Forestville Township

John went fishing and I went exploring.  The Minnesota Historical Society has recreated the town of Forestville which was platted in 1855 and grew to 150 residents until the railroad moved away from Forestville toward Spring Valley.  People stayed for awhile raising crops and cattle, brickworks and forestry but by 1910 the store closed and everyone had moved away.

Today there are a few building left that have been restored but mostly the sites that can be seen are just the foundations. There used to be two hotels, a general store, blacksmith shop, school, distillery, saw mill and grist mill.  At the top of the hill overlooking the town site is the cemetery where 30 graves have been found but they only have the names for 20 of them.

The historic site is about a mile walk from our campsite and the cemetery is another mile from the town so I got a lot of exercise today as I walked to the town twice!  The first time I wondered around and disturbed the site manager who was delighted to give me all the history of the place and then I got a private tour of the store and the store owners home.  The store had the best selection and the most items I have ever seen in a late 1800’s store!  On weekends they have costumed interpreters who cook, sew, tend the garden and sometimes even blacksmiths working.

John worked hard to catch one fish in the morning but was a frustrated fisherman this afternoon so I let him watch television tonight.

Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park

Yesterday we packed up and moved a long 25 miles to the Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park. John found out a few days ago that this is supposed to be a great place to go trout fishing.  Since I’ve had about enough of John in the RV, I agreed that we should come here so I can have some time to myself while he fishes.

We discovered that this park is in a dead hole - no cell service, no internet!  So once we got settled in, we got in the Jeep and drove the 10 miles to Wykoff where we got at least a few bars of service and conducted some business like letting our families know we were incommunicado.  It rained lightly off and on during the evening but we have so much forest coverage that not much hit the ground so we were able to enjoy a nice time around the fire.

 

Today, John got going fairly early to fish and I hiked a couple of trails in the park logging about 5 miles.  One trail took me along the Canfield Creek which feeds into the South Branch of the Root River.  I found information that there used to be a beaver dam on this creek. Sure enough, there used to be a dam but even though it is mostly gone, the beavers are still there!  I saw two small ones swimming in the stream.  I also found a trout hole, so full of trout that it looked like a hatchery! Too bad John didn’t fish here, he might have caught more.  He caught two in the morning and two in the afternoon and lost at least 4 more.

To Rushford and Back

We have been working up to this bike ride all week, each day taking a longer and longer ride.  It is a 36 mile round trip plus whatever side trips we take to Rushford and back.  We put 39 miles on the bikes today!  This trail is paved the whole way with parts of it obviously older and rougher, but the scenery is beautiful.  This part of Minnesota is highly agricultural.  We rode past fields of corn, soy beans and clover and the milk cows were having a mooing conversation as we rode by.  We spotted several deer, chipmunks and squirrels scooted across our path and John saw an eagle soaring overhead.  As we paralleled the Root River most of the way I enjoyed the many varieties of wild flowers in full bloom.  This is a favorite river to canoe, kayak or tube.

We sped through Whalan without stopping for pie but we did stop in Peterson to visit their museum housed in the old railroad station. The docent was bored so she followed us all the way through the two buildings.  They had a nice collection of ‘stuff’.  Rushford also used their old railroad station for a visitor’s center and museum but their museum was closed. They did have a nice picnic area where we had lunch.  The ride back wasn’t as bad as we thought it might be although we did stop several times to give our bottoms a rest from the small bike seats!  We may not be able to walk very well tomorrow!

After dinner at the Old Village Hall we stopped at the Parkway Bar because they had this great sign hanging over the bar and I wanted a picture of John sitting under it.  

Fountain, MN

The Saturday Farmer’s Market was a small affair but they had some nice looking vegetables and the Amish baskets were pretty and sturdy.  Unfortunately I don’t have room in the RV to buy any to bring home!  We walked downtown and shopped some then had a leisurely lunch by the river before tackling the Root River Bike trail once again.  

This time we rode the almost 24 miles round trip to the village of Fountain.  With a populations of 374 we were lucky to find a place to get a glass of ice tea and a cookie!  The really bad part of this trip, though, was the uphill ride.  My RunKeeper App recorded an elevation change of 1260 feet and it was all up the last 6 miles into Fountain.  I was pooped!  The good part is that is was all downhill going back.  John loves going fast and I tried not to burn out my brakes.

Best Pie in the USA

After visiting with some of the other campers and scouting another campground we moved to the river view campground (a whole 4 blocks) on the Root River just above a small damn.  There are only about 12 spacious sites along the river and the city park where we were previously camped had about 50 very small sites and the other campers indicated that all of them would be full by Friday night.

After the move we rode our bikes around the small town of Lanesboro and up Church Hill to take in the view from the two largest buildings on the hill - a Catholic church and a Lutheran church.  The view was worth the uphill ride.

If you squint you can see our Jeep & RV on the right.

A short bike ride (5 miles) from Lanesboro is the small town of Whalan, home to the Best Pie in the USA (according to a framed magazine article on their wall).  This town is geared towards the tourism trade with B&B’s and a walking tour of the buildings in the town from as far back as the late1800’s.  We had been advised to stop at the old gas station, built in 1923.  He has a neat collection of garage memorabilia such as can and oil cans, signs, gas pumps, tools and clocks.  

But the Aroma Pie Shop is the biggest draw so, of course, we had some pie.  I had a Raspberry cream pie and John had the cashew, chocolate chip pie.  I’m afraid the 10 mile round trip bike ride didn’t burn off all those calories!

Lanesboro and the Root River

We pulled out of Rochester today and drove a whopping 45 miles to this quaint town on the Root River.  The thing that drew us here is the Root River State Biking Trail.  It is one of the original Rails to Trails in the nation.  At 60 miles in length it may not be the longest but it is paved and level and scenic.

We walked around Lanesboro after arriving and decided to eat lunch at a restored 1926 diner built in Wellington OH. It’s the only remaining wooden wheel diner in use today. Lanesboro is near the middle of the trail so we rode about 12 miles one way to Preston this afternoon.  Preston is another small quaint town but did not have as many shops and attractions as Lanesboro.  Another small town we could have ridden to is Harmony, an Amish village.  Many tourists take a tour of the Amish community around Harmony but we probably won’t do that.

On our way back I stopped along the river to rest and to check out some pretty purple flowers.  As John pulled up next to me, we heard a splash and looked up to find a Bald Eagle flying nearby.  He landed on a tree branch directly across the river from us.  It would have been the perfect picture of the magnificent bird except that I took too long trying to get the perfect picture and he flew away!!  He watched us from a couple of other perches but none where we could get a good shot.

We Are Healthy!

We completed all of our tests on Tuesday and Wednesday and then visited with our doctors on Wednesday and we are both healthy.  I have a slightly elevated cholesterol  which can be handled with a diet (ugh!) but John came away with almost no changes in his lifestyle.  It’s just not fair that he can eat bacon and I can’t!

Tuesday afternoon we spent four hours looking at, measuring and comparing water faucets for the kitchen and bath in the RV.  I think we made the right choice.

Wednesday evening was a fun time at the Swiss Fest in Bern, MN.  My Aunt Shirley, Uncle Harold, John and I left Rochester at 4 PM to drive the 30 minutes to Bern and we still were not the earliest arrivals for oven fired pizza.  This little church, Swingli, in Bern started this Wednesday night event a 58 years ago and it has grown tremendously over the years.  They have two wood burning outdoor ovens that can cook only 4-6 pizza’s at a time.  People come to sit on the hill side surrounding the church, bringing their own tables and chairs, drinks and snacks.  The entertainment starts at 6 pm with a Swiss band, followed by yodelers and an Alpine horn concert and then flag throwing.  It was perfect weather and we enjoyed people watching and wondering how much longer we would have to wait for our pizza.  Our second pizza was 1-1/2 hours in the making.

Rochester's Mayo Clinic

We left Oshkosh on Saturday morning and plodded through the mud to get out of the field we were camped in.  It took us almost six hours to drive to Rochester, Minnesota where we will get physicals at the Mayo Clinic and visit my Aunt Shirley and Uncle Harold.  We are camped in a full hook-up campground for a change and I am loving the long showers I can take here.

We had a great dinner and visit with Shirley and Harold on Saturday then they came to the RV for a grand tour of our modest home on wheels and another nice visit.  They have found several things we can do in this area if we have time after seeing all the doctors.  We also got a nice tour of the city and they showed us the best route to take to Mayo Clinic and the best parking spots and the best places to eat down town.  

Today was our first day at the clinic.  I had a couple of tests and a visit with a doctor and dermatologist while John had about 4 tests and visits with 3 doctors.  We will be here until Wednesday to finish up all our exams, tests and doctor consultations.  

USAF Thunderbirds

We spent part of our morning watching people get stuck in the muddy roads.  One guy pulling a 5th-wheel seemed to think that all he had to do was back up and take a run at the same spot to get through, then he would get stuck, spin his wheels, back up and do it again.  Two other RV’s  got stuck in other spots, one figured a way out with help from a jeep and the other had to have a tow truck and a huge green tractor pull him out.  We’re hoping that it will not rain today and dry out before we are ready to leave.

We braved the mud holes and rode our bikes to the AirVenture Museum and looked at all kinds of airplanes from Wright Brothers and Lindberg to Rutan and Gee Bees Stunt team. As we were leaving we noted that a lot of people were streaming onto the grounds. We think it is because of the USAF Thunderbirds show this afternoon.  I noted that I have put over 20 miles on my bike just riding inside the campgrounds for the past 5 days.

The daily air show starts at 2:30 so we pick our spot and wait for the show to start, then it rains!  It is a short rain and the show goes on.  The War Birds show off their stuff, a couple of aerobatics, the stunt copter, a comedy show, more threatening clouds and then what we have been waiting for all afternoon!

The United States Air Force Thunderbirds are a fast, loud and precise team of six F-16 Fighter Jets.  By fast I’m talking 500 mph fly-by.  By loud I’m talking cover your ears loud.  And precision in every grouping or solo flight.  It was awesome!!

Sea Plane Base

This morning we took the bus out to the Sea Plane Base on Lake Winnebago.  A large inlet or lagoon like area was filled with tethered sea planes.  There were five docks where they could refuel or take on passengers.  There was also a beach where the amphibious sea planes that land on there belly as opposed to floating on pontoons could float into shore and also take on passengers.  It was interesting to listen to the control point volunteers radioing with the pilots with instructions for take off or landings.

Right at 2:30 this afternoon we heard the screaming jets of the Thunderbirds fly overhead!  They had arrived and were putting on a bit of a show for the whole area!  They are such magnificent machines!  And they are very noisy!!

The afternoon air show and the Thunderbird demo was cut short due to bad weather.  At least 3 thunderstorms, one with hail, rolled through the area this afternoon & evening making for a muddy mess.  I feel sorry for the folks across the way whose awning was blown over the top of their RV.  John just barely got the steaks cooked before another storm came through and it is raining again as I’m writing this blog.  It wouldn’t be the EAA AirAdventure if it didn’t rain.

Our new Mascot.

Sky on Fire

Oh, my goodness!  We had such a great day and night!  Yesterday morning we finished looking at all the exhibits and walking through the hangers where more exhibitors are housed then we walked over to the War Birds arena.  This is where the old military planes, jets, and helicopters can be viewed and where their pilots stand around sharing old war stories or flying adventures. Many of these planes fly during the afternoon air shows.  I’m not sure why, but I find them to be fascinating to look at.

Fifteen some years ago when we last attended the EAA Fly-In, they did not have a night show but they did put on a spectacular display of the War Birds along with lots of pyrotechnics simulating bombing runs and strafing targets.  They did that today too, which we watched from the campground while resting up for the evening show.  

Last night starting at dusk they had an awesome light show with air planes doing aerobatic maneuvers while lit with colored lights all along their wings, in the cowling and on the tail.  One run was a group of four airplanes with all the lights.  I think the picture John got was cool.

They had a comedy show with an airplane flown by a very talented pilot who made it look like someone who had never flown before trying to land on the runway, almost hitting another plane and chasing runway personnel.  Along with the radio chatter, they had the crowd in stitches.  There was also a contest for bush pilots from Alaska.  Six pilots tried to take off in the shortest distance and then land the shortest distance.  Most took 160 - 190 feet to take off but one was in the air after only 62 feet on the runway.  They stopped very quickly too and the same pilot who took off in 62 feet, landed in 72 feet from the time his wheel touched down until completely stopped.  

As it got darker, two different planes and one helicopter flew their aerobatic maneuvers with fireworks shooting flames like fountains into their smoke stream. The helicopter dropped a US flag from its tail while shooting Roman Candles, bottle rockets and fountains while patriotic music is played on the loud speakers.  

The evening ended with a full blown fireworks display choreographed to music.  This lasted a good 30 minutes with no break.  It was AWESOME!

The finale was the Wall Of Fire!!  On the count of ten a huge wall of hot flames ran along the runway for over 100 yards and shot up into the air a good 100 feet!  It happened so fast we didn’t get a picture but we did feel the heat and the reverberation of the explosion!

The ride on our bikes back to the RV was more walking than riding due to a crowd of 50-60 thousand people!

Demonstrations and Exhibitions and Junk

I took advantage of the unscheduled morning to go to the grocery store while John started looking at airplanes on the show grounds.  After I caught up with him he had to show me the cutest plane (that is obviously NOT how he would describe it) but it will take off and land on land or on water.  It only holds two people, has one propeller, folding wings, and lots of other ‘stuff’.

We walked through lots of aircraft exhibits, the hangers with all kinds of aircraft ‘stuff’ ( radios, propellers, head sets, batteries, etc.)  for sale, and then the vendors that are selling all the junk easily found at shows of this size.  I swear some of these people are selling the same thing here that they sell in Quartzite, AZ!  There are a few RV dealers here (Born Free is one), and car dealers (Ford Motor Co.), EAA has numerous stores and all the various aircraft companies have their own promotional products (Cessna, ICON, Bonanza).

During today’s air show we got to see the US Marine Corps’ Osprey.  This aircraft has two propellers that rotate so the plane can hover and move like a helicopter then as it takes off, the propellers rotate forward so that it flies like an airplane.  It can go as fast as 280 knots (over 300 mph) and travel up to 900 miles before refueling.  It is used to place and pick up troops, and can fly in supplies as needed.  It can land on aircraft carriers or at the airport.  We were really fascinated by this aircraft.

Just as John put the chops on the grill, a storm rolled through Oshkosh.  It wouldn’t be an EAA event without at least one thunderstorm!

Oshkosh, B'Gosh!

We arrived at the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) Fly-In around noon and found a spot among the other 36,000 campers.  This is the largest campground in the US during this air show.  It is mostly just fields marked off in road and rows with porta-potties and trash bins marking the ends.

John was so excited to be here that he didn’t even complete all our set-up routine before we jumped on our bikes to get to the entrance gate.  We are only 1 mile from there.  We walked all around, getting our bearings and checking out the different aircraft areas, some displays, and watched the afternoon air-show that runs from 2:30 - 6:30 every day.  Several times we would stop to watch a particular aerobatic performance and then continue our explorations.

We were so entranced with the surroundings that we forgot to take any pictures! And we didn’t get done eating dinner until almost 8:30.

Boredom Sets In

I got up early enough to attend a lovely, friendly rural Methodist Church.  Shortly after I got home from church we headed over to the beach but the skies started clouding up so we went to Egg Harbor to a BBQ joint for lunch.  Just as we were seated the skies opened up and it poured down rain!  And it rained, and it rained.  We even had to dodge raindrops after lunch as we ran to the car, although when we returned to the RV it was dry in the campground.  That could be because of all the trees protecting the RV.  It did try to rain most of the afternoon, but I found a dry hour in which to take a 1.5 mile walk.

We risked using up all our batteries and watched TV this evening.  We both agree that we stayed one day too long.  It is time to move on.

Down Day

I had to think really hard about what we did today as we really didn’t do much.  I washed and waxed the floor while John went to the hardware store to get parts to fix the toilet seat.  That sounds like an easy project except that in the RV the toilet is so close to the wall that John can’t get his hands behind the seat to work on the screws.  To be able to fix the lid, he has to totally unseat the toilet, set it in the on the floor outside the bathroom, put new screws in the lid and then reseat the toilet. Turned out to be pretty easy but he approached the project with much trepidation having never done anything like this before. Unfortunately, he didn't get it back on straight.  It is about 1/4” off center. Ha Ha!

We rode bikes for about 12 miles, had a root beer float and sat around the campfire most of the evening.  Not a bad life!

Sister's Bay

This mornings 12.6 mile, invigorating bike ride to Ephraim and back took us past an old tower that was built in 1903 and rebuilt in 1934.  The tower itself is only  75 feet tall but it sits on a bluff that is 175 feet above the water’s edge.  The view from 250 feet high was pretty.  John did comment, though, that if he went down to his knees, there might be a problem. We could see Ephraim Harbor with its many sailboats and Fish Creek Harbor, several islands and lots of blue, blue water. 

View from the tower you can see in the post 2 days ago.

After lunch we drove north to Sister’s Bay, another small art community in Door County.  The tourist draw in Sister’s Bay is Al Johnson’s Restaurant with has a grass roof where Billy goats like to graze.  John swears that the only goat on the roof today was a statue but I thought I saw it wiggle its ears.

We checked out several other restaurants and shops before crossing the peninsula to check out Bailey’s Harbor on the east side facing Lake Michigan.  The temperature dropped 10 degrees with the wind off of the lake.  We spotted two commercial campgrounds near here, three interesting restaurants and a couple of shops but there wasn’t much else to see.

Golfing Fools

We spent almost all day golfing.  We got to the driving range about 10:30 and had a noon tee time.  We were paired with a father and son, Ken and Tommie. Ken is an educator from the Chicago suburbs and Tommie is a 5th grader who could out-drive me on most holes.  Ken loves this course as he was here last weekend with some buddies and played 90 holes over 2 days!

We had okay games but it is very noticeable that we don’t play often enough.  This course was pretty was some very interesting holes.  One was a 69 yard Par 3 with the green at the bottom of a cliff! Another was a Par 4 with the tee box and green at the same elevation and the fairway in a hole.

Ephraim and Egg Harbor, Door County

It turned cold!  Well, not real cold but highs only in the upper 60’s today.  We rode our bikes over to the golf course and made a tee time for tomorrow then rode on into Ephraim.  Lots of hills!

We rode our bikes up over that big hill twice!

Ephraim is an artist community with lots of galleries and shops in old historic homes.  It is also a Moravian community which we find interesting as the only Moravians we knew about until now were in North Carolina.  As are most of the towns in Door County, Ephraim is right on the water with a fairly good sized marina.  One of the galleries is inside an old harbor building.  This week is Plein Aire Arts Week.  Plein Aire is an event where artists are invited to come into a community and paint outdoors. There were 6 painters set up around and near the harbor.

We rode back to the RV and then got in the Jeep and drove to Fish Creek for lunch and then to Egg Harbor to shop!  You know how much John loves to shop! Ha Ha!  But we did find a really nice Wisconsin Cheese shop with some very fine cheeses at some very fine prices.

Tonight I am going to the Folk Theatre to take in an outdoor comedy/musical.  John will keep the fire burning at the RV.

Door County, WI

Door County is known by many as a vacation destination plus as a place to get away from the heat and busy life.  It is a long peninsula just north of Green Bay and extends for about 36 miles from Sturgeon to Washington Island.  On one side of the peninsula is Green Bay and the other is Lake Michigan.  We are staying in Peninsula State Park near Fish Creek.  We are a short way from Egg Harbor and Ephraim.  The state park has almost 500 campsites, 35 miles of biking and hiking trails, a beach, a lighthouse, a fire tower, an 18-hole golf course, and a folk theatre with nightly performances.

We pulled in without a reservation but had no trouble getting a non-electric site for as long as we want to stay.  After lunch we rode our bikes the 5 miles from the campground to the park entrance and then into Fish Creek and back. It was really warm and humid today, but there was enough wind to keep it comfortable and mosquito free.

We are 'gone-o' to Shawano

Enough of this wilderness and mosquitoes and biting flies, we pulled out of Porcupine Mountains and headed south into Wisconsin where we stopped in a small town of Shawano on Shawano Lake.  The campground we chose could not be found using Google Maps or GPS co-ordinates!  After calling the campground twice for directions we finally got there.  It is located on a road that is called CoRd HHH, then changes to CoRd H but signs also show it to be Airport Road AND Lake Road.  Plus the house numbers start at N1234 then somewhere along the road they change to W1234!  Talk about confusing!

Its not the best place we have ever stayed but the folks are nice and it has everything we need like showers and laundry.  After supper at a nice restaurant we got to visiting with the folks who had pulled in next to us.  Two brothers, a sister and one grandson from Milwaukee and CA.  We enjoyed sitting around the fire and visiting with Greg, LuAnn and Lanny.

Lake On The Cloud

As this is the largest of Michigan’s state parks, we drove 25 miles from our campsite to the other end of the park and the visitor’s center.  About 7 miles back along Lake Superior’s coast we drove to the view point for Lake on the Cloud on the east side of a large rocky escarpment, nestled in a valley filled with trees.  It was a pretty lake.

We then drove about half way back to the RV and stopped to hike the Summit Trail Loop which took us on Beaver Creek Trail, Carp River Trail, Mirror Lake Trail and then back to the Summit Trail. It was a very pretty and peaceful hike.  We saw lots of chipmunks, a covey of brown grouse and toads.  Unfortunately for one toad, a snake also spotted it and ate it!  We almost stepped on the snake as it was trying to move the toad off the trail. 

We have a nice view of the sun setting into Lake Superior each evening and tonights sunset was pretty spectacular!

I have had enough of the buzzing mosquitoes and biting flies so spent the evening inside the RV.  I can only take so much of these annoying pests!!!

Porcupine Mountain Wilderness

We drove all the way across the U.P. to Irontown and then north up the coast of Lake Superior to this state park which claims to have the highest mountain in Michigan.  We picked our site, parked the RV but when we got out the black flies swarmed all over the RV and all over US! They were horrible!  I visited with the park ranger and they said that we were probably too close to the lake and if we camped further back it might be better.  We could also hope for wind and the flies usually decreased in number during the evening.  So we moved two rows inland and went for a hike!

We are parked on the Presque Isle River which empties into Lake Superior.  Our hike took us 1 mile up the river and back on the other side.  We passed three waterfalls.  The names of the waterfalls came from the Ojibwa Indians.  Manabezho Falls is named for the Ojibwa’s god. Manido Falls means ‘ghost’ in Ojibwa and Nawadaha Falls translates into ‘water of the spirit’.  We have read that this park is the largest state park in Michigan and has around 45 waterfalls.

The flies did go away this evening but the mosquitoes took their place!  At least our OFF candle works! We are back in the central time zone here but just 5 miles north it’s eastern time, confusing. We are staying on eastern time as we have been for weeks.

Rally Days

The week has gone by fairly quickly.  I walked every morning for 30-40 minutes with a dedicated group of men and women, John joined us once. We had a large breakfast every morning, a carry-in dinner one night and the closing dinner on Friday evening.

We changed some more of our lights to LED bulbs, got the coach washed, and rode our bikes around the town. On our bike ride we found a meat processor and got some good steaks and pork chops.  John visited with other vendors while I took in the craft show and craft sales one day and a fashion show presented by two local shops on another afternoon.  They had some very cute clothes! Thursday night we were entertained by a Southern gospel/blue grass band from Ohio.  They were pretty good.

One of the vendors at the show does total RV renovations from floors to furniture to walls to exterior painting. For awhile now we have been unhappy with our floor as it scratches very easily and leaves white specks where the paint rubs off.  On Friday we decided that we were going to get a better quality tile floor and while we were at it replace the carpeting. And since the floor will be a different color and I have always wanted under-mounted sinks in this coach, we opted to replace all counter tops with Corian, under-mounted sinks in kitchen and bathroom and an under-mounted stove so that I will have one smooth counter top giving me much more work space in the kitchen.  This vendor, MasterTech RV Services in Elkhart IN, was able to get us on his schedule August 18th which means we have no home on the road for 2-3 weeks so we will be traveling home to Sedalia in August!  John feels like he has gone insane - why would anyone want to be in Missouri in August?! We will leave most of our “stuff” in the RV while it is being renovated and go back in early September to drive our RV home.

Immediately following the closing dinner, we loaded up and left Escanaba, beating the crowded Saturday morning rush.  We only drove for about an hour and stopped in Iron Mountain where we found a nice empty parking lot in which to spend the night.

 

Newmar International Rally

Representatives from all 50 states, all Canadian Provinces and Bermuda marched into the opening ceremonies carrying their state or provincial flags to kick off the 2014 Rally.  It is an impressive way to start off the week.

Monday was reserved for golf and regional tours.  We played golf and had a very fun time, met new people and John’s team tied for 5th place.  Other people at the rally took buses to Pictured Rocks, Marquette and Iron Mountain.  Some of the vendors were set up so we tried to get on their list to get work done or to visit with them about our concerns or to get the RV washed.

Tuesday (today) is the first full day of the Rally with all kinds of seminars and working on RVs. I walked for 30 minutes at 7:15 AM (that seems mighty early!) then we had a huge rally breakfast. We got some sensors replaced on our waste tanks, water tank and LP gas tank. John visited with people about our hitch, replacing floors, lights and shades while I shopped.

Some of the new 2015 Newmar Coaches were on display.  I’m not sure that we could ever enjoy living in the luxuriousness of some of these homes.  One had two TV’s in the living room, 1 in the bedroom and 1 outside, 1 1/2 bathrooms, washer and dryer and dishwasher along with an induction stove top.  They had tile floors, granite countertops, tiled back splash, tiles showers with 1-2 shower heads, king beds, electric shades, mood lighting and mirrors everywhere. Leather seating was standard in all the units.  Our little 30 foot Bay Star pales in comparison.

It sounds like we have done a lot of things but it feels like we haven’t done much.  That’s life in the RV!

Escanaba - Newmar Rally

We broke all recent records leaving camp before 8AM this morning and arrived in Escanaba, MI for the Newmar Rally by 10:30 AM.  We got a pretty nice site, especially compared to what some other units have.  Other than registering and checking out the many goodies in our registration packet and grocery shopping, it has been a quiet day.

Beaver Lake and Chapel Lake

We have no pictures to post for two days.  Yes, we did have the camera and no, there was nothing spectacular to photograph.  We did find plenty of mosquitoes and sable flies though.

For two days in a row, now, we have driven 30+ miles westward to find what we hoped would be interesting hikes.  Yesterday we hiked in the woods to Little Beaver Lake, enjoying the quiet serenity of the forest and the beauty of the blue lake.  We were able to enjoy all this because it was windy enough to keep the mosquitoes at bay and the flies on the beach.  We had one incident where I sat down for lunch on top of a mossy hill of ANTS!  Just as I got settled John yells “ Get UP! Get UP!”  I’m going “What? What?!”  The tiny ants were all over me!  Needless to say, we moved on!

On the highway back to camp, we spotted two very large birds on the side of the rode.  Big enough to be Emu’s but not.  They had long necks and legs, gray wings with rust and red spots around their faces.  Since we don’t have any cell service I could not look it up on the internet so today I asked a ranger.  They were Sandhill Cranes!  What beautiful creatures, its too bad we didn’t get a picture and have not seen anymore of them.

Today’s hike was supposed to be to Mosquito Falls along Mosquito River but John took a wrong turn and ended up on Chapel Lake Trail headed to Lake Superior.  It was a flat, forest hike and very boring.  The most excitement we had was watching chipmunks scoot out of our way and spotting a red-headed woodpecker.  As soon as we got within 300-400 yards of the water we started swatting sable flies.  These annoying creatures are impervious to bug spray, swarm all over you and bite through t-shirts, socks and blue jeans, at times drawing blood. Plus there was no wind and it was quite warm.  Before we even saw the water I made John turn around and run back up the trail!   And the stupid flies followed us 1/3 of the way back!  They are horrible!!

We never saw the falls or the river.

Pictured Rocks National Seashore

After checking some of the other campgrounds along the the scenic route to Munising, we decided that we probably wouldn’t move today. We discovered that is we want to see the Pictured Rock Cliffs, we could hike down to a couple of beaches and see the cliffs near them or by renting a kayak or we can take a boat tour and see 11 of the 13 miles of cliffs along the shoreline.  

These cliffs are colored by nature on a daily basis.  Most of the rocks are sandstone which is very porous and allows water from the surface to seep through the rock.  As it exits the rocks it has picked up minerals like iron (red and orange), copper (green and blue), calcium (white), manganese (black) and tannic acid (brown).  These minerals stripe the rocks while the wind, waves, cold and heat shape the cliffs. One particular rock formation separated from the land had a lone white pine tree on top of it.  The only way this tree survived was its roots spanned the gap between its home and the shore.  At one time there were rocks to support the roots but now they look like a rope bridge across the span. On the return leg, we passed by a very old wooded light house on Grand Island. It was a beautiful ride on a really magnificently sunny and warm day.

We rushed back to the campground so that we could hike 1.5 miles to catch the last tour of the day at the Au Sable Lighthouse.  Over 45 shipwrecks occurred along this shoreline between Grand Marais and Munising making lighthouses imperative, at least until technology made them obsolete.  Like other lighthouses we have visited, this one was also equipped to rescue floundering seamen after a wreck.  The water is very shallow for up to a mile from shore because of a reef and that is where most of the wrecks occurred.  Because the ship compasses were affected by all the iron ore they carried and the maps were not accurate plus most ships cruised close to the shoreline to keep from getting lost, storms had a way of pushing the ships toward land and grounding then sinking them.  If we had wanted to, we could have looked at some shipwrecks along the shoreline.  Scuba divers love wreck diving along here as the wrecks are generally only 15 - 50 feet deep.