My Van Life: Day 18
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Dorchester, WI
I didn’t sleep well last night but for rather unexpected reasons – there was a massive storm here! I woke up to thunder and lightning and poor little Coco standing at the end of the bed in complete confusion at the loud noises surrounding our little home. After she weaseled her way up to my pillow we were able to fall back asleep but nevertheless it's easy to forget what it’s like to sleep through storms. Especially storms in the middle of July. It was a welcome sleep distraction though as it meant waking up to cooler temps this morning. Although July showers also bring July humidity and not to mention bugs. There’s already so many themes developing from Van Life namely heat and bugs. Van Life problems continue.
It was a beautiful day today though! I think it only reached 79 although according to Apple weather the humidity was at 67% so it really felt like 82. It’s funny I immediately scroll down in search of that humidity gage when looking at weather now because we are in the throws of it here in the Midwest. Anyway, I woke up a little groggy and a bit later than I would have liked but I managed through my morning routine of journaling and blogging along with all the other less exciting morning routine rituals such as washing my face, brushing my teeth, getting dressed, etc. before hopping on the computer for morning calls. While I love staying in one place, mainly during the work week, it certainly means a lot less excitement on the Van Life front.
We spent all day working with the usual lunch and Coco potty breaks mixed in. I’m happy to report we were able to leave the doors open all day and enjoyed optimal air flow – and bug guests. UGH. We really need to figure out our back door netting situation. Thank God we still have our slider netting going somewhat strong. After work we ventured out to enjoy this big beautiful property we're staying on. We brought a volleyball with us on this trip so we packed up our volleyball and Coco and walked over to the pickleball courts to pass the ball around a bit. There was a family on the court next door to us using the court for what it’s intended – i.e. pickleball – and young kids running around everywhere. This campground is absolutely massive with so many places to run around and play outside. Whether it’s on the pickleball courts, sand volleyball court (the sand was wet from the storm last night), handful of children’s playgrounds, swingsets, this is like the ultimate summer playground.
As I’ve mentioned before, I really crave outdoor time now more than ever and while it was quite humid and muggy even at the end of the work day in the early evening hours, I wouldn’t trade those two hours of playing volleyball and running around with Coco for anything. After getting our sweat on we decided to use the campground for all its worth and take an onsite shower. You may not believe me when I say this BUT, I think I prefer van showers! Am I absolutely insane for preferring our little box shower and toilet in one?!?! The showers onsite were much bigger of course, actually had an option for warm water (IMAGINE!) and allowed me to successfully turn around in circles, touch my toes, heck I could even do a handstand in there if I felt so inclined and, you know, knew how to do a handstand, but a small part of me still kind of missed our little van shower. At the end of the day the good news is we did shower and it was a pleasant experience. Just experiencing everything this campsite has to offer!
On our way back from the showers we just so happened to run into the owners of the property. He said he’s the President of the board so honestly I’m not entirely sure how this organization works but he and his lady friend (didn’t notice wedding rings, not that that matters) were zipping around on a little Vespa checking in with patrons. We ended up talking to them for probably 15 minutes, learning more about the property, getting recommendations for food (mainly cheese curds) in town and letting them know what brought us to their property. They were the absolute sweetest, most dear people and I still cannot get over his ACCENT! Now that’s the Wisconsin accent you see in movies but don’t believe actually exists in real life. We learned that they’ve owned this property for 54 years and every single tree on the property was planted when they first bought the land. In case you were wondering – there’s a whole lot of trees and big ones at that! Once we finally made our way back to the van it was dinner time and and then promptly time to get ready for bed. Another night spent killing and/or ushering bugs out of the van. Like I said, van probs.