Melissa's Amusings: An Eclectic Week In Wisconsin

A week in Wisconsin was prompted by Justin choosing to do a Tough Mudder near Appleton. This way he was able to visit family and participate in his 3rd Mudder event. We met him at the airport and had a couple of days visiting in Door County.

Mom checking the crossword puzzle before handing it over for Jim and Justin to try.

Some fun recorder playing sessions :-)

It was a short but fun visit!

The rest of the visit was at Abbie's and Nathaniel's in Appleton. Justin was able to meet his future sister-in-law during this visit :-) (Since Abbie had a cold, I refrained from taking any pictures of them.)

Along with side-by-side computer time, we did get some board games played...no pics, tho :-)

Saturday, the day of the Tough Mudder, ended up being a chilly and wet day. Jim, Nathaniel, and I attended the Mudder as spectators.

Notice the long line for the men's restroom and the short women's. Lol, The men made the mistake of thinking it was a one person facility and did not try to to enter until a person left. I find it odd that the men leaving did not let the other guys waiting know that there were quite a few facilities in there!! :-)

a 'wave' of participants being released. Justin is in the next 'wave'.

I think we waited here for at least 45 minutes!

Justin's group released and heading up to the warm-up area.

Group jumping jacks

Group huddle

From here, Justin did 10 miles with a variety of obstacles to overcome. We walked on a couple of spectator paths and were able to watch Justin and other participants at several of the obstacles. Justin will be in most of the upcoming photos.

kind of a 'tame' obstacle here

Can almost here the shoes' 'squishing' noises when they leave this one.

I think this is one I would be able to attempt.

I hope these spectators brought something to sit on, the ground was very soggy!

Participants only needed to follow the brown muddy path to the next obstacle.

Swingers had about an half hour wait here....many were getting pretty cold and ended up skipping it.

Someone before Justin falling with style :-)

Jumping 5 feet to the slippery bars with cold hands....not for me!!!

Quite a few participants (men and women) did what the woman in red did, just stepped off the platform and fell 15 feet into the water pit.

Justin's splash

Still smiling!

Not many were able to do this one successfully.

Close, but no cigar!! :-)

This obstacle took a lot of teamwork. Many people manually rotating the block, so others on the other side could grab on....

and ride over to the other side.

Once over to the other side, then it's your turn to rotate the block for the next ones coming thru. Up....

and over!!!

Climb out of the pit and on to the next obstacle.

This one was just a very muddy mess.

A series of mudhills with water pits in between.

Slip...

sliding away :-)

Spectators were also getting a little muddy!

The finish is in sight!

Justin's finished and watching the last obstacle.

All this just for the one free beer at the end?

First timers at the tough mudder have to go thru the electroshock therapy for their final obstacle. All those little wires deliver a bit of a shock. For awhile we watched the participants and their different styles of getting thru this one.