After Indiana, we headed into Madison, Wisconsin.
Justin was born in Wisconsin and moved away when he was 10. Even though he’s spent more time away than here, Wisconsin still feels like home to him. And I totally see why. It’s so gorgeous here and so comfortable (it helps that we’ve had nearly perfect weather every day)!
Madison was a place we’ve wanted to check out, a possible place to live someday. We stayed at Lake Farm Park, a gorgeous campground surrounded by wildflower fields. It made for plenty of gorgeous, quiet sunrise walks.
We met up with Denise, who is awesome! If ever there was a mom to look up to, Denise is it. She’s so laid-back, mindful and balanced. Truly inspiring.
They picked us up and carted us around, showing us the town and even taking us shopping. We played at their house and she really won me over when she made us dinner. 
We also had another potluck at our campground. We met some soon-to-be RVers and some more fun unschoolers and we hooped and ate and relaxed.
The area was gorgeous and there was much we loved about it. Friday came too soon and we headed out to Mineral Point, WI, for Justin’s blacksmithing workshop.
Nope. No pictures of that one! But I can say he LOVED it. He made a coat hook, a hook for the awning, a set of pliers and a couple other things. He’s so interested in it, he was tempted to stay put just to learn more. I think if he could fit a forge in our trailer, he would.
I'm Tara Wagner, life coach and creator of the Digging Deep process, where I coach women out of survival mode to recreate their lives and families.
Isn’t Madison wonderful?! Full of hippies and other good things!
As for the forge, he should look into what traveling horseshoe fitters (farriers, I think) do. My kids are taking lessons and their teacher’s daughter is a traveling farrier who has a little mailbox-sized oven in the back of her pickup. I don’t know if this would work for what Justin wants to do, but it is one option…:)
Where are you now?
what a neat idea Lisa has for Justin!
and Madison sounds quite dreamy
Madison sounds nice. Do you have any plans to check out Frank Lloyd Wright’s house Taliesin?
My son will be taking blacksmith classes near our home during the coming year. If Justin wants lessons around here, I can look them up and let you know when the driftless folkschool (http://www.driftlessfolkschool.org/) will be offering more classes.
Lisa, I love that idea! It is a wonderful idea to have a traveling farrier!
I’m so sorry to have missed you while your family was in town. I hope that you’ll come back, either to live or to just experience cooler seasons here. I am so much more social in Winter.
Happy trails!
Jeff has wanted to do blacksmithing for a long time. I just got him a book on the topic. Did you see the blacksmith forge storytelling trailer at Ren Faire last year?
P.S. If you do move back, there’s still the possibility of Justin working in wind energy or telecommunications with my husband, which would give you the opportunity to travel as well. And, you’d save a lot of money from per diem since you’re not renting high-dollar hotel rooms.
LOVE the pictures. We were just looking at campers this weekend and I pictured what it could be if I were able to convince my family to make the change… ahhh….
Perfect weather, eh? Sounds nice. It’s been too hot here.
Beautiful pictures, by the way.
We had such a wonderful time – I’m so glad you stopped in Madison, and hope you do come back again some day!
((hugs))
Sounds beautiful!
I’m really interested in the campground potlucks… how do you guys arrange them?