We left our Sower Project on Thursday night and headed to Milwaukee (see the post about the tornadoes!) Friday was spent connecting with “phone friends” that I had met over the years at HPI. We needed to be in Minneapolis on Monday, so we had the weekend to see the sights between Fond du Lac and Minnesota. One of our stops in Fond du Lac was at the Galloway House and Village. It was an historic house that had been restored and then additional buildings were added to the property to recreate life in the 1880’s. There was lots of interesting information about the area and it was a fun morning. After that we headed out across the state. We went as far as Eau Claire, and saw lots of pretty scenery along the way. Wisconsin goes from beautiful rolling hills to corn fields as far as the eye can see. It was a very enjoyable trip across the state – I just love going on new (to me anyway) roads. While we were in Eau Claire we went to the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewery, a couple of cheese factories, and had a great breakfast at The Downing Café – no website here – it’s in the basement of the Civic Building in the very tiny town of (you guessed it) Downing!
Tonight we’re just outside of St. Paul, MN. Not too far from where Laura Ingalls Wilder began her journey west, Pepin, WI the setting for – “Little House In the Big Woods”.

Here are some corny shots for our travels this weekend. Wisconsin is a very beautiful state!

Corn as far as the eye can see!

If there’s this much corn in Wisconsin, I wonder what Iowa will be like! (That’s our Tuesday trip!=) )

Remember when you were young and had pen pals in far away places? Well, for the last 10 years I’ve talked with (and made friends with) many people from far away places that I never expected to be able to meet. (They don’t let us “clerical” folks out of the office much!) This week I’ve been able to finally put faces with several of the voices that became my friends over the years. We started with a Friday morning visit to the US headquarters for Wago Corp. in Germantown, WI (outside of Milwaukee). My friend Mike G. showed me around and I got to meet all the other folks (like Kim and Wendy) that I had spoken with over the years. It was great to see the whole operation, and finally meet these “phone buddies”.
From there we headed up to Fond du Lac – which is at the bottom of Lake Winnebago. There I hooked up with two phone buddies from Giddings & Lewis – plus got to greet several other folks that had “crossed my desk” over my years at HPI. Here’s a picture of Barb, Carol and I at the lighthouse at Fond du Lac.

It’s been one of the true perks of this adventure, being able to finally meet these “phone friends”. Tomorrow (Monday) we’ll be in Minneapolis meeting more “phone friends” – What fun!

We’re already hundreds of miles from our Lake Lundgren Bible Camp project, but I wanted to share just a little more about our time there. We were delighted by gold finches and hummingbirds, and charmed by chipmunks playing around Lizzie. We were able to pick blackberries and raspberries as we walked to our RV’s after work. We were invited to enjoy meals during the week – a blessing both to our pocketbook and also to our taste buds! We had our ups (that giant ski jump at Pine Mountain) and we had our downs (the iron ore mine at Iron Mountain). One of my new Sower friends (Carol) and I made a trip to Escanaba, MI , and once again we made our way to Lake Michigan (or the bay that’s right there). Here is a shot from that day….

We’ve made a whole batch of new SOWER friends and camp friends. I got to work in the kitchen which was a delight for me, and Gary got to use his electrical skills on a variety of projects. (OK, so the ditch digging part of the project wasn’t quite as much fun for him as some of the other aspects of his jobs…). Here are some of my kitchen friends – Bryon, Bibbie, Ruth (and me). Such Godly people – it was a privilege to peel carrots for them!

This is a beautiful camp – our last Sunday there we were witnesses to the baptism of three campers whose lives had been changed through that ministry. God is at work here!

Yikes – there’s nothing like driving in an RV in an unfamiliar area when the national weather service keeps breaking into the radio program to announce TORNADO SIGHTINGS!! Talk about learning about an area in a hurry! We determined that we were not in the path, but it was still pretty disconcerting. We were headed south toward Milwaukee (having left our project at Lake Lundgren). In the sky to the east was a beautiful full moon. Right under the moon was a shelf of clouds – and inside the clouds was a magnificent light show of lightening. It was a beautiful sight. If it hadn’t been for that tornado thing…….
We’re safe in a quiet Cracker Barrel parking lot just outside of Milwaukee – I’ll catch up soon ~ cause right now I’m headed to bed!

When most tourists are looking for waterfalls and other natural wonders, we joined our friends Carol and Dwight Martin in a quest to climp the highest artificial ski jump – Pine Mountain Ski Jump
It was quite a sight to behold – here is a shot as we approached it….

Getting closer didn’t make it seem any more do-able…..

We made it to the top of the hill (398 steps) and then started up the wooden jump. And this is as far as I got!

While Gary & I didn’t make it to the top (though Gary made it at least half way), Carol and Dwight both made it to the top!

Here we are going down. This was an amazing exercise in going up and down – we passed (and were passed) by a gentleman who goes up and down the steps 6 times about 4 times a week. Yikes!

And one last shot – this was a pretty view – but I really liked the way God arranged the clouds. Cool.