Independence Day in Evansville - Map mile 770.9

I left off with camping in what is currently my favorite dispersed camping area (DCA) in Verona. It had been my first night camping in seven days and it felt wonderful. I was sleeping by 9pm as I was exhausted. However, I woke up about every two hours to blow up my air pad as it had not magically repaired itself. My sleeping bag and pad are a system. The bag slides over the pad and the bag also has no insulation on the bottom as the pad provides the insulation. The bottom of sleeping bags provide little insulation because they are compacted by body weight. Not bothering to put insulation on the bottom portion of the sleeping bag, makes the bag weigh less.  I would wake up on the cold and hard ground roll over off the mat but still inside my sleeping bag and blow it back on then plop back onto in only to do it again in about two hours.

One of my favorite nights.

I woke up the next morning and it was gorgeous and I had beautifully groomed trails to look forward to. The black raspberries are ripe by the handfuls now and I gorged myself throughout the day on them. I saw a monarch caterpillar munching on milkweed. Although milkweed seems to be coming back - probably planted - the caterpillars are still not very dense at all. Some of the wildflowers are starting to die off, but the fields are still beautifully colorful.

There was another DCA I decided to camp at the following night and it had a log book for hikers. These are fairly rare and it was pretty neat to read other hiker's entries. After shooing away a gigantic spider with an even more gigantic egg sac from my tent... Which my hand was inches from, I settled inside and ate my Thai Curry meal that night which I had been carrying with me for over three weeks... it was delicious! And then I went to sleep since the mosquitoes were pretty intense and I had no internet connection. (Whenever I have the energy to blog it seems there is no internet connection) I went to sleep and was awoken at 1236am by what I would describe as death noises.

A nice DCA complete with a bench!

Was about 2 inches away from connecting my rain tarp when I noticed it. Not afraid of spiders... but this one was gross.... didn't kill it just shooed its slow-moving egg-carrying butt away

I am not sure what lost its life in the woods that night, but something(s) did for sure. It seemed like more than one thing was making the high-pitched squealing sound which made me think it might have been some sort of birds dying. Maybe grouse or turkey or something? I only heard one very low and not loud growl which may have been in my imagination. (fox?) I had heard something die many weeks ago which was probably a bear getting a fawn, so its possible it was that. In any case - I was awake for the next half hour listening very intensely for any follow-up noises that would be close to my tent. This 'attack' was seemingly within a football field of my tent and all I could hope at that point is whatever got its meal was filled up by it... I blew up my mattress and went back to sleep.

I wanted to get up early the next morning because I planned to walk a few miles off the trail and go to the New Glarus Brewery that day, but it was cold outside so I didn't start early at all. Then I ended up sunning myself and drying out wet-with-dew shoes by a water pump for about an hour because I thought I had gotten too late of a start to make it to the brewery.  New Glarus Woods State Park is about 2.5 miles off the trail, but there wasn't any legal camping areas so I walked into the camp ground about 4:15 - a mere 15 minutes after the brewery closed. If I hadn't been lazy by the water pump I would have made it - but it worked out for the best.

Even had the water testing paperwork on it - nice

That night I attempted to eat some dehydrated beef stroganoff, but I was only 1.1 miles from the Culver's.  I made the obvious choice and walked to Culver'. I was there for over three hours. I didn't shut down a bar- but I shut down Culver's. I walked back to my camp site and could see my breath that night. ITS JULY! Come ON WI - get with it! Just after the pungent cloud of kind-of-sorta legalized smoke I walked through I reached my campsite and promptly fell asleep (no, not because of the cloud of smoke).

I tried the stroganoff... but went with the Culver's

The next morning Jenni came to pick me up!! We drove around super cute - Swiss infused New Glarus and went to the New Glarus Brewing Company together! Better than going on my own the night before! We had been drinking Spotted Cow together since day one of getting on the trail and now we got to visit the motherland. My friend Carlos who works there but couldn't be there that day had hooked me up with the tour and Jenni and I walked out with a bottle of our new favorite - Belgian Red. There is a pound of cherries in every over-sized bottle. If you like cherries... try it!

Cheers mate!

Belgian Red!!!!

Nom Nom

Awesome!

Got asked questions a few times by customers...  sold shirts in the gift shop very similar to those we were wearing ;)

Bottling that sweet nectar of life...

This place was awesome!

Jenni and I walked together that day and it was like glorious old times. It was all rail trail which gets a bit boring so we entertained ourselves by playing 20 questions. We played for at least two hours off and on. At one point this is how the game went.  "Are you alive? - No" "Are you a rock? - YES! how did you know!?" I got that one right away, but it took me way more than 20 questions for others. So nice to have her back - if only for a day.

Careful of the bikes there little guy!

Black Raspberries and Mulberries

We got close to our pick-up point, which was a day ahead of schedule. This allowed for a zero day on the 4th of July. David, from the Evansville VFW came to pick us up from Albany.  That night we met some more great VFW folks, went to eat some fish and then to the festival where there was live music. The next morning I was up at 7am doing laundry, and on the computer the hotel had - my job search had officially begun. I got so completely wrapped up re-writing my resume to fit a job (I'm the best person ever blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda) that I realized I had missed the parade! I had switched laundry to the dryer at 830, got lost in time and got the phone call at 1030 that the parade was done :(

Starving - Jenni and I went down to the festival and hung out with David and other VFW members. We were introduced to Janis Ringhand, a WI State Senator originally from Evansville. We ate yummy fair food. I ate so many calories that day I am not sure even I can walk them off... Here is my list for the DAY: Breakfast - two bowls of corn flakes and a cup of coffee. Lunch - 1/2 chicken, coleslaw, beans, bun, and two beers. A few bites of chicken on a stick. In between lunch and dinner - one gigantic bottle of Belgian Red. Dinner: A brat, a buttery cob of corn, one-scoop ice cream cone. Some more chicken on a stick, about 5 mini-donuts, a cup of cheese curds. But I stopped drinking after the Belgian Red... I did have to walk the next day after all and didn't want to be in pain. But holy calories!!

WI Senator and VFW commander

Rubber ducky race! She didn't win :(

Ya, we're cool ;)

Lions club lunch

New hat!!! Ducky race and fooooood!

Jenni and I were announced before the National Anthem at the start of the baseball game which I thought was pretty awesome. After the game we took our blankets to the outfield and layed them down. Evansville it turns out is rated number 3 in WI for fireworks held on the 4th of July. The show was fantastic! David, our host with the most, hadn't been to the fireworks in years and was blown away. The show definitely earned its high rank.

Color guard before the baseball game

I bought more tickets than I am tall, but didn't win the 50/50 raffle :(

The next morning, David came to pick me up in his Corvette and take me back to Albany. I think it was my first time in a Corvette so it was a treat.

He and the rest of Evansville's VFW had showed us a great Independence Day weekend with two nights in a hotel.  Jenni had decided to go back to Verona and Devil's Lake to hike those fun segments and skip some of the long road walks - so we once again parted ways. With our visit the last few days it solidified us being like sisters. We can go from extremes with each other - from completely annoyed to laughing our heads off within moments. This hike hasn't been done all together - but it brought us together as friends who can pick up right where they left off.