Things are Fluid

As readers know, we are winding down our time in Wisconsin.  The latest news is that I will probably part ways with the Brew Hut on Saturday morning.  Looking at the state title, I've owned this Scamp for 8 years, and it's treated me well on many trips.  It has made it to eastern California, the Texas Gulf, the Outer Banks, and the Michigan's Upper Peninsula.   No complaints.  I bought it for 9k and will be selling it to a couple from western Wisconsin for 6k.  They are excited to be the next owners, having missed out on three previous attempts to buy a Scamp.

We thought hard about towing the Scamp to Arizona.  I'm going to have to make a separate trip for the truck anyway.  In the end, the long tow and the cost of storing the Scamp in Arizona made that idea less attractive.  I'm not giving up camping/traveling.  We have a plan, and it involves a downsize.  More on that  later after getting settled in Arizona.

The timing could be better.  We had hoped to stay in the Scamp until our house closing, but the Scamp's buyers are still working and have a wedding planned for that next weekend. So...we will be moving up to Julia's brother's cabin in northern Wisconsin for a week before returning to Madison to complete the closing.  

One last beer at Tumbled Rock Brewery

One last free ferry ride (Wisconsin River)

One last sniff of real grass

Inhale, Cough, Cough

 

Smoky Haze

We have been experiencing poor air quality over the past few days, due to Canadian wildfire smoke moving slowly across Wisconsin.  Julia was all excited to see that the Northern Lights were going to appear recently in the Upper Midwest.  Not in southern Wisconsin, I'm afraid.  Those aren't clouds.  Just smoke.

Last week, Julia and I helped move my Mom to her new apartment in a Continuing Care Residential facility.  The multi-building campus has independent living, assisted living, memory care, and a nursing home.  She qualified for independent living and was "allowed" to pay an entrance fee that guarantees a lifetime rate that includes all higher-level services, except for inflationary adjustments.   

My mom is downsizing, moving from a two bedroom condo to a one bedroom apartment, but it is a much nicer space with freshly painted walls, newer appliances, a walk-in shower and great natural light.  Breakfast and dinner are included, although she does have a full kitchen if she doesn't feel like going to the restaurant-styled dining room.  She is already enjoying her new community.  

We are back at the campground.  Julia just came from the showerhouse, reporting that the showers are now working, but the stalls are out of toilet paper.  We are living at the Ritz, for sure.  At least it's quiet mid-week. 

 

Life by the River or If Momma Ain't Happy

Originally, we thought we might stay at this campground for at least a couple of months, as we tied up some loose family ends in Wisconsin and Iowa. However, there have been a few potholes on that road.

When we signed on for the month, the owner of the campground warned me that "he's only one guy", and things can take awhile to get some attention.  That only raised a little red flag. On the other hand, we might have thought twice if he had said: "The toilets may go ten days without getting cleaned, and the showers don't really work."

Now, you may be thinking, "what about the bathroom and shower in the Scamp?"   It's true that there is a small wet bath, but Julia doesn't like to use it, especially if there's a full showerhouse and toilets less than 100' away.

The showers here are coin-operated.  Two minutes for a quarter.  In theory.  Thinking that she needed a good six minute shower, Julia plugged 3 quarters in, and nothing happened.  I advised going to the other shower, and trying just one quarter.  The guys' shower starts up right away (with cold water).  After a minute, the water turns lukewarm, and I add more quarters, if needed.  The women's shower started right up, but sprayed sideways, soaking all of Julia's clothes and backpack.  After moving her stuff, she managed to get a decent shower in with additional quarters.

On the next day, Julia went back to the shower that "kinda worked" and stepped in when the shower warmed up.  She added two more quarters for a six minute shower.  As soon as she got wet and lathered up, the shower abruptly stopped without warning.  Julia was not a happy camper and has been taking showers at the school swimming pool since that time.  

Yes, she did tell the owner.  And he said, "I'm only one guy, you know.  But I'll look at it."  

He hasn't, so we took a road trip to another campground between Wisconsin Dells and Portage and signed up to switch over there in mid-June.   It's much nicer with lots of amenities and many guys making sure everything is clean and working. More expensive, but if Momma ain't happy, no one else is happy.  

The downside to all of this is we love this area.  We can walk to one of Wisconsin's best breweries. 

Scaredy Cat Oatmeal Stout

We see eagles and pelicans on the river walk nearly every morning.  It's a close enough drive that I've been able to play lots of advanced pickleball.  

And Callie gets a four mile walk in the morning and a couple of miles in the evening.

Kennel?

In other news, I made another trip to Iowa last week to further prepare my mom for a move to senior housing.  Julia and I will both go this week for the actual move, which will also involve Two Men and a Truck. Once she is settled, we can turn our attention to relaxing for awhile in Wisconsin.  There's a family reunion in mid June (Julia's side of the family), and then we're flying to Tucson for a week to look for a house.  Callie will stay behind at the kennel.

 

 

 

Straits State Park

While we were at Indian Lake, we made a reservation at Strait State Park near St. Ignace, Michigan and very close to the north side of the Mackinac Bridge. None of the electric sites were worthy of advanced planning, but there were a few rustic sites that faced the beach and had views of the bridge. We nabbed one available for a single night.

There wasn’t a lot of hiking here, except around the campground loops. We did drive into town and enjoy dinner out at Gangplanks up the street from one of the many ferry parking lots where tourists take the ferry ride to Mackinaw Island. We’ve been to the island before, but didn’t feel a need to return. 

Two brews from Keewanaw Brewing

We then settled back for a relaxing evening of beach walks and bridge watching. It didn’t get dark until nearly 10 pm. We are on the western edge of the Eastern Time Zone.

We enjoyed this special place. Next stop:  Traverse City.

May Days

We've had a cold and wet spring, not conducive to much enjoyable outdoor activity.  But better days have arrived in the last couple of weeks.

Yesterday, my "country neighbor" moved his young steers into the woodsy field next to our front yard. 

"Davey", the hardest working farmer that I know, has his own calendar for farm activities.  These calves kept the barn (and a wellhead) above freezing all winter long.  A couple of weeks after the last danger of frost, Davey scoops out the barn, spreads the manure on his 20 acres of corn fields, and moves these guys across the road.  

I'm not sure what triggers his date for planting corn.  All of the big farms have the corn planted, and it's coming up ankle high already.  I've seen Davey planting corn in early July some years.  I think it's highly dependent upon his old equipment working (which includes his body because he is in well into his 70's).  

After getting my golden geezer card for reduced camping rates following my 62nd birthday, we haven't done much camping yet this spring.  The good spots for reduced rates within a few hours are mostly along the Mississippi River.   Between campground "repairs and upgrades" and flooding, those campgrounds have all been closed and won't open this year until late June for the most part.  

We did make one Scamping trip last week to Perot State Park, which sits on high ground above the Mississippi River north of La Crosse, Wisconsin. That trip will be the subject of an upcoming blog post.

 

Scamping Again on the Mississippi River

We’ve been spending a few days on the banks of the Mississippi—about an hour north of LaCrosse, Wisconsin. 

Most of the time, I think of rivers as a single water pathway, but the Mississippi River doesn’t limit itself in that way. Much of the wild country is in the algae-covered back channels and bays—much too shallow for the grain barges and yachts that move through the system of locks.  Julia is exploring in her inflatable kayak, while Callie and I stick to firmer ground.

View through the trees behind the Scamp

It’s all good, except for the mosquitoes and no-see-ums. 

A Couple of Days in the National Forest

After leaving Mike's cabin, Julia and I hitched up and drove southeast for about 45 minutes into the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest (say that three times fast).  

I've stayed at Boulder Lake campground before, but Julia has not. Most sites are reservation only, but some of the less popular sites are set aside for first come, first serve.   Except for the lakefront sites, most of the campground is well-spaced.  There are showers and a dump station.  

We enjoyed a couple of relaxing days here. 

 

Lake Life

Mike and I have known each other since we were 18-year-old freshmen at UW-Madison.  At Spring Break, we drove my old VW Bug to Daytona with the plan to trade transportation for space on someone's hotel room carpet.  It worked for the most part, except for a night or two on the beach, which I learned wasn't as comfortable as I imagined.  

Mike's favorite story from that trip is when the car keys fell out of my pocket during one of those overnights on the sand.  We didn't really have a Plan B so we started kicking up sand from around where I slept.  Somehow, I managed to kick up the car keys to our mutual surprise.  Luck sometimes comes to the young and foolish.

I lost touch with many of my college friends over the years.  Mike and I reconnected through a Lodi friend who was someone that Mike worked and socialized with.  Mike and his wife Kathy lived in Madison, but sold that house and built a retirement log cabin on a northern Wisconsin lake where the winter is long, and summer is brief.

 

We had a great time, hanging out and telling stories of the old days.  Mike took us out on his pontoon boat where we slowly cruised for several hours.

Mike, me, and Brad

 

Fran, Kathy, and Julia

 

That night, Mike grilled up a big slab of flank steak and later made (from scratch) strawberry shortcake with whipped cream.

 

With Brad, Fran, Mike, Kathy, and Mike's son Robb staying in the cabin, we elected to bring the Scamp along.  We found an RV park about a mile from Mike's place.   We had some concerns about what it might be like.  There were no pictures or reviews on the internet, and the campground manager said that she had plenty of space on what would normally be a busy summer weekend with great weather. 

When we pulled up, we saw a trailer park on one side and tiny crowded cabins on the other side.  Our hearts sank, "Oh, no."  But a hand-painted sign directed us to the campground at the rear of the property on a deeply rutted gravel driveway.  Much to our surprise, it was kinda nice.  It took awhile to get level, but there was lots of space, and only a few seasonal campers, the nearest of which was more than a baseball throw away.  And it was quiet.

From the Scamp's back window

Intermission

That brings us to the end of our Bisbee trip last February.  

 

Bisbee exceeded our expectations and jumped into our top places to live someday in retirement.  Las Cruces fell off that list.  Much to our surprise, on the way home, we stopped at a different New Mexico city on the way home that we liked a lot.  We didn't spend enough time there to check it out fully, so we plan to fix that sometime in the next couple of years with a much longer visit.

I'm going to take a short blogging break before writing the post about the mystery city.  We have some family business to work on; Justin is making some life changes, which will require new housing, new caregivers, and a new city.  And we need to take time to enjoy Wisconsin's brief northern summer.  

Hasta Luego!

 

North Wood County Park

On a rainy Wednesday morning, we drove an hour or so west to our next campground:  North Wood County Park, about fifteen minutes south of Marshfield, Wisconsin.  We had reservations for a nice waterfront campsite in a mostly empty campground mid-week.

I had my happy face on while setting up camp in the drizzle while Julia waited patiently in the truck.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we spent most of the day reading inside the Scamp.  We did venture out on Wednesday afternoon to the Blue Heron Brew Pub in Marshfield for lupper and a couple of beers.  

They ran out of the in-house stout but offered Shutdown Stout, a guest brew from nearby Mosinee Brewing Company.  Julia had Friar Frisch, a Belgium Dubbel.  

The beer was excellent, and the food was well above-average also.  The forecast was for more rain.  I took a growler of stout to-go.

North Wood County Park did have a pair of blue herons fishing on the water during our stay, but they refused to pose for a good picture.