On Vacation

Nothing to see here but Pizza from the other night on the grll.  It was delish...

Seriously You should be reading THIS

Oh man - last day - Kiki and I leave in less than 24 hours!

We are scheduled to leave at 3:30 AM or earlier, to get through Chicago traffic before 6:00 AM.  Nobody wants to start a trip snarled in Monday rush hour traffic.

Yesterday I pulled the roof rack off the car, first time since we picked up the kayaks in April or May.  That rack has got a workout this year, between kayaking and biking.  In fact I went mountain biking on Friday.  I crashed a little...gashed my knee and hit my bike computer with my leg so hard I snapped the zip ties holding it to my bike,  right off.  Good times.

Anyway - the car was filthy.  You know I like keeping my cars clean, and this was probably the longest I had gone without washing it.  On top of that the cars had been left outside the last month or so because the garage had become staging for painting the house (and the entire first floor of house is done!).  

So gross.  I ran over some manure mix somewhere it was all in the wheel wells.  The main road coming to our house was chip sealed last month, so my wheels had little tar stones in every spoke and all over the rocker panels.  I could just hear dad in my head complaining about that as I had to run a finger in every spoke because the brush was not getting the job done.

A few hours later I had got it as clean as I could given the time I had.  So clean I should get an extra MPG cause it is so slippery.  Now we are trip ready.

Kayaks reflected longingly in the car.  

Remember to follow the road trip starting tomorrow HERE!

One Week

One week from today Mackenzie and I will already be on the road for our summer graduation road trip.

Yes 6 years ago Joel and I headed out west for that little road trip, you may remember.  If not, you can read about it here  Joel and Dad's roadtrip.

With it this close I can't wait.  My office has a bunch of stuff put aside,  ready to pack. At first I felt some pressure to do what I did for Joel. Then I really got into the planning of it, and now it's almost here. 

This time instead of heading west, this train points Southeast.  Where we will see the sights of Nashville, The Smokey Mountains, the Outer banks of the Carolinas and possibly even a quick stop in the nations capital.  

So like I do with many of my other blogs, I like to keep them a little separate.  There is a new blog just for tracking our journey.   I hope to keep up with it as much as possible on the road, after all the activities I will get back to where we are staying and hopefully have pictures to post and stories to tell.

You can follow along here:

Kiki and Dad's Road trip

I already have a post and picture in place.  

Cheers!

This weekend is my good friends Glen and Kathy annual summer party.  Sips and Suds.  What started out as a wine and beer tasting is getting bigger and bigger.  Even live music this year.  Well it is Glen's band so it's not a huge deal..sure it is.  Anyway Kiki is doing her first stint as a waitress/tender a the event and I am bringing a keg of my own home brew as a 'guest' brewer.

In preparation for that I did create a label for the tap so the guests know what they will be drinking.  I played around with this photo:

To come up with a label like this:

Turned out pretty good I think.

Cheers!

OK I promise you there are no epic kayak stories today, but I would have had one had I not declined my neighbor Bob's offer to go today.  Instead I stayed to do more house work (i.e. painting).  I should have the entire first floor, windows, doors, trim, porch, gutters and replacement screening done early this week.  I have to, I am busy every weekend from hear on out to labor day.

But that's not enough for me to put some low and slow baby back ribs on the grill while I work so hard, right?

Just finishing up with some sauce.  Enjoy!  I know we did.

8 Miles More

Being a long holiday weekend, I knew it would be busy.  They always are.  Thursday was the annual Turk Family Fireworks Extravaganza at the lake front.  Great job by Mom as always to grab  nice spot.  This year it at least you could see the fireworks.  A bit chilly at times, but really nice weather for it.  

Friday I painted, and painted and sanded and painted and got quite a bit of work done.  Several of the windows are done and back in place, the final porch parts done. I will get this done eventually.   The next day was a little more of the same - putting some windows back in so in case it rained it would not be a issue. Then we were off to Taylor's graduation party.  Ahh the kids are growing up so fast. 

During the party Bob sends me a text - they did the next segment of the Milwaukee River.  All the way to Grafton.  

Not to be outdone, come Sunday I loaded up the car and hit the water before 11.  Put in at Ehrlers Park, just north of the little class one rapids that we hit last time.  The water seemed a bit lower but the drop was still chugging away.  You could hear it before you see it.  Got past that and on to Saukville.

The highway 33 bridge in Saukville.  

One of about 4 herons I spotted.  They don't let you get too close before the spook and fly off.

The river gets slow and wide. 200 ft across at come points.  More and more houses on the shores. Pepsi ropes, docks, fire pits, all forms of seating.  You can definitely tell it's getting more urban.  This place seemed as good as any to relax and take a selfie.

One of the odd little cabins on the river

A large snapping turtle, I tried to get as close as possible but spooked it as I got this shot off.

Another interesting building.

Approaching the take out at Grafton's Veterans Park.

Waiting for my ride to pick me up. A little over 8 miles in under 2 hours.  Quicker than I expected.

Unfortunately, you can't go much further than this anyway.  Well, without portaging around one of the remaining dams on the river.  Only the Thiensville and Estabrook dams are left after this, then a clear shot to Lake Michigan.

Got home to do a little grocery shopping and then grilled some huge pork chops I had brining.  We are talking 2" thick monsters.  They grilled up awesome, throw some baked potatoes and asparagus in there for a perfect Sunday dinner.

They were so good  - everyone ate everything and so fast,  no plated pictures exist.  You will just have to take my word for it.  

Back to a full work week and more painting.  With enough work I may be able to reward myself with another paddle from Grafton to Mequon?

This is the trail I have paddled so far - Almost 40 miles in 4 segments.