Doreen, Patty and Elaine 💖
Normally on our travel days I feature our map as the first picture but this picture really sums up the day better!! The Northern University High School Class of 1973 50th class reunion craziness has commenced! We arrived here at the Big Woods Lake Campground this afternoon and then were so glad to host Patty McDermott Kuehl and Elaine Burkhart Dubray, great friends and NUHS classmates. Along with Leslie Wilson who has not arrived yet, we have all been working on the preparation for our weekend celebration. More about that later.
We departed Tom's Campground near Dodgeville WI this morning at 1000 hrs after pulling chocks and moving to the sewer dump station.
This camp ground did not have full hookup, so after loading up on the truck we drove to a central sewer dump station where we emptied the tanks and flushed the black. This is easier and more efficient to do when you have full hookup but that is not always possible.
The trip today was uneventful as we navigated across the Mississippi River into Iowa, through Dubuque and then headed westbound on US 20. We made a stop in Dyersville Iowa, home of the iconic "Field of Dreams" baseball field from the movie of the same name. There was a nice, big parking lot right across the street from a Dairy Queen! Dang it, I hate it when that happens! Lunch completed, we continued west to Cedar Falls and 160 miles later, at 1327 hrs we arrived at the Big Woods Lake Campground.
This is a really nice, reasonable priced Blackhawk County park located just north of Cedar Falls where our class reunion will be held. The sites are spread out, level, gravel and full hookup. Across the street from us is parking for any of our classmates that come out to visit, like Patty and Elaine this afternoon! Patty drove in today from St Paul and Elaine drove up from the Kansas City area. We have other classmates that will be arriving starting tomorrow, and some that live right here in town. It will be a weekend of laughs and celebration, and it will be a time to reflect and remember those 13 classmates that are no longer with us. Rest in Peace, brothers and sisters.
- Mazula, Alerassool Kandi 8/15/2022
- Coney, Glen 3/29/2015
- Butzier, Doug 10/13/2014
- McKinley, Jon 9/29/2013
- Lund, Edwin 10/18/2012
- Gadbois, David L 10/1/2006
- Thompson, John Howard 12/15/2005
- Williams, Tom 5/14/2005
- Sindlinger, Matt 11/16/2002
- Reed, David 1/26/2002
- Wilkinson, Jack 4/4/1990
- Wilson, Ross A 5/7/1982
- Nieman, Janelle K 4/23/1982
Tomorrow Doreen is heading out with Patty and Elaine to do some shopping in town while I hold down the fort here in the campground. Later, classmate Mike O'Brien will be arriving and laughs and reminiscing will continue! Friday night we meet at a local pub for a "meet and greet". Saturday there are some all-school events in conjunction with the Sturgis Falls celebration here in Cedar Falls and then Saturday night we meet at the Brown Bottle restaurant to break bread with our classmates.
Stats:
This is campground #23 of 42 # States Traveled Through So Far This Trip, in order: 16 (IA, MO, KS, OK, TX, LA, MS, AL,GA, TN, KY, OH, IN, MI, WI, IA)
# States left to visit on this trip: 11 (NE, CO, UT, CO, AZ, NM (4 corners!), UT, AZ, NV, UT, WY, CO, KS, NE, IA)
Baseball Parks Visited So Far This Trip: 1 (Globe Life Field - Texas Rangers)
Lighthouses visited: 1 (Biloxi Lighthouse)
Lighthouses climbed: 0
Point to point travel miles: 4549 miles
- Avg point to point travel miles between campgrounds: 190 miles
Vicinity miles: 1636 miles
- Avg vicinity miles: 71 miles
Total miles driven: 6185 miles
Total point to point driving time: 91 hrs 44 minutes
Total diesel fuel purchased: 571.380 gals
Total diesel fuel cost: $2055.93
Average diesel fuel cost/gal: $3.629
Max diesel fuel cost: $4.139 (Traverse City MI)
Min diesel fuel cost: $3.139 (San Antonio TX)
Avg MPG: 11.66 miles/gal
Cost/mi of operation: $0.33
# Nights at end of this stay: 102 (Includes Griff's start)
Total lodging cost: $4128.56 (includes Griff's start)
Average cost/night: $40.48
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