Monroe, Wisconsin

Looks like we will be experiencing 3 seasons in the quaint town of Monroe at the Green County Fairgrounds. The fairgrounds were not open to RVs when we arrived in WI in early April for me to start work at the Monroe Clinic Hospital Laboratory. We spent a month at the Lena KOA just across the line in IL. Moving to Monroe allowed me to walk to work so we were able to share one vehicle while working opposite each other. I worked weekdays and Rollie worked evenings and weekends when softball/baseball season started in May.

Monroe is the county seat and has a beautiful courthouse in the middle of the town square.

Green County courthouse on farmers market day

It was settled by Swiss and German immigrants and still is considered by some to be the cheese capital of the USA. The National Historical Cheesemaking Center is housed in the Monroe visitor center. There are many award-winning master cheesemakers in town. The only place still making Limburger cheese is just outside of town. Swiss Colony started in a garage in Monroe, is still based here and is the town's largest employer.   http://www.nationalhistoriccheesemakingcenter.org/

Monroe Clinic, which includes the hospital where I work, has clinics in many small towns in the area. The main clinic is attached to the hospital and our lab serves all these facilities.

Monroe Clinic Hospital

Monroe Clinic

The fairground is only 9 blocks from the hospital and 8 blocks from the square. There are 2 resident RVs besides ours staying the whole summer. The other 2 couples have been RVing for many years, are retired and spend winters in AZ. They have been very helpful for us newbies!

Our little RV enclave 

The original livestock building

The fairground office and exhibit hall

The grandstand. There used to be a horse track on the other side but now the rodeo, tractor pull
and musical events are held there

Life in the Fairground

We have been living at the Green County Fairground in Monroe, WI, since early May and it has been very enjoyable. Even though it has been a wet spring, I have been able to walk to work and home almost every day. It has not been difficult sharing one vehicle even though both of us are working because we work pretty much opposite of each other. I can also walk to the town square where farmer's markets are held every Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning.

The fairground has provided entertainment in the form of animal/livestock events (horse shows, dog show, dog obedience training sessions, dairy cattle show) and one big flea market so far. There is a local amateur football team who practice and play on a field in what used to be the infield of the horse track. But the biggest event is yet to come - The Green County Fair, July 22-26! I will be sure to take pictures!

www.greencountyfair.net

Mary

It was a long trip from Tucson to Monroe, WI, in less than 5 days but we have very good travelers in the back seat. The humans need potty stops and leg stretchers more often than the canines! It is amazing how we notice and appreciate the green grass and the leafy trees and the beautiful flowers and the rolling hills now that we have experienced the desert. Travel opens your eyes! The ruggedness of the Southwest was also beautiful and we enjoyed a warm winter for the first time in our lives. We will return to there!

We are both working now, I in the hospital lab and Rollie umpiring for the City of Monroe plus weekend tournaments around southern Wisconsin. Our first month we were living at the KOA in Lena, IL, just across the line because it was the only RV park open in April. First of May we moved to the Green County Fairgrounds right in Monroe where they have a few full hookups and lots more electric only. There are two other couples in their RVs with us for the summer. They have been here every summer for many years and are very helpful  to us newbies. I can walk to work and downtown to the square so that makes it much easier to share one vehicle. It will get interesting during the county fair but the other RVers say it's not a problem.

http://www.greencountyfair.net/site/camping/

We will probably be here until September when we plan to head east. Monroe is an interesting place to visit with a brewery with a great tour and tasting (Minhas Brewery) and lots of cheese sampling and history. Swiss Colony is here as well as many other cheese factories due to the influence of the Swiss immigrant dairy farmers and cheese makers. Come visit! bring your RV or tent! New Glarus is just up the road which is will make you think you are in Switzerland.

http://www.greencounty.org/

Mary

What season is it, anyway?

You know that feeling when you take a little nap and are confused as to what time it is when you wake up? I'm feeling that way about the seasons. It really seems like fall this week. We had a little winter in Kingman, AZ, with 5 inches of snow New Years Eve that hung around for 5 days. after that it warmed slowly and our last week in AZ (last week of March) it was definitely summer with highs in the 90s. The cool rainy weather we are experiencing now in southern Wisconsin really seems like fall. But I saw a crocus and the tulips are coming up so I'm sure I will get over it, especially as the days get longer. But I am not sure I will make a good snowbird!

When I started working at Kingman Regional Medical Center, Kingman, AZ, December 1, I totally forgot about blogging. With some structure to my schedule for 3 months I got back into an exercise routine, did more cooking and bakiing and spent too much time on FaceBook. Besides, we didn't travel much so I didn't have anything exciting to blog about, or pictures to post. We went to Parker, AZ, on the Colorado River for Christmas because I had 3 days off. It was in the 60s! We also made a quick trip to Tucson for Rollie to umpire a softball tournament that got rained out. Otherwise we just resided at the Kingman KOA and planned our next adventure. When I finished my assignment we took off for San Diego and worked our way slowly up the west coast to southern Oregon. Three weeks wasn't really enough time! We saw the sights, sampled lots of wine, walked several beaches, met up with old friends and visited several national parks. Then we headed to Tucson one more time to meet up with Alex, Laura, Michael, Kendall and Josh (Alex and Michael are my sons, Laura and Kendall are their girlfriends and Josh is a friend). That's when summer arrived and we were happy that I had arranged to come to Monroe, WI, to work for 3 months. We are not big fans of hot weather.

I'll see how many pictures I can add...

Koalas at the San Diego Zoo

Sonny on the beach

Ripe strawberries

Moro Bay

Moro Bay

Moro Bay

Moro Bay

Obviously Monterrey

Southern CA vinyard

San Francisco, on the ferry from Vallejo

Chinatown

Alcatraz

Redwoods

Near Eureka

Elk Country RV Park

Northern CA beach

Logging country

El Capitan, Yosemite

Half Dome, Yosemite

Rollie just had to have a fire!

The road we took between Yosemite and Sequoia

The drive up to see the sequoias

This big!

Orange grove just west of Sequoia

Barrel cactus with fruit

The gang in Tucson

Saguaro National Park

Saguaro National Park

Saguaro National Park

Saguaro National Park

Saguaro National Park

Saguaro National Park

White Sands National Monument

Sonny and Mia in the back seat

More photos at https://goo.gl/photos/zPqXJmgaVhBjGK126

Wow! I have not blogged for a long time! Working full-time and trying to get into some sort of exercise routine have filled my days. Learning a new job is always stressful and taxing so I have had little energy when I get home. We have had trouble with the wifi at our KOA in Kingman so I am in the community room with better connection. And we bought a newer RV. Excuses, excuses...

We have been exploring the Kingman, AZ, area in our 6 weeks here and learned early on that it is 10 to 15 degrees warmer if we go 40 minutes west to Bullhead City on the Colorado River. Cross the river and we are in Laughlin, NV, which is known as "Little Las Vegas", where we found our RV. We have checked out some of the casinos but that gets old. We went farther down the Colorado to Parker, AZ, for Christmas and it was 20 degrees warmer than Kingman, 70s! We crossed over to CA and found "wild" burros begging along the state highway on that side of the river.

We had 5" of snow on New Years Eve which is unusual here. It stayed for almost a week, in the shady spots, which is also unusual. It was in the 20s 4 nights (40s in the daytime) so the park water lines froze each night. Luckily we are next to the bath house which had water, and hot water. Our new RV is better insulated and we got it just in time for the cold weather. But we still go through propane pretty fast when it is that cold. We also have a small electric space heater which keeps us warm down to about 40, which is normal for winter here. The dogs enjoyed the snow at the local dog park!

More later...

Mary

More photos at https://goo.gl/photos/P3Zh7yKjnH9NCE6c7

Our New Fox

If you know our dogs, you know that they are fox colored and many people say they look like foxes.

In our search for a better insulated RV (so we can travel more places) we happened onto exactly what we need AND it has pictures of foxes on it! 2012 Fox Mountain by Northwoods, who also make the Arctic Fox, the original 4-season RV. It is the same floor plan as our current Cougar so it will be very similar, but it is much lighter. We got a great trade-in deal so will be making the swap as soon as I can get a half day off work.

Look out world, here we come!