Munising Michigan

Walked around the campground, there is a Disc Golf course here. We made a major mistake in forgetting that it is mosquito season and we did not put on any bug spray. We almost got carried away, there were so many of them. It made it very easy to leave Holtwood Campground.

We drove up a scenic route along the west coast of Lake Michigan. It reminds me a lot of northern Minnesota. Lots of little towns and lakeshore homes. Pleasant Drive.

Our next destination was the Munising Tourist Park Campground on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan . I like the name of the campground – it sort of reminds me of something out of the fifties. We lucked out big time and got a place right on Lake Superior. Our whole front window is filled with nothing but the lake.

Unhooked the car – it took all of five minutes. I dragged the lawn chairs out and a glass of wine and settled down to watch the sunset. Going to like this place.

My view out the window:

Tony's First Venture into the World of RVs

Big day today. This is the start of a trip with Tony. Tony has been rather hesitant to join me on my RV adventures. The whole idea of travel is not something that appeals to him. He truly loves his home and because his home is so satisfying to him, he doesn't see much point in travel. Since I am sort of on the opposite end of the spectrum, it has been rather difficult to span that gap in a way that would make both of us happy. Tony has graciously agreed to venture out and see where the road leads us. Not only that, he agreed to go for a week and a half. This is huge. Of course his week and a half is different than my week and a half, but I'm sure that we will work something out.

We decided to go to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and along the south shore of Lake Superior. Several tasks will be accomplished. I will be able to knock off three more National Sites and Tony will be able to see what life on the road is like. I have tentatively planned a partial itinerary, some of it will be as the wind blows.

We spent the last few days getting everything ready. I told Tony that this will be just like living at home and he took me seriously. Let's just say, Tony does not pack light. We got everything loaded up and ready to hit the road.

I bought a new rug for the RV.  I wish it was a little bit bigger, but I think it works.  You can see where Miko's bed is right by the driver's seat.

 

The other big thing today is this is the first road trip where I am towing my car behind the new RV. I used to have a trailer that I would drive the front wheels of my car up on and tow that behind the RV. The setup I have now is totally different. I had a base plate installed on my car which allows me to tow the car with all four wheels on the ground. After spending about ten minutes hooking it up this morning and then towing it behind my RV, four wheels on the ground is definitely the way to go. Super easy, I can't even tell it is back there. The main benefit though is how easy it is to hook and unhook the car.

We took off about 10:30 from River Falls and headed straight east across Wisconsin. Mostly four lane highways until the last hour when we got off the main drag and started going through some of the tiny little towns in rural Wisconsin. What is so interesting about Wisconsin is that no matter how small a town is, there will always be a minimum of two bars. Each bar would have several locals hanging out in front on the sidewalks. We rolled into the campground around 3:30.

We ended up in Oconto Wisconsin which is just about 30 miles north of Green Bay. We are at the Holtwood Campground, right on the Oconto river. Not a lot of charm, but it is passable for an overnight visit. There are two types of camping spots, the type where you have to back in and the pull thru ones which is what I really wanted so I did not have to unhook the car. Settled in and about the time we got everything hooked up, two guys showed up and told us that we had to move because we had parked in a reserved spot. Of course, they had forgotten to put up reserved signs so there was no way we could have known. We had to move because there where three rigs coming in, each of which were seventy feet long (RV plus they were towing very big trailers) These made my RV look like a baby RV. The managers apologized up and down about the hassle and ended up giving us a free night of camping for our troubles. One of the managers (the slightly inebriated one) went so far as to tell us that we needed to come back again sometime and we could have a whole weekend free. Hmmmm.

Showed Tony how to set up the RV, washed the windshield and then had some sort of frozen dinner. Day 1 completed and everybody is still happy. Well, maybe not Miko – she has such a hard time traveling, I really do think she gets a little sick. She seems to have recovered although I'm sure she is not going to be happy when we have to road trip again tomorrow.

Last Day Out

Today is Mother's Day and we are on a mission to get to my mother's house in Crosslake Mn. She does not know we are coming, it will be a surprise.

Had a small mishap closing up shop. We were bringing in one of the slides and I didn't make sure that the passenger seat was up far enough. The slide scrapped on the chair and took off some of the molding. Another thing to add to my maintenance list when I next bring the RV in. It looks like an expensive repair.

Then as I'm driving down the road I hear a banging noise from the rear of the coach. Turns out that the back window – the exit window is flapping in the breeze. The latch has worn away and is no longer catching it. Another item for the list.

We drove some back roads through Hawley, Sebaka and Pine River. It was fun seeing these small Minnesota towns that I've only heard about during Hockey playoff time or tornado season during the weather broadcasts.

My mother was totally thrilled and surprised. She rounded the corner and saw the rig and started screaming (with joy, with joy). I am so glad that we were able to pull it off. It was the first time she saw the RV in person and she was suitably impressed. I think it would be great fun to go on a road trip with her.

Tomorrow I head home

States I've slept in while in a Motor Home or Horse Trailer

 

Buffalo River State Park Minnesota

Got up early to an overcast day. Guess what? It is a miracle – we have hot water. We quickly took showers before the tankless water heater decided to change it's mind. Nothing beats that clean feeling.

Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park used to be a Mandan Indian settlement. The CCC reconstructed some of the earth lodges. The park was also the home of the 7^th Calvary which is the outfit that was lead by General George Custer and ended up at the Battle of Little Big Horn. We spent a couple of hours touring the museum and the Commissary before hitting the road. Oh – there was a history movie also.

Ended up back in Minnesota at the Buffalo River State Park. I was a little worried that there wouldn't be any room at the park because it is fishing opener, but this is not a fishing park. Got our spot and I took off on an hour long hike around the park. The Buffalo River is a good size river and is full into the spring rush, rapids and all. The park is fairly close to Highway 10 which means there is a lot of train traffic heard off in the distance.

The Long Road Back

Got up and lounged around a bit. My nephew Tyler just bought a farm and his dream was to raise bison. It will probably be awhile before he reaches his dream and I found the perfect present for him while he waits. I found the most perfect pile of buffalo dung, perfectly shaped, perfect size. I wrapped it up in a plastic bag and I just know he will love it. It will probably be the be the center piece of his farm.

Said goodbye to my beloved badlands bluffs. I really wish that I had more time to spend in Teddy Roosevelt. Since Barb is a working woman, we are limited on time and have to pull up stakes. I definitely need to come back and explore the area a bit more although I do find the bison rather intimidating.

We stopped at the Painted Canyon area of the park. It is sort of funny in that it is a rest stop and part of the National Park. The ranger pointed out some of the bluffs way out in the park that we had been hiking on the previous day.

Got to Mandan where we stayed at Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. The camping is right on the Missouri River. The highlight of the night was going to be taking showers. I have to admit, it had been several days since showers had been available. We needed showers in a big way. Barb goes first and there is NO hot water. What? No matter what we try, we can't get the hot water to work. Oh well, it will be another rank day.

On the other hand, we figured out how to get the DVD player working and we were able to watch a dvd.  Not that it made up for no shower, but it was a mild diversion.

The Amazing Teddy Roosevelt National Park

Much as we enjoyed our site last night, we decided to check out all of the other sites just in case there was something better. Found a great site that overlooked the Little Missouri River and a bunch of bluffs. We walked the camping loop and ran into a couple of male buffalo grazing away. Barb hid behind some trees and took photos. They came with in a few feet of our campsite. Boy, are those things massive.

We lounged around the campsite waiting for the buffalo to leave and then packed up the RV and headed into Teddy Roosevelt park. They have a 36 mile driving loop that encircles the park. There was nobody on the road except us. The speed limit was 25 and most of the time we were going around 10 MPH. It took us almost 4 hours to go the 36 miles. The scenery was other worldly – huge vistas, towering rock formations and lots and lots of buffalo and wild horses. We only saw one foal, no calves, it was maybe a couple of weeks too early to see the babies, although the ranger said that there were 20 foals on the ground already in the park.

We stopped several times to do some of the shorter hikes away from the road. We went to Buck Hill which is the tallest point in the park. Jaw dropping views. Camera shots just don't do it justice. The road up to the Buck Hill trailhead was probably a 45 degree incline. It felt like we were off-roading.

I guess that is something different to do in an RV. Going up wasn't too bad, going down I put the RV into 1^st gear but it didn't seem to be much of a speed deterrent.

Another hike was the Wind Cave Hike. Extreme cliffs and beautiful wind sculpted rock formations.

I really hate being near an edge and this hike had lots of cliff edges and not very many railings. There was a bunch of wild sage growing along the path and it was all Barb could do not to pick any to bring home.

Got back home to our new site and pulled a couple of lawn chairs down to the Little Missouri River for Happy Hour. It was a very happy Happy Hour. Sun was finally out, nice breeze – scenery breathtaking. I wish that when you take a photo that it would do justice to what you are photographing. Tons of frogs croaking and I tried stalking a few of them, but as soon as you get close to the sound they stop so I never saw a frog.

This is our Happy Hour View:

 

Rain Sleet Go Away

The night started out a little loud. Lots of cars coming and going and several gunshots going off (they sounded like they were right outside the RV). Side not - according to my niece, Everbody on the Rez carries at least one gun. It is very much a gun culture. Anyways things finally settled down and I was able to sleep. During the night the rain started, a strong rain, but the troubling thing was the wind. All I could think of was that I was going to have to drive in this weather the next day. Not fun and pretty scary.

When we woke up, it was foggy misty and not much visibility.  Barb and I decided that because of the wind, it would be too hard to try to drive to Fort Union Trading Post, my last NoDak national Site.  We decided to settle for the Juniper Campground which is the Northern Unit of the Teddy Roosevelt National Park.  Driving was horrible, nothing worse than a cross wind - in North Dakota there is nothing to stop the wind. It actually started to sleet and I had frozen sleet on my windshield.

We drove into Juniper and again there was modify around. Guess nobody wants to camp when it is sleeting out. The drive into Juniper was very impressive, from the six buffalo that greeted us as we walked in, to the amazing rock formations along the way. Looked very much like the Bad Lands that everybody has seen as they drive west along 94.  Drove into the campground, looked around. Since the road that you can take to tour the Northern Unit was closed, there was not much to do - forget hiking, we would have been sucked into never never land with the mud. After much consultation, we decided to drive another hour and a half down to the Southern Unit. It was a little closer to home, there were more open trails and just more opportunities for fun.

When we got to the visitor center in the south several momentous things happened. One, the sun came out for a minute or two and secondly, I found a wood tick attached to me. The first one of the season. We watched an orientation film about the park and then found a lovely campground site that is nestled in the juniper trees overlooking some of the hills. Again, no water or electricity but nature makes up for that.

Barb decided that after all that terrible driving I would need to be plied with wine. She is a good travel buddy. I'm rather enjoying this part of the journey.