I am back from the first of two float trips at Jack’s house we will be taking this summer. Jack lives in Millville, WI, which is about a two hour drive almost directly west of Madison. His property is just across the road from the Wisconsin River and is a short drive from the intersection of the Wisconsin and the Mississippi Rivers.
Going to Jack’s for a weekend is a summer tradition for Michael’s family and Michael declares that it is his favorite weekend of the year. Now that I have been up to Jack’s three times, I can say that I understand why 
Most of the group drove out on Friday afternoon. We had 19 people total this year– Jack, Terry, Tom, the four Dotzours, Kyle (no Maretta this year since she had performances this weekend), Joe, Becky, Beverly Simone, Asta (Tom’s friend) and her two children, Heather, Michael, and Evelyn Lerner, me and my Michael.
Spanakopita and chocolate chip cookie bars were a hit on Friday night. Michael and the Lerner family arrived a little late since the Lerners’ flight was delayed. We mixed the ingredients for bourbon slush and put the slush in the freezer before finally heading to bed pretty late (maybe 1 AM).
Saturday we had a great breakfast of French toast (and sausage) cooked by Bryan and headed out to float down the river. Wow, I could have floated all day. Despite walking quite a bit because of the sandbars in the river, it was very enjoyable. Those in the group with a lower percentage of body fat suffered more on average because the river and breeze were not as warm as they could have been (temperatures were in the mid-to-high 70s and it has not been very hot overall this summer, so the water temperature was a little low). However, those of us with a little more body fat than we would usually prefer fared fine.
After about three hours of floating and lounging on sandbars, we made it back down the river to Jack’s and had sandwiches, chicken, and plenty of fruit, cheese, and bourbon slush or Sprecher’s root beer to quell our post-float starvation.
A small group returned to the river to float a second leg in the afternoon. I was enthusiastic about a second float, but decided to stay behind to help Althea prepare jambalaya for dinner. However, Joe and Becky stepped in and did the entire preparation for dinner and dessert (peach cobbler), so Althea, Sylvia, and I joined Jack and the Lerners on a hike through the prairie and woods on Jack’s property.
Joe and Becky also prepared Sunday morning breakfast (crepes, bacon, fruit)– they deserve a lot of credit for food organization and preparation this trip and they did a great job! Becky also made homemade bread on Saturday night, which we snacked on (i.e. devoured) just before the traditional Trivial Pursuit game began.
There was no floating on Sunday morning (apart from a short float that Tom and Asta’s son took), but we had plenty of time to eat, socialize, and eat more (to clean out food so that we didn’t have too much to carry back with us) before groups started heading home in the early afternoon. What a great time– I love this group of people!