Jackson MN July 22-25

I had hoped to make reservations at Spirit Lake in Iowa, but they were full, so we ended up at the KOA in Jackson MN. For the first time in almost 3 months, I forgot to snap a picture of our campsite!

The first night we went out to dinner at Bergen Steak and Grill, 10 miles from our campsite. To get there we drove through field after field with an impressive view of windmills in the distance.


The steaks were magnificent despite the restaurant looking doubtful. (It had a sign handwritten on the front door “No credit or debit cards”.)

The next day we toured Fort Belmont, which featured a museum and a variety of buildings from the late 1800's. We especially enjoyed an original Conestoga wagon that was housed in the museum and a sod house on the grounds.

That night (Friday) a violent thunderstorm rolled in. Once again we had a flash flood and a tornado watch and this time we could hear hail on the trailer roof. It seems violent weather is following us…

On our last day in town we visited the Jackson County Historical Society in Lakefield and learned interesting facts about the area. For example, 5000 muskrats were killed in one day around Lakesfield in the early 1900’s. We took the long route back to our trailer and were amused at the sign below. (By the way, the road ahead was definitely wide enough for two lanes.)

Next stop South Dakota.

Byron MN July 18-22

We crossed the Mississippi into MN on our way to Oxbow County Park in Byron, MN.

The Mississippi River

Our Campsite

At first we were in coulee country where the glaciers never came—characterized by small hills and valleys everywhere. Then we encountered miles and miles of corn, as far as the eye could see (except for the fields of soy beans, also as far as the eye could see).

Field of corn

We had two wonderful visits with our neighbor Sara’s parents, Marlin and Mary. On the first we were treated to a huge lunch and Ray got to drive their tractor! On the second we sat at our campsite and continued the great conversation we had begun previously.

Ray hamming it up on tractor

We visited Zollman Zoo (which is part of Oxbow Park) and viewed the local wildlife displays.


Timber Rattlesnake

Elk

We also went into Rochester to see Soldiers Field, an impressive privately funded memorial to all who served in the military.

Soldiers Field

This stop was all about relaxing and enjoying wonderful new friends.

Wisconsin Dells July 11-18

We arrived at Country Roads Campground in Lake Delton, WI

Our first excursion was to House on the Rock in Spring Green. What an amazing place—too much to see in one day. Part one was a house built into a rock and decorated very strangely, while part two and three were museums of various collections.

A nook in the house


A collection in the women's bathroom!

The following day we visited the International Crane Foundation and saw 15 different cranes in captivity. This was my favorite.



After an evening of high winds, hard rain and a tornado watch, the next day brought beautiful weather. We took the 10:36 AM Upper Dells Tour. It was a 2 ½ hour cruise up the Wisconson River. We viewed the surrounding topography from the boat and also debarked at two stops to view interesting rock formations. At one formation, Stand Rock, we saw a German Shepherd leap across two rock formations.

Scene from the boat

Stand Rock

German Shepherd about to jump onto Stand Rock.

The next day we kayaked at Mirror Lake State Park. We didn’t see much—a few turtles and some dragonflies, but it was very relaxing.

Here's a picture of Ray kayaking on Mirror Lake near the Ishtala Dinner Club where we went for several cocktails.

And here's a dragonfly. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the huge snapping turtle we saw.

In addition to the above, we took several drives around the area enjoying the scenery and watching local farmers doing their jobs. It's a beautiful area.

Next stop: Minnesota.

Egg Harbor, WI July 6-11

We set up our trailer at Door County Camping Retreat.

Our first full day was a long touring day. We picnic lunched at Europe Lake (with a snake just 4 feet away) then took the ferry to Washington Island.

Once on Washington Island we toured Jacobsen Museum, Schoolhouse Beach, Jackson Harbor Maritime Museum, an Ostrich Farm and Stavkirke, a community built wooden church.

The rudder from a sunken ship

Stavkirke

The next day we went to Peninsula State Park and enjoyed the overlooks of Green Bay.

On Friday we drove to Whitefish Dunes State Park on Michigan Lake Side, but when the mosquitoes proved too ravenous, we moved to Cave Point County Park and had a picnic lunch on a bluff overlooking water 40 feet below. Beautiful but dangerous.

We ate lunch sitting on this rock looking out at Lake Michigan.

That night we attended a fish boil at the White Gull Inn in Fish Creek. It was different and fun—an efficient way of feeding a large number of people all at the same time and quite spectacular.

Cooking the fish and potatoes

Saturday was a “relax” day for Ray while I did laundry and worked on the blog. We are off tomorrow to the Wisconsin Dells Area.

Bryant WI, July 2-6

After a lovely ride through country characterized by yellow wild flowers and tall pines, we parked the trailer near the home/farm of Jenny & Paul Monk.

But instead of staying in the trailer, we stayed in their cabin for four nights.

The cabin was gorgeous inside.

Paul actually built the cabin himself (with some help from his sons) and Jenny decorated it. It was a very nice change—especially since Ray and I have always been partial to log cabins and wood interiors. Being out in the country was a bit of a shock though. The closest grocery store was 16 miles away, there was no Seven/Eleven where we could buy a newspaper and our internet and phone didn’t work. But we loved the quiet and spending time with the entire Monk family, all of whom were very warm and welcoming. Joan (Paul’s mother) gave us some homemade strawberry jam that was out of this world. Add Paul's hamburgers, Jenny's potato salad and make your own ice cream sundaes and we were in heaven. Yummm.

The Monks. From the left: PJ, Joan, George, John, Percy, Jeffrey, Jenny, and Paul

We took a walk to the two ponds on Paul and Jenny’s property and Paul showed us their ginseng farm.

Ray in the middle of 4 year old ginseng plants

Besides shopping and eating at two restaurants, we made one excursion. That was to Laona where we took a 15 minute ride in a steam locomotive

to tour the Camp 5 Logging Museum which included a petting farm.

Exhibit featuring a 382 year old tree

After the museum we took a pontoon ride on the Rat River, so called because it was once home to a huge number of muskrats.

We saw a muskrat! Not sure if you can see it though. Look to the right of the wood.

Next stop is Door County.

Iron Mountain, MI June 27-July 2

After an easy drive, we arrived at Summer Breeze Campground in Iron Mountain.

The next few days we did lots of touring. Dressed in rain gear and hard hats, we toured an Iron Mine in Vulcan. At one point we were shown an underground cave with a tiny cardboard figure across from us. It looked about 6 inches tall, but was actually 10 ft. Distance was really hard to judge underground.


Next came museums. The Menomenee County Museum was amazing—room after room of oddities and wonders. The Cornwall Museum housed the world’s largest pump, used years ago to pump water out of mines. I'm standing at right.


We also viewed Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, designed by a priest and built in two years by miner parishioners with local sandstone. They did a beautiful job.


Ray climbed to the top of one of the largest wooden ski jumps in the world. I watched and worried. (His legs hurt him for the next 3 days.)

My view from below. Ray is dot on top left.

Ray's view from close to the top

One of the highlights of our stay in Iron Mountain was our kayak trip. We saw deer, turtles and multiple large birds, including two eagles! Ray took this picture of me negotiating a class one rapid. (At least that’s how it was described on our kayaking map.)

We’d both go back to this area in a flash…

Munising MI June 22-27

I am way behind in blog entries. I had expected to do two entries when we got to the Northwoods area of Wisconsin on July 2, but we had no internet connection. So here it is July 7 and I am writing about June 22-27. Better late than never.

We arrived at Wandering Wheels campground in Munising.

Our campsite

The area offered lots of activities; unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with our plans. On our first full day we saw three waterfalls and I took a quick walk to Miner’s Castle before the rain rolled in.

One of the waterfalls

Miner's Castle. Hard to see where water and sky meet due to fog.

On our one clear day we took a cruise to Pictured Rocks. It started out fine in the protected harbor, but as we got farther out on Lake Superior the water got rougher and rougher. The crew started handing out plastic bags “just in case”. There were a lot of cases…. The swells were 8 feet high when the captain decided to turn back. Many of the passengers were very happy to return to land.

Coming up to Miner's Castle before the swells got really high

We had hoped to do a shipwreck cruise and some river kayaking, but the weather never cleared sufficiently, so we contented ourselves with feeding the chipmunks at our campsite. Ray was especially adept at training them. They would climb up his leg or come up into the trailer for a peanut.

I became fairly adept at taking photos of them. Here's my favorite.