Green Bay, Wisconsin

 

6-9-2021 – Wednesday

We survived the night with no tv or internet.  Played Rummikup, read books.   This is our woodsy campsite.

Joe cleaning the windshield is a regular occurrence, usually happens more than once a day.  Today, after he did what he could, we hit the first car wash we saw and finished the job.  Temporarily.

Got an early start this morning (8:40) for our drive to Green Bay.  First on our agenda was Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers.  Of all the NFL stadiums, this is the one we wanted to see the most.  We found it pretty easily, went into the Pro Shop, bought tickets for the Field Tour (15 minutes, but we got to go in the bleachers  down to the field (another tour took you onto the field and into the tunnel, but we didn’t do that one).  It was all quite impressive.

Outside the building are these statues of Earl Lambeau and Vince Lombardi.

And in the Atrium is this giant statue of the Lombardi trophy.  Quite impressive!

See Joe standing at the bottom.

The field itself looked small, without the grid lines.  The grass is 95% real grass, and just 5% artificial.  They water it every day, and mow it every other day.   

And here is one of the goal posts.

Across the parking lot is the Don Hutson Center, their indoor practice field.  There are outside practice fields on each side of this building.

We asked about tickets.  There are no individual tickets for sale, all are season tickets.  However, there are usually some season ticket holders who can’t make the game, so there are tickets that can be bought from them.  Individual ticket prices start at $125, but I don’t know what they go for from the season ticket holders, I would guess they are much higher.  The waiting list for season tickets is 135,000, so get your name on the list now if you ever want a ticket.

Saw this “statue” driving through town.

 

From there, we headed to Sturgeon Bay, with Green Bay on one side, and Lake Michigan on the other.  From the highway, we worked our way over to the water, and found a place with a view of the bay of Green Bay.  Most of the shoreline is hidden by homes, some very nice, and others lake cottages.  We didn't drive to the end of this peninsula, or even to the town of Sturgeon Bay.

I picked up a few rocks, but nothing special.

Then we cut over to the Lake Michigan side and drove to the little beach town of Algoma.  This was a really pretty town, well kept, lots of flowers blooming in yards, beautiful beach, nice marina. 

We drove through town, and turned around at a field full of seagulls.

Joe really thought the scenery on this beach was great.

(At first I didn’t think she had anything at all on, but Joe had her zoomed in on the camera and could tell there was a little piece of clothing around her waist).

We did walk the beach a little.  It had been quite warm in Green Bay (town), mid-80s, but by the water, it was a chilly 73.  We looked for rocks, but they just aren’t the right kind here.  We found a little restaurant with a beach view, right across the street from the beach, and enjoyed a nice meal there.

Joe wanted to see the town of Green Bay, so we drove right through the center on our way back.  It’s an old town, but well kept.  We left Green Bay about 4:50 and got home at 6:30, not too bad.  285 miles today.

The highway to Green Bay was mostly woods.  But we came back into the town from the south, off the peninsula, and even on the peninsula, we saw lots of farm ground and crops:  corn, rye, alfalfa or clover, and a sod farm.  And some dairy farms. And lots of silos and barns.

We did see a little wildlife today:  4 sandhill cranes, 7 turkeys, and some Belgium belted cows.  I wanted Joe to turn around so I could get a picture of the belted cows, but he said, “I have all my u-turns and back-ups in for the day.”  Humph!  A little later, he passed a road named “Rustic Road,” which he mentioned.  I waited a mile or so, and snottily replied, “Too bad you have all your u-turns and back-ups in for the day.”  But I sure wish I had gotten a picture of those cows.

Back at the RV, we had a bite to eat, played Rummikup again (Stacey, after getting beat several nights in a row, I beat him tonight 75-0).  Read our books.  Adjusting to life without TV and internet, but now we have to go to town tomorrow to find a wifi signal so I can post 2 nights of the blog, do laundry, and try to find our next campground, in Michigan.

Across Wisconsin

6-8-2021 – Tuesday

Today was our travel day, and we drove Hwy 2 across Wisconsin, then in and out of Michigan on Hwy 2 and 141.  It was 61 when I got up, but it warmed up to 93, too hot. One town we went through not too long before we got to the campground registered 100 degrees.  We got an early start, 8:00, and crossed into Michigan the first time at 9:45.  We were back in Wisconsin at 1:10, Michigan again at 1:55, and Wisconsin for the night at 2:10, about 8 miles (probably less) from the Michigan border.  But our campground is off the beaten path, very secluded, not much of a phone signal, and no internet.  I think it’s part of a city park system, but we are in the boonies, about 25 miles south of Iron Mountain, I think.  The address here is Pembine, but I don’t think that makes the map. 

Our drive was mostly through forests, sprinkled with lakes, through an occasional small town.  We saw two deer, and lots of trees.  No pictures today, which is just as well since we have no internet.  I will have to post this tomorrow when we drive into civilization in the Jeep.  Just before we finally reached our campground, we went past a house that had an irrigation sprinkler going.  Joe considered parking under the spray for a while to get the RV washed.  Our road seemed to go on and on.  The GPS would tell us how many miles to the next turn, but it didn’t show how many miles to the campground.  Finally, with 2.2 miles to the next turn (and we didn’t know if it was our last), Joe said if the campground wasn’t at this next turn, he was just going to take a nap right there.  Luckily, it was only another mile, but then we turned too soon, and drove an extra mile, had to make a u-turn to come back.  Nothing is ever simple for us!

We only have electricity at this camp site, so it didn’t take him long to get us set up.  He messed with the TV but we have no television signal here either.  And we are here for 3 nights!  Not sure how this will work out. 

We drove 237 miles today.  Our plan is to drive to Green Bay tomorrow, which is about 90 miles.  It stormed a little just before dark, but no wind, and it didn’t last that long, although it continued to sprinkle for a while.   Joe started the motor and turned the windshield wipers on for a while to try to get the bugs off the windshield.  We will see tomorrow if it helped.

Once we leave here, we are headed to the lower portion of the UP – we came across the northern part 2 years ago (that’s where I got all my rocks.  Hope the southern portion is equally generous.)  This taste of hot weather has already made us reluctant to start south, but that’s what lies ahead.

Getting Wet

 6-7-21 - Monday

The plan for today was to have an easy day.  But we do not know how to have an easy day.  We decided to drive Hwy 13 along the Lake Superior shoreline as much as it would let us, maybe do a little rockhounding.  We headed out about 9:40, without breakfast, the camp hostess said the little towns we would go through should have a restaurant.  75 miles later, in Bayfield, we found restaurants.  The only one we found along the way was closed, and Joe gets grumpy when he gets hungry.  So at 11:30, we had breakfast/lunch.  We had been to Bayfield on our trip through here in 2019, and actually took a boat tour from here through the Apostle Islands.  After we ate, we drove the streets, checked out the marina, etc.  This is a cute little fishing/tourisy town, and lots of flowers and trees are blooming right now so it was very colorful.  I took a picture of a beautiful pink bush, but it is a bit blurry.  And the lilacs are still blooming here!

  At 12:30, we headed back, and there was a road through the apple orchards, which are very popular right here.  The brochure says "Bayfield's location near Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands creates a unique micro-climate, which allows fruits and berries to flourish." So of course we took that.  A lot of the apple rows were labeled with the type of trees there, and there are a lot of markets or barns that sell produce in season.  We didn't see any of them open.  We did see blueberry bushes, strawberry plants, and peach trees, but again, we are too early for any of this. We wandered around on this J Road, thinking it would come out a little further west, on our way back.  But when it did come out, 25 minutes later, we were east of Bayfield, so we got to drive through the town again.

Moving along west again, finally, we took a side road down to the beach at the National Lakeshore.

This was a nice beach area, but not much in the way of rocks for collecting, it was just little pebbles.  A gal on the beach said there more a little further down the beach, so I walked down there.  Joe had elected to sit in the chair up under the trees, so I was on my own--he couldn't even see me over the ridge.  Well, I saw something larger in the water a little further out, so I took another step, then reached out with my rock picker.  The sand under my feet gave way, and I tumbled into the water.  It was cold!  And I couldn't get my footing, so I floundered around there for a while, swallowing the lake, until I finally got to my feet.  I gathered up my rock picker and headed back to our chairs.  Joe saw me coming, and asked if I feel in or got in on purpose.  I had to tell him I fell in.  He had been on his way down with the camera but his phone rang, so he missed all the action.

We took our chairs back down to water's edge for a little while, but there were just no rocks to be found.  And since we were on a national property, I couldn't take them anyhow.  So we moved on.

We got some information from another lady there about where we might find rocks, so we drove to another site, but it too was part of the National Lakeshore, and it was another sandy beach.  It was a popular kayak area, and they were giving lessons to a group.

Back on the road, we saw a few interesting things.  A pair of huge, tree-size boots.

And 3 sandhill cranes (here's two of them).  They are a little different color here than in Florida, more brown than gray.

And a nice view of Lake Superior.

We came through the little town of Port Wing, not much more than a wide spot in the road.  They had a sign advertising a "testicle festival."  Don't know what that is about.  Another sign Joe saw in the little town of Free Flow said "population - 1."  He thinks that was the name of the town, I didn't even see the town, much less the population sign.  I mentioned before these towns up north are pretty small.  Before we got back to the campground, Joe couldn't stand it, he had to turn down a dirt road, which happened to be old Hwy 13.  He just knew we would see something on this road.  And he turned out to be right.  He spooked a turkey, and then a deer came flying out of the woods, right in front of the jeep.  He had seen it coming, so we were already stopped for it.  We saw one other turkey back out on the main highway, that was it for wildlife today.  

We got back to camp at 4:00, put another 173 miles on the jeep today.  I was pretty uncomfortable in my wet clothes.  There is a swimming pool here at the campground, heated I think, and Joe told me I should just go jump in.  There were other people in the pool, but I opted not to join them.  It only got to 75 today but it was plenty warm on the beach.  

Joe decided he wanted a steak for dinner, so he looked around on his phone for a steakhouse in Superior.  He didn't find anything he thought sounded good, so we ended up driving into Duluth, across the bridge, to a Texas Roadhouse.  Our steaks were good, but it was after 9:00 before we got back to the RV.  Fortunately, the sun was just setting.  

Tomorrow is a travel day again.  East across Wisconsin.  We will see where we end up.

Across Minnesota

 6-6-2021 - Sunday

We were rudely awakened about 2:40 this morning by gale force winds rocking the RV. There wasn't much we could do, but Joe did bring in the two slides.  We went back to sleep, and saw nothing amiss when we got up, but the camper behind us had a pop-up shade that got destroyed.  It wasn't too windy by then, so we got on the road about 9:00, heading east.  A windy day was forecast, so we were not sure how far we would make it.  If our 95 degrees on Friday didn't destroy the lilacs, last night's wind probably finished them off.

Driving along, we saw this car that would have been perfect for Barbara and me during our "cruising" days.  Surely, if the odometer was clocking too many miles, we could have just driven it from the other end -- maybe that would have taken miles off!  It passed us on the highway, but of course I didn't have the camera ready.  Then we saw it at a gas station, but again, we were past too quickly to get a picture.  Then, lo and behold, it pulled up beside us to turn at a stoplight, and Joe got a picture out his window!  The photo of the day!

It was a pretty uneventful day, except for Joe battling the wind.  We crossed into Minnesota at 10:35, having driven 87 miles.  We drove Hwy 2 all the way into Wisconsin.  We had toured some of Minnesota in 2019, so we just drove straight across the state.

 This area was mostly farm ground.  And lakes.  We started counting Minnesota's 10,000 lakes, but didn't stay with it.  The wind gusts kept most of Joe's attention. (He did spot 2 deer early on the drive.) There were more trees in eastern North Dakota and Minnesota than we had been seeing, and sometimes that sheltered us from the wind, but when the tree row ended, we got slammed.  And we had more than our fair share of road construction.  Just before Duluth, I asked Joe how many miles we had in today.  He said, 352.  But take 50 off for the weaving, so we probably got 270. We stopped for lunch and fuel outside of Bemidji, and there was a little flea market on the parking lot, so I got to go shopping for 5 minutes.  But everyone was putting up their stuff because of the wind and heat.  I bought Joe a jar of carrot cake jam.  How special is that!

We came into the edge of Duluth about 4:25.  Hello again, Lake Superior!  There is a Cody Street here (we didn't take it).  We took a wrong turn merging onto I-35 to get across the bridge, but quickly corrected it.  (Joe didn't trust the GPS.)

About 3:00, I called the campground we stayed at 2 years ago, just across the bridge outside of Superior, Wisconsin.  They had a spot for us, so that was our destination.  We crossed the Wisconsin state line about 4:35, and arrived about 5:00, got registered, and pulled into our campsite.  Joe went out and hooked up the electricity, we turned on the A/C, and haven't stepped outside since.  It was 88, but very hot.  People were swimming in the pool, and on the beach we saw from the bridge.  Summer has arrived here.

Joe put in a lot of miles today, 354.   We decided to stay here for 2 nights, maybe do a little shopping, a little maintenance, find some rocks on Lake Superior's coastline, and take it easy.  We will see how that works out.  

Finishing Devil's Lake

 6-5-2021 - Saturday

We saw this pretty yellow headed bird yesterday but couldn't get the camera out in time.  This morning, I saw another one right in front of the RV, so I got a nice picture.  When Joe got up, he googled "bird with yellow head and black body," and it immediately came up with "yellow-headed blackbird."  The last time we googled a bird (the magpie), we had to provide color, body shape, size, etc.  This one was quick - it's the only black bird with a yellow head in existence.  More on this later.

About 10:00, we started into town for breakfast and to begin the rest of our loop drive around Devil's Lake.  And I got my picture of the resort just down the road with it's cute sign.  I actually thought it was a bait shop, but it was a resort instead.  There's a fisherman right in front of the resort sign.

 But we forgot the binoculars and had to go back by the RV, so we did the drive backwards, from the east.  That little round-trip to town took 15 miles, but the drive around the lake was long.  The road isn't always close to the lake, and the lake goes on forever.  Along the way, Joe stopped at a couple of fields to check out the crops.  The first he determined to be some kind of bean, maybe Great Northern?  Across the road, he thinks that's a grain, maybe barley, oats, could be wheat.  They really should put signs on the fields for inquiring minds like Joe.

Next was a small gathering of one-room schoolhouses that had been relocated to this place.  They had the dates on the front, 1888, 1914, 1898, and there was a cabin beside them that Joe figured was where the teacher lived.

My grandparents lived in a one-room schoolhouse east of Princeton, right at the edge of what is now Toyota's property.  I only remember it divided into 3 rooms, but I don't know at what point the dividers were built. 

We see a lot of grain elevators in this part of the country, usually at big farms or ranches, but sometimes in towns.  Here, the elevators were almost larger than the little town.

Next on our agenda was Fort Totten and Sullys Hill National Game Preserve, called the White Horse Hill.  We drove to the parking lot of the Fort, which served American Indian policy from 1867 and 1873 as a military outpost, but for most of its history it served as a boarding school for Indian children.  There were several buildings, maybe 12-15, but it was 95 degrees, so we skipped the walking tour, and drove on to the Game Preserve.  

There were supposed to be elk, bison, prairie dogs, lots of birds.  We did see a buffalo at one overlook, which is always exciting to us.  And prairie dogs again.  Joe introduced Theo to his eastern cousins.  The elusive elk remain elusive.

Prairie dog village.

This momma looks like she has some nursing babies.

Ahh, our buffs!

This preserve is in one of the few forests in this area.  There was a sign about that too.  It says that "few forests occur in North Dakota due to regular cycles of drought and prairie fires."  (You should be able to click on any photo to enlarge it.)

What was disappointing here is that it was only about a 5-mile drive.  We even drove it twice, trying to figure out if we missed a road somewhere.  There was an overlook that might have been interesting, but it had 193 steps! And it was 95 degrees! The heat reminded us that we don't want to come home until October.

We did see a second buffalo on our second time around, so it was worth something.  They had a nice visitor center, and exhibits of the animals in the area.  They even had one of that jack rabbit we saw last week.

And our yellow-headed blackbird.  So we got that right!

We did get a nice view of part of the lake from the jeep.  It goes on forever, with lots of fingers and bays.

Next, I finally got to go to the casino.  We got there about 5 minutes before 3:00, and their buffet opened at 3:00, so we got right in line.  Prime rib, chicken, fish, ribs, etc.  For $8.00.  We played for about an hour and a half, then we went back to the RV.  Joe was ready for a rest (those casinos wear him out).  But an hour later, he decided we needed to drive back in town to go to Grahams Island State Park, which we had skipped last night.  This is where he made the reservations for July instead of June.  That too was disappointing.  The state park part was not much more than a campground, with a swim beach.  No side roads to drive.  But we did see 2 deer, more white pelicans, lots of ducks and geese, and some pheasants (8 female, 1 male).  The deer were almost red in color.  We had seen 2 deer crossing a field on our morning drive.  Today was a free fishing day for residents (no fishing license required), but we didn't see anything about non-residents.  I understand it was Arizona's free fishing day too.  We did see lots of boats out, and lots of people lined along the banks fishing.  

On our final trip through town, we spotted this snowmobile.  Now this is the kind I would need.  I bet it even has a heater!

We drove just about 200 miles today.  Our little evening trek was 55 miles!  But we got back to camp and started getting ready to leave tomorrow morning.  We should leave North Dakota tomorrow and be somewhere in Minnesota.  After today's heat, tomorrow's forecast here is a high of 77, and windy.  Yeah.

Arriving Devil's Lake

 6/4/2021 - Friday

We de-camped this morning and headed for Devil's Lake.  We had kicked around the idea of heading to International Falls, Minnesota, but there didn't seem to be enough to do there to justify the extra miles, since we can't cross the border.  Joe made reservations at Devil's Lake on-line about 11:00 last night, then he went to bed.  After I finally finished working on my blog for the last 2 days and posting it, with Cathy's help,  I checked my phone. I saw we had confirmation of his reservation.  However, the dates were July 4-6 instead of June 4-6.  So I called (it's midnight now), and got a message that they would be with me  in a few minutes, so I kept waiting.  By now, Joe has gotten back out of bed, for moral support I guess.  I almost hung up once, but he told me to wait a little longer.  Finally, I got a person and cancelled his reservation, but they had nothing available for this weekend.  We will get charged some kind of cancellation fee, not sure how much, but at least we got that straightened out.  But no reservations for tonight.  So when I got up this morning, I started calling and found a spot.

 We were on the road at 8:45, stopped in Rolla for a very good breakfast.  When we came into one town, Rolla I think,  there was another sign about free COVID shots in the middle of the street.  I didn't get a picture, but I saw another similar-looking sign, so this time I was ready.  I got my picture, but it turned out to be a sign for a rummage sale.  But you get the idea.

Farmers are getting in the fields now.  In the afternoons, we usually see equipment just parked in the field.  Joe swears they all must quit working at 3:30.  But we moved over to meet this big tractor this morning.

We saw ducks, and white pelicans again, and some more of the white sand/salt.  Never did stop to check it out.   I even saw one pelican in flight, and could see the black on his wings.   

We arrived at the campground at 12:20, after spending 15-20 minutes working on the bugs on the windshield at the gas station right next door to the campground.  This campground is one where you go find a spot, then fill out the paperwork and put it in an envelope.  We could see from the gas station that there were no trees here, and it is 95 degrees. 

 I had also called the casino here this morning, which is about 7 miles from here, and they had a spot as well, but we decided to go with this other one.  But with the heat, and no trees, we were having second thoughts.  We found a spot (there were plenty), Joe got everything hooked up and started filling our water tank when I told him we had no electricity.  He unplugged and re-plugged the cord, but nothing.  He checked ours, then the others around us, and there was no electricity in this whole section.  By now, it's 99 degrees.  The people behind us had just gotten here this morning and were trying to clean theirs because they had sold it, but they couldn't get the power to come on, so the guy had gone to town and bought new fuses and a gfi.  She said they couldn't get the vacuum to work.  Joe asked if she was sure she had electricity, and she said yes, the radio was playing.  Joe said maybe it is running off the battery, which turned on the lightbulb for her, and she figured out she didn't have electricity either.  So we both called the RV office and left messages.  The lady there called us back in about 10 minutes and said there must be something wrong with the breaker because she had had one other call.  Her maintenance man (husband?) was on his way, would be here in about 20 minutes.  So we turned on the generator, and the A/C, and waited.  He arrived, he threw some breakers, but it didn't seem to make any difference.  But while he and Joe were standing there talking, it came on (may have been some kind of delay on it).  Anyway, he got us up and running, so all is good now.

Devil's Lake is a huge lake, just goes on and on.  The town of Devil's Lake is bigger than we expected, has a Walmart, McDonalds, Dairy Queen, etc.  After we recovered from the heat, even though it hadn't cooled down, we headed into town to drive around.  

The lake looks pretty shallow, but there were boats out on it so I don't know how deep it is.  There are also a lot of fisherman on the shore.  We saw one guy bring a fish in, couldn't tell what kind it is.

We drove the west side of the loop around the lake.  Part of it was like a causeway, with water on both sides (looked like Florida).  Along in here, we came upon a male and female pheasant again.

We had planned to go to the casino tonight for their buffet.  But when we got there, they had a car show going on, and some kind of event that people were sitting on the side of a hill, and they were forcing traffic into the lower parking lot, but the casino and restaurant was at the top of the hill.  Joe said he wasn't walking up the hill, so we gave up on that plan and headed back to town to Pizza Ranch.  We saw a lot of old cars around town, and parked at the hotel next door to Pizza Ranch.  If I'm lucky, we will try to go there tomorrow night.

It was 66 when I got up, but 95 when we got to the campground, then 99.  We only drove 121 miles today.  Joe is amazed at how good the roads are here in this north country (both highways and gravel roads), Arizona should take some lessons.  And with almost no traffic, it makes it a nice drive.  It rained during our evening drive and cooled things off a bit.  It's "only" supposed to be 93 tomorrow.  There is a wildlife refuge here than we plan to drive, as well as the east part of the lake loop.  That will probably be our last day in North Dakota.

Here's a moose thinking cool thoughts 😎

And be sure to see Aunt Wilma's latest post!