Eau Claire, Wisconsin

We're not Yoopers anymore. Now we're Yusta Yoopers. We left Houghton, Mi, this morning, traveling south and west on Michigan Highway 26. It was a bit of a trick getting out of the Houghton City RV Park we were in, but with a little luck and eyes squeezed shut in anticipation of some loud banging noise, we made it.

MI 26 leads to US 45, and we traveled through dozens of small towns, including the hamlet of Watersmeet on Indian reservation land. US 45 peels off to the east in Eagle River, while WI 17 continues south through Rhinelander and Gleason to approach the town of Merrill from the east. We had planned to stay the night in Merrill, but with the westward time change, we found that we would have the entire afternoon to kill. Not for us, so off we went west. In Wausau, we turned due west on WI 29, a four lane highway that should be part of the interstate system.

We began to research rv parks as we traveled west, but came up completely empty! A handful of city'county parks were booked for the weekend, so those were out. Near Chippewa Falls we merged onto US 53 south, beginning to get a bit concerned about having a place to sleep tonight! Donna located a Walmart in the southern part of Equ Claire that allows overnight rv parking, so for the first time this summer, we are parked in a busy but well lit Walmart parking lot.

The temperature at 10:15 is 71, down from 92 earlier in our day. We're hoping a cool breeze will come in soon, since we aren't going to be able to run our generator and ac all night.

There is one other rv parked here tonight, so we're considering ourselves safe in numbers. Traffic is heavy and there are people loitering here and there, but we don't seem to be an object of interest, so we'll hope for the best! Tomorrow it's on to I 94, on the way to Minnesota.