa were supposed to be absolutely horrible, and Kansas would be no better. Even if we could get to Dodge City, the weather there would be over 100 degrees for our stay. None of this was what I wanted to hear. There’s running from a storm, and then there’s being part of the storm. I’d much rather run from that kind of storm. So, we cancelled our reservations and made new ones going back the way we came two weeks ago.

The next few days flew by, and on Wednesday Tammy came to the trailer. We got organized for the trip home. One last dump station visit and we were on our way.

Now on the way home it was hot as well. Every day when we would pull into a campground the inside temp would be somewhere above 94 degrees. It would take a good hour to get the temp down in the trailer. Thats when I noticed that our main AC unit seemed to be acting strange. It would hit a brick wall at about 83 degrees and then cycle off for a while and then come back on. We ran both AC units to compensate. My guess was that the capacitor was weak. I confirmed this when I got home, and I replaced it.

I won’t make a detailed replacement video, because discharging the capacitor incorrectly could electrocute someone. However, there are plenty of YouTube videos on the subject.

All in all, about 2500 miles and a number of things that could have gone better, but it is always an adventure.

Next Trip will be in about 8 weeks and more than likely we will be heading to Marfa Texas. So stay tuned!