Pleasure Cruise part two

                Mississippi River Valley, Illinois.   Fall Color

Pleasure cruise part two.

 After Minnesota we travel down through Missouri to Arkansas to pick up passengers for another pleasure cruise.

 My mother Clara and her hubby Ron embark for a cruise up to Wisconsin and the northern woods to visit family and see the leaves change.

 We follow the Mississippi though forgotten towns and 

cornfields, stopping in places like Clarksville and dipping into Illinois to camp at deserted state parks.

 Vacationland this is not, RV parks are few and far between.

 The welcome in Wisconsin makes up for all, with Ron's son Shannon and lovely wife Cathy and his other son Eric showing us the great places to eat (all you can eat fried walleye.. yum!) Then Cathy proceeds to feed us to death with incredible meals of lamb (local farmer's) and the bounty of a rich farming community.

 Ron and I played a round of golf at Teal Lake, a course that would easily get hundreds of dollars a round  and a wait for a tee time in California, is walk-on here.  We had the course to ourselves (which was good, we nearly ran out of balls!)

 Very long, very narrow, BIG trees, lotsa water.   Fun.

 We then meandered across the top of Wisconsin touching Michigan and the great lakes, visiting the Great lakes visitor center and the Maritime museum before completing the circle back though Illinois and Missouri.

 The Fall is just happening, some of the trees are insanely colorful, mesmerizing us for mile upon mile.

 We will rest for a few days in Mountain Home, Arkansas and then...  

 Maybe we'll go see if Toto made it back to Kansas.

 It's a big country, with a big middle, the south is still reeling from hurricanes, the north is getting cold and the west coast beckons like a siren.

 And from there it's straight down to Mexico.