So our voyage north didn't start out quite as smooth as expected. 1 week before we left, a deer hit Randy on his way back from Fort Atkinson to the Redneck RV resort: AKA Jim's farm. Estimates and insurance adjusters we were going to stay another 2 weeks and get the truck fixed. Tried to re-arrange all the campground reservations up north and Canada. Just wasn't going to happen, everyone was booked up and we couldn't rearrange. So plan B, we kept all our reservations and got the OK from the insurance adjuster to delay repair until we returned in September. Looks a bit better as Randy did his magic with zip ties, plastic and screws. Everything runs so off we went. First stop Wisconsin Dells. We were so happy to have our good friends Jerry & Janet and son James & fiancee' Jamie come up to hang out with us. Went on the Original Ducks and I think Jerry had the driver speech memorized. Rain came so we went back to the coach and played dice games. I had a great time, it was a lot of fun!
Then onto Northern Wisconsin and Arbor Vitae Campground on Big Arbor Vitae Rd in (you guessed it) Arbor Vitae Wisconsin. Got to visit family in Eagle River and eat pasties. I just love reminiscing.
The whole Minocqua, Woodruff, Eagle River, St Germain area is so beautiful and I love the lakes everywhere you look. Trees, trees and more trees. Every time we were on Hwy 70 we saw deer. Very cautious now after our encounter with the deer near Fort. So when we were on the motorcycle we were constantly on "deer patrol" and looking.
Stopped at the Wausau WalMart on the way up north and met up with a 1st cousin - once removed. Flora. Her grandmother was my father's sister. We connected on Facebook and finally got to meet. They have done a thorough geneology of the Hoover family and sharing it with me. King Edward the 1st of England is in our lineage. So that makes me 1 drop of blue blood? maybe 1/2 drop.
The native flowers were so gorgeous and plentiful. I think with the really tough winter, everyone quadrupled their plantings and even by the side of the road the wild flowers were in bloom and plentiful. I love flowers and green.
Took a day and drove the motorcycle into the U.P. Black River Road (Hwy 513) in the Ottawa National Forest. Beautiful waterfalls and the river that leads into Lake Superior. Hot day and we figured we walked about 4 miles of trails to see the 5 waterfalls off the road. Water was a bit cold. Had fish fry at a local bar and grill. We were obviously not locals and we got lots of stares but good food.
Potawatomi falls, Gorge falls, Rainbow falls, Sandstone falls
I just love hearing the sound of the waterfalls.
The next, unexpected stop, was on the way back down Black River Road when over the trees we could see this huge structure. So we ventured in that direction and found the Copper Peak Sky jump. So we took a ride to the top of the world's largest ski flying structure via the 810 ft chair lift and 18-story elevator. It rises 26- stories above the hill top. The view is unequaled anywhere in the Midwest. The vista overlooks 2500 square miles of the Lake Superior Basin including parts of Michigan, Wisconsin , Minnesota, and, on a clear day, 85 miles across the Lake. Points of Interest include the Apostle Islands, the Porcupine Mountains, Isle Royale, and numerous historic sites. Experience the ski flyers perspective! Ski flyers can soar more than 600 feet on this hill!. This photo was from the internet but gives you an idea. I made it to the top of the elevator and inside the cyclone fence deck area but very, very slowly as I hate heights. Randy continued up the last 6 stories via steel grate stairs. You know those ones you can see through. The ones that the ground is 26 stories below you and the wind is causing the stairs to sway 6 inches. Yah, those stairs. They will remain forever unchallenged by this girl !
Saturday we returned to Eagle River ArtOrama and found my cousins booth. Deb & Rick Schutte are professional potters and they always have a large area to sell their pottery. We usually see them every year we went to Door County in the fall but this year we could see them in July. This picture is of Deb's sister Melanie and her daughter and niece. Mel and I grew up sharing summer vacations with each other. She lived in Antigo and I in Elkhorn. Mel's grandma and my mom were sister's so we had many family times together. We took another trip to Crandon and Argonne to see the town my dad grew up in. It had changed a lot. Pretty much ghost town, now population 160. This memorial for WWII vets was in town and my dad's name was on the insert. His best friend helped get this fire station built and found out his wife was just put in a nursing home, age 94. Didn't visit her but visited their son in Crandon. He owns the local newpaper and has for decades, the Pioneer Express. Randy and I hung out in the "front office" consisting of 4 rocking chairs and great conversation. He shared some old photos with me of my family logging camp and heard many great "old" stories. We used to stay at his folks house every August for Argonne Days. A town celebration and parade. We use to ride horses through town and hang out with a good friend from Argonne, Sarah Feucht. That's were my daughter got her name sake from.
We took a tour to Wabeno Logging Museum to check out the history of the area. Great history and items on display in the museum. Still logging today and many logging trucks on the road as we drove around the area. This venture was more for me and my family heritage and thankfully Randy went along with all my requests and all the family visits. It's great knowing your past and where you came from.
Short trip of 120 miles and we are near Bayfield and the Apostle Islands. Found a nice, but rustic campground on the Indian casino reservation. Red Cliff Band of the Cherokee tribe. Randy wanted to know what kind of instruments they played. Not that kind of "band". So we found out that our kayaks should not really go on Lake Superior as they HIGHLY recommend Sea Kayaks. They are much longer, narrower, and have a ruder. So we decided to take the Grand boat tour of the Apostle Islands. There are actually 22 islands and we saw 19 of them on our tour. It was "a 3 hour tour" (Remember Gilligan's Island?) well that stupid song sticks in your head when you sing it enough. It was very informative and great views of the caves, lighthouses, fish camps, and wildlife. It got a bit chilly by sunset. Unfortunately, there were too many clouds to make for a perfect sunset. The sun hid behind the clouds all the way down. It was great having some light still at 9:30pm. Must be that Northern exposure. The ice caves this winter that people flocked too are on the western shore of the peninsula near Meyer's Beach. People had to walk about 1 1/2 miles on the ice to get to them. Many of the island also have caves but that would have been a very, very long walk to get to. Snowmobiles were a better choice there. I don't remember the exact year, but it hadn't been since the 70's that people were able to walk on the ice to the caves. Lake Superior didn't totally thaw until the end of June this year. That would have been great to see. The water temp 42 degrees out and 60 degrees near shore. They say without a life jacket you could only survive 10 minutes in the water and maybe an hour with a life jacket. Too cold and bad odds if we took the chance and put our kayaks in. We'll be happy with the nice boat ride.
It is just amazing how beautiful the caves are. The water sculptor is so creative and always changing. They still log some of the islands and many you can primitive camp on. There are bears and deer on all of the islands as we were told they both swim very well and are often seen swimming from one island to the next. We did not see any swimming. But it makes me wonder how we could not survive and yet they do it all the time. I am sure they didn't have a life jacket on.
On our way back to Bayfield, on the Grand Tour, we could see our motorhome at the campground from the boat. Great view from the water and great view to wake up to every morning. They told us 2 nights before we arrived that there was a thunder storm and that "fierce windstorm" came through the campground. Knocked branches of trees down and tore a few camper awnings off. Tree limb hit a few rigs also. Glad we weren't early arriving!! So we pull our awning in every time we leave camp, just incase.
This is downtown Bayfield at dusk. They have a great Maritime Museum. Lots of fishing boats and places to by fresh Lake Superior fish. Randy LOVES smoked fish and he is finding it right and left. A lot of t-shirt shops too but a great quilt shop. I did lots and lots of looking but was good and didn't buy. I like getting ideas. But I must finish my current projects first. That's what I keep telling myself. The campground maintenance man suggested going down the road to the Fish Hatchery and checking it out. We got a private tour and lots of education. They had Trout and Walleye and Alaskan Salmon that they were "fish sitting" for a company in Washington. They do lots of research for the UW system and anyone that requests their help. They don't grow fish for repopulating but for spawning and testing. One experiment they were doing was with trout to see if the color of the tank made a difference in their growth (white, black, and blue tanks) Just collected the data so the final results is still out. They did do a test on the amount of silt in a tank. Most of the fish died in the heaviest silt tank so I guess that was a no brainer that they don't like that. I would have loved to reach right in those tanks and taken a few of each home for supper. It was a beautiful drive up and around to the west side of the peninsula. Stopped along the way to Little Sand Beach but it started to rain so continued to Cornicopia. Nice, very small fishing village. Bought some more smoked fish to put in the freezer for later - like maybe tomorrow when Randy eats again. He just loves that fish. General store was open so we wandered around for awhile. $1.16 a pound for bananas (and I thought $0.59 was bad). Only looked but didn't buy here. Toured their local museum. Learned about gill nets and net traps for fishing. Onto the fruit farms another day. Next week Duluth Minnesota.
