Monday - September 21st: Prairie du Sac, WI to Muscoda, WI

Even though the Packers lost I had a great time at the game yesterday with two great friends. (See Photos) I got back to Prairie du Sac last evening and got a motel room.

I now have 90 plus miles to go, which means I should be done in two days. Problem is I have less than two days to finish, because tomorrow afternoon I must meet my wife, LuAnn and our friends, Charlie and Joanne Wright in Minneapolis for our vacation trip to Branson, Mo. Not sure I can make it for I will need to leave my car here in Prairie du Sac, then when I finish I will need to find a ride back to my car, go back to Wyalusing to get my gear and still drive three plus hours to Minneapolis.

I did not make it. I made it as far as Muscoda and decided to stop around 6:00. Reason being there’s a nice park to camp at and gives me a safe place to leave my gear while I go back and get my car. I tried to get a hold of LuAnn a number of times to tell her I was stopping and would be in Minneapolis tomorrow, but could not reach her so just left a message.

It’s supposed to rain tonight so for only the second time I set up my tent. I was real cozy until around 4:00 in the morning when I was awakened by a nice pounding rain on my tent. Only one slight problem, the pounding rain on my tent was also pounding on my sleeping bag! Before I left for this trip I re-did my tent fly with water repellent spray. It was obvious the product was no good, I did not do it correctly or both. In any case I gathered my gear together and headed over to a shelter. Man, I’ve been lucky with so many things on this trip and here again with this being the only day of rain. One needs a little luck once in awhile. In my case maybe more often than not!

The rain let up a little around 5:30 so I put all my gear in my canoe and hid it in bushes then walked over to the local gas station to see if I could find a ride back to Prairie du Sac. Normally when people find out what I’m doing they are more than willing to help out. This was no different for I the first person I talked to took me about 15 miles down the road and said if he did not have to get to work he’d take me all the way. It took me two more rides and I was back to my car and back to my gear before 9:00AM.

I quickly packed up for it was still raining and headed for Minneapolis. About an hour down I decided to call LuAnn to tell her I was on my way. I did not call earlier for this morning she is at our daughter’s - she lives just down the road. Two days a week Lu helps with babysitting and this is one of the days. By now the twins, Devin and Drake are off to school and little Ryah should be awake.

I was about to dial when I realized I had a message from Lu from yesterday. This is what it said, “Larry, we are not leaving until Wednesday the 23rd!” Damn! I looked at the date on my watch, sure enough it showed Tuesday, Sept. 22nd. All this time I thought the 23rd was Tuesday! I could have easily finished! I could have not pushed so hard! I could have …. Oh, well as my friends would say, “Just another Hoff story!”

Thought about going back, but it’s still raining, my gear is wet and I’m too far down the road. Also, there’s my rule, never go backwards unless absolutely necessary. Plus, I will make some points by going all the way home and getting the yard mowed before we leave tomorrow. Good thinking on my part!

I will finish when we get back from Branson.