The Garden State

Howdy kids,  It's been a while since we checked in and we have been hunkering down in the wilds of NJ for a while now.  We just got done with a very busy Christmas schedule [more on that later] and are down to our last week in NJ.  It's been wonderful to be around immediate family for an extended period for the first time in about 40 years. Kelly & I have loved it and are going to, very much, miss having family around.  Unfortunately, our extended family is spread to the corners of the US so not being near them is our reality wherever we are.  We will be moving on to Myrtle Bch, SC for Jan and Feb and have found what we hope is a great place to enjoy the last couple months of our year-long 'Walkabout'.  SC promises warmer temperature, a nearby beach and a system of paved bike trails. Should be fun.

As most of you know, I spent my wonder bread years in the Garden State but have been gone for a very long time.  I had almost forgotten what it was like to live here and being here again reminded me of the things I liked here and the reasons I needed to leave.  For those of our readers who are not familiar with NJ I will offer some observations of life in our most densely populated state. 

People 

As noted, NJ is the most densely populated state in the US with a whopping 1263 people per square mile. That is a staggering number in itself [our current home state of CO brags of a paltry 54 people per square mile] but, when you consider that all of those 1263 people in each square mile are Newjerseyites, this statistic can be downright frightening to the uninitiated.  That's 1263 people in each square mile of earth that will tell you exactly what they are thinking at all times.  You are not left guessing.  That said, you will not find a group of people more willing to help you out if you need a hand or more lifelong friends.  

Driving

I will admit having been mildly apprehensive about driving back east while hauling our trailer.  Having been driving around the NJ/NY area for the past couple months I think putting the trailer in storage for the rest of our trip was a good call.  We have been staying in one of the less densely populated parts of the state but have ventured out a bit and at all times I found myself being SO glad I was not pulling a trailer. Much of NJ's road system was created back when a state highway was just a connector between small towns.   That has left them with very busy roads that are WAY too small for the amount of traffic they handle.  If you enjoy exiting the parking lot of a business directly into busy, 60 mph traffic [no merge lanes] you will love Jersey driving.  Speed limits seem to be suggestions only.  At one point, we were going with the traffic flow, 20 mph over the speed limit, and got passed on the right by a tow truck. Very exciting!  It makes me look forward to being back in Pagosa where the biggest thing to worry about is the Texans who all seem to be going either 10 or 80 mph.

Food

OK...food is freeking great here!  Our hometown of Pagosa Springs is a great place to live but, with a few exceptions, dining choices are pizza, Mexican food and burgers.  NJ pizza has got to be the best anywhere and, as a bonus, many pizza places have a pages long menu of other interesting Italian, meat and fish dishes.  All this out of a small storefront business.  How do they do it?!  One thing that we could not get used to was, when ordering coffee, you need to tell them what you want in it as you are  not allowed to prepare your coffee yourself.  Kelly and I ordered two coffees at a deli and the gal behind the register stood looking at us as if we were speaking Farsi.  Eventually, she asked us "Are you going to tell me how you want it?" looking at us as if we had just arrived from Mars.  We explained that we were simply from Colorado where you are trusted to use the sugar and cream yourself.  We never got used to this and really don't like it.  That aside, the food here is amazing and I've got a new 'food baby' to prove it.

Christmas

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It was great to be able to spend the holidays with my siblings in Jersey and our daughter and her husband in New York.  They are expecting a baby in a few weeks and didn't venture out much but it was great to see them in NYC.  My sisters took Kelly to see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall and we were treated to a great holiday season.  We got to attend my brother and his wife's last annual Christmas Eve party [they are moving to NC next year].  The house was decorated to the max and looked amazing.  He clearly did not get his decorating skills from me.  Thanks to all for treating us to all the holiday festivities.  We love you guys and treasure the time we had with you.  We also enjoyed a lunch with our friends from Pagosa, Jim and Michelle.  We had caught up with them in the wilds of Wisconsin earlier in our trip and got to visit again as they were visiting family in NJ. What a treat!

Jersey weather

My goodness but it got cold here...quickly.  Our first couple weeks here were nice fall weather and then, BANG!, winter seemed to arrive overnight.  And it was cold like we don't see in Colorado where, in winter, days are either sunny or it is snowing.  We decided the weather was 'uninspiring' with overcast skies, a few mornings in the single digits [temperature 6 degrees...feels like 10 below] and a few smallish snow events thrown in.  I ended up shoveling more snow here than I would have back in Pagosa.  It really made us appreciate our cold, dry winters back home in CO.  For a nice sendoff, we took off from my brother's house on New Year's Day after helping shovel another couple inches of snow off his driveway.  

After thawing out a bit, we then careened our way down some icy backroads [no snow tires] and headed for warmer climes in S. Carolina.  The drive down was pretty uneventful, and we decided to take the more inland route through the mountains of Virginia.  It was actually a rather pretty drive and we enjoyed being back in the mountains again.  We travelled through some very nice farming country in the Appalachian Mts and, although not the most scenic time of year, we could tell it would be beautiful in the summer.

As we got closer to S. Carolina there were signs that we were entering the 'real' south.  The country became flat with sandy soil and thick groves of pine trees.  There were more run-down mobile homes right next to the highway where I was expecting to see signs for 'Cousin Ray's Crystal Meth...Open 7-days' and there was a lot more trash decorating the roadway shoulders. They were in real need of a highway adoption program but I saw no signs stating 'This mile of highway maintained by Cousin Ray'.  We finally arrived at our new digs in Myrtle Beach and were happy to find a very nice little rental close to the beach and other amenities where we won't have to drive so much.  There is also a system of bike trails nearby where I can work on getting rid of my 'food baby'.

Green Pond beach before the snow

Green Pond after snow

The Tower of Doom [Green Pond stairs]

Brother Dan's Christmas House

The Gang in NYC

A real Jersey diner

Jersey Pizza

Unhappy Clooney Bae

The Gang on Rooftop

Rockefeller Center Tree

Kasha Chilling in Green Pond

Plan B

 When we left you last, I hinted about a change in plans for the remainder of our trip.  As we wrapped up our stay in Vermont and were looking for a campground in southern New York state we found that most of the campgrounds were closing up for the winter as it was now mid-October.  The ones that were open were rather pricey with nightly costs running the $80 and up.  As we sat over lunch one day I brought up the fact that we didn't have to continue doing the same thing for our entire trip. This is our trip and plans can be as fluid as we like.  The RVing was great for the first 6 months but "the bloom was off the rose" as they say and we were both ready to settle down for a bit and not be constantly searching for new accommodations and things to occupy ourselves.  

As a result, we commenced on Plan B.  This entails renting a house near my family in northern NJ and staying until the end of December.  After that, we will arrange for another 2-month home rental somewhere farther south [perhaps one of the Carolinas on the beach] where we will post up until the end of February.  At this point, we plan to head back north to welcome the new grandchild in NYC and from there head back to our home in Pagosa Springs.  Neither one of us was particularly excited about the southern leg of the RV trip and we will be experiencing new things for a somewhat extended time.  We are happy about the decision.  We are also selling the RV as we planned on doing that after the trip anyway [too big for normal camping]  so if anybody is interested...

We kicked off Plan B by phoning my brother Dan and his wife Debbie with a plea to hang out at their house until we procured a place to stay. Not many would be so gracious as to answer 'yes' to a request to:

• Stay in their house
• Park a 26' RV in the driveway
• Bring along a dog who is obsessively interested in their cats

All this while they are in the middle of selling a business, building a new house in N. Carolina and kicking off their own Plan B for life.  We can't thank them enough and promise those pesky pet stains will, probably, wash right out of that carpet.

Of course, any new plan brings with it a new set of challenges.  We now had to find a place to live that was:

• Available for only 2-months
• Furnished
• Allows dogs
•  'Affordable' [definitely a relative scale on this one]

After an arduous search we came upon a great rental on Green Pond, NJ.  The lake is known as the cleanest lake in the state and it certainly looks it.  They are understandably very proud of their lake and require that any boats on the lake don't get used in other bodies of water.  The community is very small and very close, friendly, quiet and safe.  The house is nice but not fancy and other than a few drawbacks will serve us nicely for the next couple months.  While the house has 3 bedrooms the master suite is accessed via a rather tight spiral staircase [better leave that last glass of wine in the fridge] which Kasha refuses to attempt [this is a good thing].  The bathroom has been recently remodeled and is beautiful with a large soaking tub and large walk-in shower.  An unfortunate feature is the hi-tech toilet.  This thing, apparently, does just about anything you want a toilet to do and probably a few things you'd rather leave undone.  I don't really know cos' I'm a bit intimidated by it and there is no instruction manual.  I'm just afraid that I'll go in there for a 2am pee and be asked to set up a user-name and password.  At which point I'll have re-group and try to negotiate those damn stairs.

Side note.  The property taxes are so high in NJ that, according to the property manager, there is a very nice house on the other end of the lake whose property taxes are $50,00 a year!  I don't think we'll be moving here.

So far, we've been busy setting up our new digs, doing some nice hikes and bike rides, connecting with old friends and visiting family.  I had a great fishing trip with my brother and brother-in-law to my nephew's place in Cape Cod.  As salt-water fisherman, they thought the fishing was just so-so as we boated 'only' about 80 fish over the 2 days and reached our 'keeper' limit both days.  Any one of those fish were bigger than most anything I catch on my fly rod in CO.  Kelly and I have totally become spoiled by all the fresh fish we've had lately and may never eat a fish in CO again.

We also got to attend a baby shower for our new grandson [due in January] at Hannah and Myung's spectacular Brooklyn apartment.  It was great fun and we all went over in a very expensive Uber that was worth every penny to avoid driving into NYC.

We'll keep you updated on Jersey happenings and future plans.

Blackfish dinner

Captain Bobble-head Kneebone

Fishing the Cape

Hannah and Myung patio view

Green Pond Beach

More Travels in New England

Continuing up the coast to visit Acadia National Park we arranged to stay in a very pleasant campground outside of Ellsworth, ME.  The weather continued to be wonderful with warm, sunny days and cool nights.  We were eager to see the sights of Acadia and were not disappointed.  The seascapes here are spectacular and should not be missed if you ever get the chance to be up this way.  We, once again, gained free access to the national park via my Old Guy pass, purchased for the princely sum of $50 back when I gained 'old guy' status. It allows free entrance to all national parks for the entire vehicle...what a deal!  

We first checked out the town of Bar Harbor and found that, in spite of being a tourist town, we found it quite charming as things had quieted down [I imagine] from the frenzy of full-on tourist season and we were able to stroll around town and enjoy the sights.  I had been wanting to sample a lobster-roll which is a 'must try' Maine treat.  However, I couldn't quite bring myself plunk down $25 for anything that is served on a hot dog bun so I will have to save that experience for my next life when, perhaps, I won't be so damn cheap.

While in Bar Harbor we saw a sign for a cruise on an authentic 80-ft wooden sailing schooner, so we decided to return the next day and check it out.  It was a great trip...we raised sail and cruised around Frenchman Bay for a couple hours and they even let Kasha join us.  She was a big hit with the crew and, much to our delight, managed to not pee on the deck or eat any small children.

The next couple of days were spent exploring the sights of Acadia and doing some hikes and bike rides on a nearby rails-to-trails path.  The local bike path section is called the Sunrise Trail and is a portion of the larger East Coast Greenway.  I had never heard of this trail but found that it traverses the entire east coast of the US [more or less as it is not a continuous path and has some gaps].  The section we were exploring was beautiful with the changing of the leaves and treating us to some beautiful marshy areas and woodlands.  Our only disappointment being that we still have not seen a moose and were told that they do not frequent this area. Wahh!

You can't be in Maine without eating lobster so we arranged to the have the tavern at the campground cook us up a couple for dinner and we had a Maine feast at our campground table with some local corn and potatoes cooked on our grill. Delicious!

It was now time to start heading south so we packed up and took off for central Vermont, finding a place to stay near the town of Wells, a good jumping off point for exploring the area. We were able to find a very nice campground which had free mini-golf and shuffleboard which we took advantage of. The big tourist draw for the area, especially in fall, is the town of Woodstock.  It's the quintessential New England town with lots of beautiful old buildings, charming squares and [of course] a million places to buy a tee-shirt and maple syrup.  On the plus side, we were able find free parking, so we strolled around for a while and had some maple-syrup flavored ice cream [actually, quite good] and left town to find lunch that would cost us less than a nightly hotel stay in NYC.

We spent the rest of our time here doing Vermonty things like going to the Vermont Country Store, a locally famous attraction.  This store [and there are several scattered about the state] sells an eclectic blend of home goods, toys, camping supplies and touristy stuff. It has a deli section, a wine section, a cheese section and [of course] maple syrup section.  We had a great time wandering around and even bought some 'stuff' [we were running low].

Later, we were able to get in a hike in at Bromley Mt, a local ski area where we wandered around the top of the mountain and were rewarded with some great views and beautiful fall colors.  The ski terrain here looked like it would be good skiing but I recall skiing England during my former life as a New Jerseyite and what I remember is lots of ice and supercold temperatures.  It did not make me homesick for the good-old-days.

Kelly and I love the entire New England area, especially in autumn, with their folksy old towns, all with the required white spired church and cute downtowns, but it was time to start heading south as nights were getting chilly and many campgrounds were closing up for the season.  We were planning on spending the next weekend with our daughter Hannah, who planned to drive up to meet us in the Catskills from her home in Brooklyn, NY, so we started looking for suitable campgrounds in southern New York state.  This led to a major change in our plans which you can read about in our next installment.

Fall colors walk in Vermont

Vermont Country Store

 Gotta try the Lobsta

Acadia seascape

Bar Harbor schooner

Progress Report

 I can't believe it but we halfway through our year-long trip.  I thought it would be a time to offer some thoughts on how it is going and to give some tips on RVing for the long haul.  In no particular order, these random thoughts are:

• Don't bother going to Moab, UT anymore.  It used to be a cool place but has become so over-run with 'adventurers' screaming around town on dirt bikes and 4-wheelers. It is kinda obnoxious. Instead, go to Escalante or find more remote areas off the map.  Southern Utah has many great places and insanely cool scenery.  Go out and find it.
• Don't go to Nevada.
• Get those pressure monitors for RV tires.  You still get flat tires but you can change them before they become massive blowouts.
• We have found that we don't really care for 'RV parks', the more upscale ones with the huge RVs crammed in.  There are way too many rules enforced enthusiastically by someone who takes their job way too seriously.  We like state and county parks that [Horrors!] allow tent campers with families.  Way cheaper too.
• Bring your own gas to California. It would be cheaper to tow your own tanker and fill it in any other state except Nevada [see above].  We found gas in other areas that was less than half the price.
• Make sure the AC in your RV works.  If not for ours we would be found lying in the grass in Wisconsin gasping like fish out of water.
• Screw Elon Musk and Starlink.  I have been remote-working with my computer using hot-spot off my phone and it has been fine.  Plus, you can sit in your underwear during Zoom meetings with the camera off and claim you have a bad connection. We can even stream movies most places.
• There are LOTS of trees in Oregon and Washington [I counted them] Clear those rainforests.
• I am not a great world traveler but can't imagine anywhere that has more variety and beautiful scenery than the USA.  From the red-rock canyons of Utah to the amazing northwest coast, all across the Rockies, the expansive cornfields of the midwest, the Great Lakes Region. New England and the northeast coast in fall! Forget about it! We were constantly blown away by the diversity and interesting terrain. 
• My but they drive fast in Montana. At one point we were passed on the interstate by a boat [on trailer] going about 20 mph faster than we were.  I admit to being a bit of a wimp when pulling the trailer.  Our F-150 has the power to pull a 26 ft trailer but gets muscled around a bit when the wind blows so we keep it to a sedate 62 mph, 
• We are enjoying the trip but sometimes feel like we need to be doing something new and different every day.  It's been like this since April and is getting a bit exhausting.  That said, we tend to be ready to move on to the next place after about 3-4 days.  We [I] are trying to relax a bit and just realize that wherever we are is 'home' and doing nothing is just fine.
• With all the issues that come up keeping an RV working for the long haul I am learning to face each challenge calmly and patiently...just kidding.  Things going wrong still piss me off and I guess that will never change.
• We've decided that people reach terminal niceness somewhere on the rural Minnesota-Wisconsin border.  With all the divisiveness in the country today it is a bit easy to pick 'sides' and think the 'other side' is evil.  There are a lot of very nice people everywhere [and, yes, a few real assholes too] but the nice ones have varied ideologies and beliefs. Let's give each other a break.
• There sure is a lot of corn in this country.  Holy Crap! What do they do with it all?
• We are seeing quite a few roundabouts at road intersections.  I like the ones that aren't too busy as they seem to keep things moving [Kelly says I like them cos' I don't stop at stop signs anyway...some truth to that] but when they get too busy they are a bit of a cluster.  Especially towing a trailer.
• We've grown to dislike 'tourist towns'.  There are always too many people, too little parking, too many stores selling stuff we don't want [and can't afford] and Sub-par $60 lunches [Really!]
• Trailer living aint so bad.  True, there is not much space, you're taking showers in questionable campground shower enclosures with no room to put your socks on without getting them wet, you are always looking for the next space to camp [this can be challenging] but you get used to it and it is kinda cozy.  We find that, although it is nice to have a break from trailer living, we are glad to get back in our trailer after a few days.
• We all have much more than we need to live.  Kelly and I noticed this even more on our cross-country bike trip but we are seeing it again.  Unfortunately, I'm sure we'll forget it a short while after we return.
• I'm a shitty fisherman and have now not caught fish in more places than I can remember across the country.  Must be some kind of record.
• Don't bring your dog on a trip like this.  We love Kasha but she keeps us from doing many things we would have loved to do.
• It often helps to find camping places on-line but call them to make the reservation.  When it looks like places are full-up you can often call and find cancellations.

We are not sure what the second half of this trip will be like as we are coming into winter and will have to find warmer weather for the duration.  I dunno...the Carolina's?, Florida Keys? Texas?  Stay tuned and we'll find out.

Cape Cod and Beyond

 After enjoying our, nearly, monthlong stay in Wisconsin we made a mad dash across the 'flyover states' [so called because planes fly over these states to get somewhere else] to stay for a time with our nephew, Jeff and his dog Dusky. Jeff is a marine biologist living on Cape Cod. Luckily, Kasha and Dusky got along quite well and were buddies for the week. Kelly was scheduled to fly out of Boston to attend the wedding of another nephew, Chase, who is getting married back in Colorado.  Best of luck to the new couple.  The trip from Wisconsin to Massachusetts was a bit of a blur with long travel days and short evenings.  After a long day ending in Schenectady, NY we tried to set up camp at a casino where, we had heard, you could camp for free.  The casino ended up being in downtown Schenectady and we were coming in during rush hour.  Poor planning on our part.  After white-knuckling the truck and trailer through downtown traffic, where many Schenectadyans were kind enough to point us in the proper direction with their middle fingers, we finally found the casino only to find a tight and very crowded parking lot with no sign of RV camping in sight.  We made as quick an exit as we could and finally found a camp spot at a very nice campground along the Mohawk River.  The rest of the drive was long but pretty pleasant driving.  The leaves are already changing color in western Mass. and [avoiding highways] we travelled through many scenic little towns, all with the required big white church and cozy general store.  It was really quite pleasant.

While Kelly was off to the wedding in CO I spent the week in Jeff's driveway [in the trailer] and caught up on work and chores.  Jeff spends a lot of his summer on the ocean and has access to a constant supply of fresh fish.  We enjoyed some of the best seafood you will get anywhere, all cooked to perfection on his backyard grill.  I got to get a good ride of about 20 miles on the Cape Cod Rail Trail, another very nice Rails-to-Trails project.  I would have liked to explore the entire trail which goes almost all the way to the tip of the Cape but time did not allow.  I'm getting spoiled by all these rail trails which don't have much in the way of hills.  When I get back to CO I'm going to need an e-bike to keep up.

After Kelly's return we took a few days to explore the White Mountains in New Hampshire.  We stayed at a classic New England inn called the Wayside Inn in Bethlehem, NH.  The weather continued to be perfect indian summer with clear warm days and cool nights.  We spent the few days we had checking out the local small towns.  The leaves were just starting to change color and the local mountains were beautiful.  I hadn't been to this part of NH in many years and Kelly had never been here.  We just loved touring through these picture-perfect towns and mountain scenes.

Returning to our trailer on the Cape we enjoyed a weekend with some family who were gathering at Jeff's place.  His newly engaged sister, Rynn, and her intended, Alex, came out from Colorado.  Jeff's folks drove up from NJ and Jeff's cousins from Florida were also there.  I hadn't seen them since they were young kids.  A good friend of Rynn's was able to drive up with the NJ folks and surprise Rynn as well.  It was all pretty coincidental that we were all in the same place and time and it was great to catch up with all.  Kelly and I also took a day to check out Provincetown which sits at the very tip of Cape Cod.  Although being very touristy, P-town, as it is known, has a certain rough-edged charm to it with some very funky-looking bars we would have loved to investigate if we didn't have a longish ride back. Just outside of town, on Hwy 6, Kelly noticed a sign saying something about Bishop, CA where she grew up.  We flipped a U to check it out and found that the sign noted the end to Hwy 6 which starts in Bishop.  Very cool!  We wanted to check out the beach on the way back and give Kasha some exercise so we stopped off on a public beach on the Atlantic side of the cape where Kasha was able to chase some sticks in the surf.  She also took off swimming after some 800 lb gray seals who were floating by...a bad idea on many levels as these waters are frequented by great white sharks as well as the huge seals. Bad Dog!

Working our way up the coast, our next stop was in the town of Wells, Maine.  It was the first time in Maine for both Kelly and I.  Although I spent my first 30 years on the east coast my travels had never gotten me this far north before.  Wells is a small coastal town a bit south of Portland and, like the rest of the Maine coast as we were to discover, is very scenic and has a nice laid-back feel to it.  We spent our days playing ball with Kasha on the fairly empty beaches and taking in some sun.  The weather continued its run of perfect days in the 70's and cool nights.

Wanting to see some of the other sea towns nearby we took time to do some exploring.  A bit south of Wells lies the town of Ogunquit so we headed down for the day to see what there was to see.  I had read about a walk along the coast called the Marginal Way.  The name had me intrigued.  Should we expect 'marginal' conditions?  Was the trail incomplete?  I had to know. Coming into town, traffic was challenging with angled 4-way intersections offering no guidance on right-of-way or stopping...kind of a free-for-all.  Forget about parking.  I am, at my very core, opposed to paying to park my car but there was not a free parking spot to be had within 5-miles.  Believe me, I checked.  Finally, throwing down a twenty to leave my car for a few hours we hiked down to the start of the Marginal Way only to find that they don't allow dogs, leashed or not.  Back to the truck we went and exiled Kasha to the back seat while we explored the trail.  Well, we found the trail not to be marginal at all.  It was quite beautiful actually, winding it's way along the sea cliff with waves crashing on the rocks below. Classic Maine coast!  The town itself was charming, of course, but we have found that we are not fond of the tourist towns, They tend to be, invariably, overcrowded and full of stores that sell stuff.  Can you imagine!  That would be fine except we can't afford the stuff they have and have nowhere to put it if we could.  These towns also happen to be full of tourists.  We get enough of that at home.

While in the area we had to stop by Kennebunkport where the [George] Bush's have their summer home.  This was a mistake.  While charming to look at, it was another tourist spot full of snooty people, too much traffic and no parking.  I can't help wondering what these places are like in the height of tourist season.  Yikes! After getting evicted from a restaurant because Kasha greeted one of the workers  a tad enthusiastically, we made our exit from town and moved up the coast a bit. This led us to the town of Orchard Beach, They were pretty much shut down for the year but you could tell it must be pretty hopping during the summer proper.  There was a nice beach and boardwalk where we were able to get a burger and beer on an outside deck overlooking the ocean.  Dogs were welcome and it was very chill.  Our kind of place.

Heading north up the coast our next stop was Camden, ME [where the forest meets the sea], another lovely coastal town which we enjoyed very much.  I was able to get out for some very pleasant road riding on my bike along rolling hills with great scenery and little traffic. Very nice.  Our campground was situated right next to the water and there was a great little picnic area right on the water where you could see a lovely sunrise...if you were up early enough.

Our next stop will be near Acadia National Park which should be one of the high points of our trip so until next time...

Megunticook camp picnic area

The Marginal Way

End of the line

Acadia colors on the East Coast Greenway

Marginal way 

Camden hike view

Camden estuary

P-town ship in building. Don't know why

Wayside Inn creek

In the spirit

Hamming it up

Wisconsin

 Our travels next took us to central Wisconsin where we spent a bit of time in the tiny town of Wilton.  We set up camp in the pleasant little town park, a short walk from town.  These town parks are our favorite places to camp as they are generally spacious, quiet, clean and pretty.  This camp spot was no different and, although the park was next to a cornfield [as is everything in the state] the bugs weren't TOO bad. Kelly got bit up a little but we were lucky to have power for AC so we could hide out in the trailer as this was probably the most hot/humid weather we had seen so far.

 Our location was great, being located about mid-point on the Elroy-Sparta bike trail, another Rails-to-Trails path that runs through the farmlands for a distance of about 33 miles.  It was a great place to get a few longer rides in and handy for taking Kasha on walks. The trail passes through three tunnels along its route and, on our first ride, Kelly and I encountered two of them.  These tunnels are unlighted so I followed Kelly closely since she had the only light on her e-bike.  The second tunnel is fairly long [about 3/4 mile] and was a good turning around point so we only explored the first hundred yards or so of the cold, dripping entrance before deciding we'd had enough.

The town was less than exciting with one tavern available for dining out and the only food available at the local Dollar General store.  Canned Chef Boyardee ravioli is ok for the first three nights but loses its allure pretty rapidly.  Actually, they were surprisingly well stocked, and we managed quite well.

The upside of the limited eateries available was that the 2 restaurants close by were pretty darn good.  I had a burger at the Wilton tavern and it was probably the best burger I've had on the whole trip and the combo with fries was a whopping $8.  We ate here a few times on our stay and the food was consistently excellent and inexpensive.  There was another farm-to-table type restaurant not far away that is located in an old schoolhouse.  We tried this one out as well and were delighted to find that it, too was great food at the most reasonable prices we had seen so far.  When leaving, we chatted with the owner and ended up leaving with an armful of free produce from their garden. I'd been 'jonesing' for some good tomatoes the whole trip and these did not disappoint.

The next phase of our trip was scheduled to be spending some time with our friends from Shorewood, WI, Bob and Susan.  We started off by camping a few nights in a state campground near Belgium, WI. Located on the shore of Lk Michigan, this campsite was very private due to the dense vegetation surrounding each campsite.  This was a dry-camp [no power, sewer hookup or water] so we had a chance to give our solar system a test.  All worked great!  We found that we can dry camp about a week without needing any utility hookup if we are careful with water. 

 This is another location located near a Rails-to-Trails bike path, this one the Ozaukee Interurban trail.  Kelly and I had ridden this during our tour around Lk Michigan many years ago and we were able to do a few day rides on this trip.  We were pleased to see that the bakery in Oostburg was still in operation as they have the best dang apple fritters on the planet.  Good motivation for a ride.  Kasha was again in heaven, with lots of stick fetching on the nearby Lk MI beach and walks on the trails in the park.

After leaving the camp we were treated to a few nights of living indoors at Bob and Susan's house. Thanks, guys, for your generous hospitality ...it was much needed. We would be staying in the area almost 2 weeks so we rented a spot to leave the trailer in storage for the duration.  We had to pay for a month but it was only $100 [less than 3 nights camping] and we got to enjoy indoor plumbing, a real bed and some space for a while. Shorewood is a lovely suburb of Milwaukee and has a great blend of suburban living with urban attractions close by.  

We happened to be in Milwaukee for one of my favorite events, Milwaukee Irish Fest.  This is held in a huge venue right on the shores of the lake and features some great Irish music, dancing and cultural displays.  Bob had arranged for the four of us to serve beer for a few hours and we were entertained by the musicians playing in the tent right next to ours.

For our next WI adventure we decided to leave the RV in storage and motel it for a few days in Sturgeon Bay, WI.  Our motel was [suprise!] located near another Rails-to-Trails bike path, this time the Ahnapee Trail which starts in Sturgeon Bay and extends through WI farmlands and towns for about 48 miles. We got a few very nice miles in with the great weather continuing for us.

After returning to Shorewood, we then headed out for our stay at the lake house.  While the ladies took the cars up, Bob, Del and I rode the last 40 miles to the house on a combination of bike trail and rural roads.  This was some of the nicest bike riding I've done in years and made me realize how much I miss road riding on scenic, untraveled roads.  I enjoy my mountain and gravel rides in CO but miss road biking a bit. Especially, riding with a group in such perfect conditions.  In the morning, we loaded up the bikes for all and did another great ride on the bike trails of Peninsula State Park and finished the day with some beers and pizza at a local beer garden with some entertaining live music. The house was beautiful and the company even better.  Thanks to all our WI friends for making this a memorable trip.

Bob the yoga master

Lake Michigan shoreline

Lk Mi Sunrise

Lake Michigan shoreline

The Midwest and Great Lakes

 Having escaped S. Dakota we entered the 'real' midwest into Minnesota.  We had decided to make camp in the little town of Melrose which has the attraction of being about midway on the Lake Wobegon Bike trail which extends for about 65 miles and connects with the Central Lakes trail which runs for another 55 miles.  Before we could even make camp we got another blowout on a trailer tire...Really?!  Again, our luck was bad/good in that we had been driving through torrential downpours for much of the day and the tire decided to blow in the parking lot of the campground and in town a couple blocks from a tire store.

We enjoyed our time in MN with some nice bike rides and....well, the people are really nice.  Other than that, we just noted that there is really a lot of corn in this part of MN.  There is a lot of everything green out here and we have really been enjoying it after spending so much time in the arid west. The down side is, of course, that it is quite a bit more humid and rainy than at home and we are still trying to adjust to it.  The day we had come into town, a town just to the south had gotten 6-in. of rain in a couple hours.  Wow!  As noted, the people are all really nice...I took Kasha for a walk one evening and most people that passed us in cars gave us a wave hello.  Kelly and I decided that people reach terminal niceness somewhere on the rural border of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

After maxing out the fun meter in Melrose we headed for the north shore of Lake Superior.  Now that is some very scenic country up there.  The lake is beautiful, and the rocky shoreline is pretty spectacular.  Just the thought of that much clean, clear, fresh water is kind of mind-blowing.  We learned some interesting facts that drive home just how large these lakes are.  Taken together, the Great Lakes account for 95% of the surface area water in N. America and if spread evenly above the lower 48 states would create a lake 9.5 feet deep.  That's a lot of water, most of which comes from Canada.  No wonder some want to make it our 51st state...good luck with that.  We took a drive up to the lovely little harbor town of Grand Marias which is pretty much the last stop before the Canadian border and, as nice as it was, we couldn't help but try to picture it in mid-winter.  One of the locals told us that the previous winter the temperature had gotten down to 50 below zero.  We'll take a hard pass on that one.

The next stop on our Great Lakes tour was the Apostle Islands about an hour's drive east of Duluth, MN.  Another great spot.  We stayed in a state park campground near the town of Bayfield, WI, a harbor town on the south shore of Lk Superior.  There was a very nice, un-crowded swimming beach within walking distance of our camp which Kasha enjoyed very much.  Every day here had to include a rigorous hour-long stick fetching session at the lake.  The Apostle Islands themselves are situated within a fairly short boat ride of Bayfield so we splurged and took the grand tour boat ride which visited most of them.  The islands themselves are very remote and mostly uninhabited, but the real attraction is the sea caves carved into the rocky shoreline on some of them.  I won't try to describe them but take a look at the pictures below to get an idea.  The couple camped next to us [Dan and Sheri] had a power boat and took us out for a boat ride on their last night at camp.  This got us a wonderful, up-close view of the sea caves.  The told us a story [and had pictures to verify] of snorkeling at the sea caves and being warned of a very large buck that had fallen in and was trapped at the back of a deep chasm that cut into the rocky shoreline.  People were, somehow, able to herd it out into the open water where it could swim to a climbable section of shoreline and rescue itself.  They had pictures of the deer swimming in the lake with the snorkelers in the background.  Pretty wild.

From here we will be moving on the central Wisconsin where we can see more corn and green stuff. Until then...

Minnesota Corn

Really lotta corn

Apostle Islands Bay

Where the deer fell in

Gooseberry Falls, Lk Superior

Kasha Hamming it up

Lake Superior

Sea Caves

Tom's Burnt Down Tavern, Madeline Island, Bayview