You know you have good friends when you tell them you’re a couple of hours away from where they’re heading for the weekend and they detour to come visit you instead. They’re even better friends when they know they will have to sleep on an air mattress on your floor, take cold showers in the …
August 5-8 – We’re here for a few days in Ohiopyle State Park, which, contrary to the name, is not in Ohio – it’s in southwest Pennsylvania. We have a few state parks we’ll be staying at now until we get to our next national park, Acadia N.P. in Maine, just after Labor Day. Ohiopyle …
June 30-July 6 — Mix all this and what do you get? three BFFs who have turned or are soon turning 50 their families & additional family members two lake houses in the north woods of Wisconsin five 4-wheelers and lots of mud party floats for all a jetski & kayaks two pontoon boats a …
We arrived at Lake Kegonsa State Park late afternoon and set up camp. A bit later, we welcomed niece, Kelsey, and beau, Timmy, out for a camp dinner and look around our new digs. They approved of both, as well as the lifestyle we’re now living. It was great to see and host the kids …
June 21-22 — Claire & Kyle left the big city of Chicago and came out to join us at Shabbona Lake State Park. It was great fun hosting them, and they now have a day-in-the-life look at how we will be spending our next two years. Our time together, while brief, was, as always, chock full of love and …
For the past two weeks we’ve been ‘squatters’ at the Jacobs family homestead in Chenoa, Illinois. This homestead property was originally settled in 1857 by Frederick Jacobs who came over from Germany for the opportunity to farm his own land. Frederick is the Jolly brothers’ great-great-grandfather. Hover your pointer over the photo, then click on …
Thursday, June 12 — We’ve been working for a couple of days down here at the Jolly homestead in Chenoa. Actually we’ve been wanting to work more, but the weather hasn’t cooperated all that much since we’ve been back down here, so we’re finding other things to do like cookout with the family and sit around …
September 24-27 — We had perfect fall weather the four days/nights we camped in Starved Rock State Park – in fact, we had a perfect camping trip! Starved Rock is a beautiful state park less than 100 miles south and west of Chicago. It derives its name from a legend in which, after a battle among two Native …
