We camped at Afton State Park over the fourth and fifth. Afton has walk-in sites and we had to hump our stuff and kids about 1.5 miles. We strapped coolers, tents, stoves and sleeping bags on to our jogging strollers and pushed them up a steep hill to the top of the river bluff. The campsites are mowed patches in the prairie connected by walkways of grass. There was a breeze and the bugs mostly left us alone. The prairie is amazingly beautiful and has a view of the Wisconsin countryside.
We could let the kids roam free without too many worries as the prairie is pretty much child safe. At one point, though, one-year-old Frankie came out of the tall grass with a goose egg growing out of his forehead. It was about 1/4 the size of his head and topped with a little bite. It felt as hard as his skull. He had a nosebleed at the same time. I freaked out and called the Health Partners Nurse Line: "There is a replica of Christina Ricci's left breast growing out of my son's forehead. What should I do?" Apparently, this is a common reaction to an insect bite and he soon reverted to human form. Each of the four children also had to run into the campsite and bonk their heads against the iron fire grate.
Nancy and Steve made apple turnovers in the fire with their special long handled apple turnover device. Apparently these devices are hard to come by these days. The one they used was several generations old. The sliced bread with canned apple pie filling makes a great treat. Rebecca and Paul, bless their gourmet coffee loving souls, brought a French press coffee maker.
4:13:55 AM 
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