We took an easy weekend getaway to the nearby town of River Falls, Wisconsin. It’s only 45 minutes from home, which feels kind of silly to camp there, but we had a great time.

Hoffman Park

We stayed a Hoffman Park – a cute little city park with ballfields and nice walking trails. It was close to everything in River Falls and made for a great home base for the weekend. The campground only had electric hookups, but with access to fresh water to fill our tanks at check-in, we had no problem without water at the site.

Tattersall Distilling

Since River Falls is close to where I work, I had a small happy hour with some friends from work at Tattersall Distilling. Their original location is in Minneapolis and they’ve expanded into an old Shopko across the border. What a cool place! Jamey and I took a short tour while we waited for friends. They had a section devoted to growing their own salad greens, which was neat.

Their patio is dog-friendly, but it wasn’t open yet. So we had to take the dogs back to the camper to hangout on their own for a few hours. Thanks to the Barkio app, I was able to keep an eye on them and see they were doing just fine – mostly napping on the couch. Yes, I have become the anxious dog-mom who spends money on video monitoring.

I knew the boys were fine alone, but these two are still young, restless and getting used to this camping thing. Knowing they’re not barking their heads off and disturbing all the neighbors is worth the small fee.

Willow River State Park

On Saturday, we all took a hike through the beautiful Willow River State Park. Thanks to the massive storms and lots of rain, the waterfall was rushing. The park was packed.

Taking reactive Barley there, on a beautiful Saturday, was not the best idea. She lost her ever-loving mind at every single dog. I’m working with her on this and she’s made a lot of progress, but she still has a long way to go. After circling back, turning the other direction, and dodging every other dog, we made it out of the park after a couple of hours and swung by Pitchfork Brewing.

Having a reactive dog is hard

There was one other dog on the other side of the patio which also made Barley lose her mind. But I was prepared, and made her wear her muzzle. I like to think of it as a hearing aid. Wearing the muzzle reminds her what is not acceptable and helps her focus on me (obviously in the hope I will take it off her). She was a different dog with the muzzle – we walked past the other dog and she didn’t even give him a second glance. Jamey worried she would look like a scary, aggressive dog and people would be afraid of her, but everyone seemed to understand she just has leash reactivity and needs a little help learning her manners. She managed to make friends with a group of several men – so she was in heaven.

We had their hard lemonade, and it was delicious! We’re limiting our time at breweries with Barley to keep her calm and make the associations positive, so we left after one. But we would have lingered for hours if we didn’t have the dogs!

On the way back to the camper, Jamey spotted a sign for Cracked Barrel Winery, so we made a quick stop there. The wine was OK, the space was beautiful. There were no other dogs on the patio, so we relaxed and had a good time. Until some off-leash dog showed up and Barley caused a commotion until the owner got him. Probably the resident dog. He seemed friendly, but he definitely startled us and Barley made a scene. Sorry everyone, she is very sweet until she’s triggered!

Bike to Beer

Once we took the dogs back to the camper and had some lunch, we hopped on our bike for our inaugural bike to beer ride (I’ve biked to breweries this year, but not together).

We stopped for a beer at Rush River Brewing Company, The Garage Bikes + Brews and Swinging Bridge Brewing Company. The Garage was the coolest – a bike shop and brewery in one space, with a great outdoor area and live music. I recommend this place, it would have been easy to stay there all evening!

After a long day full of activity, we went back to River Falls and the camper to relax.

Next week, we’re leaving for the annual birthday/Memorial week trip. We’ll be going to Door County, Bayfield and Duluth. Stay tuned for more adventures with the Wandering Weirdos.