This morning the kids played the strategy game M received from our friend David in Minneapolis:

Trish made more jewelry for her online jewelry store:

We went to visit Tricia’s cousin at their house in Merrill, built on land formerly owned by Tricia’s father.  Their home is beautiful, and on the way back we had to pass this tractor:

Trish drove by her childhood farm:

Today we drove into town with Tricia’s sister to explore Wausau.  Our first stop was Marathon Park, where we took a look at the concession building grandpa Glenn built back in the day:

The ice rink building where Trish and her sister skated was open, so we looked around inside.  The ice is gone for the season:

Next we walked through Isle of Ferns park near downtown:

We visited the downtown plaza:

After we got back to the RV, Trish made a bracelet for her online jewelry store:

While in downtown, I picked up tourist information in the local visitor information center, and we found out that Tuesday nights the local high school planetarium hosts Artemis: Spaceship Bridge Simulator games.  In this game, five players each control an aspect of the ship: Helm, Weapons, Engineering, Communications, and Science, while the captain gives orders.  The main screen was projected onto the planetarium wall:

The kids and I watched the first game as we had never seen it before.  In the second game of the night, M was at Weapons and I was at Engineering.  It was great fun!  B opted not to play, and she put on her best bored face.

Meanwhile, back at the RV, Trish spent the night visiting with relatives that came over to Aunt Diane’s house where we’re parked.

Today we visited with grandpa Glenn and Edna, where I nervously cranked up the old Silvertone phonograph to play “Beer Barrel Polka”:

We returned to the RV in the early evening, where the restaurant next door was hosting a group of classic cars:

I rode from the RV to the summit of Rib Mountain, Wisconsin’s tallest mountain relative to its local terrain:

On the way back I had to summit “Crazy Steepy”, which maxed out at 24% grade.  Click the Vel and Alt buttons on the upper edge of the map to display the ride graph:

Crossing the Big Rib River:

I still prefer the rugged majesty of the West, but the Midwest has its own beauty:

The fog settles into the valleys at sunset:

We had a wonderful second Shabbos with our friends in the St Louis Park suburb of Minneapolis.  We weather here continues to be not all that hot, but humid enough to make it sticky and unpleasant.  We really appreciated Torah Academy letting us park in their lot:

We had a nice Shabbos lunch with our old friends David and Vivien, and on Sunday M went over to play an SPI wargame that David played when he was a kid:

My parents, brother, and his kids met us for lunch at the local kosher grill where I ate this monstrosity:

Nom nom nom:

After an amazing week with the family, we were sad to go, but we said goodbye and drove east, stopping just outside the city to use the dump station at a Cabellas.  We then continued east to cross into Wisconsin:

We drove on to overnight at Tricia’s aunt’s house in Brokaw, Wisonsin, where we will be for the week.  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.