We Blew the Pop Stand

Yup – we’re home. We weren’t supposed to check out of the RV park until Friday, but when we got up on Thursday morning and it was still raining and blowing and only 45 degrees we decided to pull up stakes and head down the road. One day of that kind of stuff I can handle, as it’s kind of nice to be cozy and warm and just relaxing in the RV. But a second day – NOT.

Then there was some discussion as to whether we were going to head home or take the southern route and stop to visit some friends in northern Iowa. When we got to Green Bay, WI we had to make the decision to turn left or to turn right. Ole decided he had to get back to his projects and his doggers, so we turned right and arrived at the homestead about 10 o’clock last night. It was an 11-hour drive with one stop to fuel up and a quick stop at an Arby’s for lunch. Otherwise it was 11 hours of motoring down the road. That’s a long day, so we were both tired.

Of course the doggers heard the rig drive by when we pulled in last night and came tearing down the driveway to our house, jumping and crying at the door because I couldn’t get it open fast enough to suit them. Then Ole was seriously attacked by both dogs, especially Beau’s tongue. Remember, Beau has the fastest tongue in the west – the Quicker Licker Upper!!

Senior Citizen Simon took all of this activity into his little kitty brain while relaxing on his chair, and then decided it was time to leave all this foolishness. He got up, stretched a long cat stretch and slowly ambled to the door and asked to be let out. It’s amazing how he never asks to go out when we’re on the road, but somehow knew we were home and it was okay for him to go outside now. I still find it amazing that he adapted to travel so well at his age. Maybe senility has set in and he doesn’t realize he’s on the road. If that’s true, he seems to be happy in his dementia (chuckle).

So – now – my opinion of Door County, Wisconsin.

I guess if you’re into art galleries, all kinds of craft shops and that sort of thing, it’s the place for you. It’s so tourist oriented that it’s hard to get a feel for what it’s really like – or I should say – what it used to be like. Everything is very expensive. We stopped at one little roadhouse one afternoon, ordered two drinks and were charged $6.75 EACH. It’s difficult to find a true “local” – someone who has lived there all of their life. Most of the residents are “imports” that have come to retire or to open a tourist-oriented business. Lots of people from Chicago and Milwaukee who, according to the local folks, are buying up property and building vacation homes with price tags of several million dollars.

I guess you could call the area quaint, but definitely not rustic. That’s why we both decided that we enjoyed the U.P. (upper peninsula of Michigan) much more than Door County. We’ll definitely go back to the U.P., but I don’t think we’ll hit Door County again.

Well, I had best get busy cleaning out the rig.

Taking Entertainment Wherever you can Find It

It’s raining, it’s pouring,
Ole is snoring

Well, not exactly right now, but he has been checking his eyelids for leaks off and on this morning. It started raining last night and hasn’t stopped yet. So the Harley has taken up residence in the trailer and it’s a day of movies and reading and snoozing off and on. Senior Citizen Simon loves it as he’s got someone to curl up next to for his daylong naps.

The Internet has been flaky to say the least. Some times I can connect from the RV and sometimes I have to go to the office to connect. And of course today is the day that the wifi chooses not to reach the RV, so I’ll have to walk up to the office in order to send this. I hope you people understand how important you are to me because otherwise I sure wouldn’t walk that far through the pouring rain and puddles, uphill both ways (snicker). So even though I haven’t got a lot to say today, I hope you appreciate this!!

Yesterday dawned bright and clear and COLD – 46 degrees. Not exactly biking weather, so we waited until about one o’clock when it finally reached 50. We leathered up and headed for Sturgeon Bay, about 20 miles from here, to go to the Maritime Museum.

They had some interesting exhibits, both about current and historical events with lots of pictures, which is what I really enjoy. There are seven old lighthouses on this peninsula, some built back as early as 1835. They are all still working lighthouses, the lights having been updated of course. The museum also covered all the wrecks that have taken place offshore, along with the history of all the shipyards in the area. Sturgeon Bay had four working shipyards during WWII, built ships for the Navy, Army and Coast Guard, and at one point was launching a ship every five days. That seems phenomenal, but that’s what the records indicate. The shipyards bussed workers in from a 200-mile radius and furnished them with housing, so at that time the population of Sturgeon Bay was quite large.

There was also a traveling exhibit about pirates – not only of the Caribbean, but pirates on the Great Lakes!! Poolie – you would have loved it, but again, they wouldn’t allow any pictures inside the museum so I’m out of luck showing you what there was.

When we left the museum it had turned very cloudy, windy and cold so we raced back to Baileys Harbor and some shelter – Weisgerber’s Pub – where I imbibed in hot chocolate and eventually advanced to something a bit stronger. There we visited with a couple from Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, who were up here on vacation looking for a piece of property to eventually build a vacation home. She was wearing a “rock” on her left hand that was the size of my little fingernail, along with all kinds of large gemstones set in heavy gold hanging around her neck to the point of being tacky. Now let me say something here that I’ve said previously, I think. Those who truly have it don’t usually flaunt it. Those who don’t have it like to pretend they do. Get my point? He was a very nice, sociable person, but she left a bit to be desired with her hoity-toity attitude. I guess it takes all kinds, doesn’t it.

When you’re motor home bound you have to take your entertainment where you can get it. This morning was one of those mornings. The RV parked across the street from us – technically in front of us, decided to pack up and leave. Not a good day to be outside trying to get all your “stuff” disconnected and put away. And to top it off, it was obvious that this guy hadn’t had much experience in Rving. We have full hookups here. For you non-Rvers, that means we have water, electricity and sewer.

Okay – here’s your Rving lesson for the day. When you pull into a park to get set up you hook up your electricity and water, and of course you can connect your sewer hose if you like. But you don’t let your tanks run on a constant basis or you’re going to run into trouble. When your black water tank needs draining you go out and turn the valve, let it drain, then turn the valve for the gray water tank and let it drain through the black water tank, which helps to flush it out, along with flushing your sewer hose. AND you ALWAYS wear latex gloves when doing this just for sanitary and health issues. Now Ole always stores all of this type of gear and hoses in one or more compartments that are in the location where you hook up to the sewer. Just common sense, okay?

Well, Mr. Expert Rver gave us several hours of entertainment while he was trying to drain his tanks this morning. FIRST he drained his gray water tank, which all went fine. THEN he tried to drain his black water tank, which isn’t quite as fluid as the gray water, if you know what I mean. And of course his sewer hose must have plugged up, which is an expandable hose about six inches in diameter. There he was with his bare hands trying to unplug this yucky sewer hose. Then he realized what he was doing and went around to the other side of the RV to get his COTTON garden gloves to work on the plug. Of course all they did was absorb any dirty water that was on the hose. He worked and worked by lifting portions of this expandable hose trying to work the plug down to the drain. This took him over an hour. Then he decided it was time to disconnect his water hose, forgot to turn the water off before he unscrewed the connection and water squirted all over him. He got the water turned off and the hose disconnected when he decided that he was going to flush out his sewer hose. So he took the end of the hose that was connected to the faucet, stuck it about three feet into the sewer hose and went to turn on the water. Needless to say, the hose wasn’t connected so once again he got more water squirted all over him. Meanwhile, the couple he was traveling with, who had been ready to go down the road for over an hour, just stood there and shook their heads. Mr. Expert finally realized he wasn’t connected to the faucet, so took the water hose out of the sewer hose, connected it back up to the water faucet, (yuck) shoved the other end of his water hose down the sewer hose and proceeded to flush out his sewer hose. Now all this effort could have been avoided if he had drained his black water first and his gray water second. AND it would have been much more sanitary. I’m sure glad I’m not in his camper using water out of his tank that has come through a hose that was shoved down the sewer hose. Ick. Then he took a rag and wiped off all his hoses before he packed them away in three different compartments on the far side of the motor home. Are you laughing yet? No? Oh, well, I guess you had to be there. We thought it was a riot.

Well, Folks, the wind is blowing gale force, the rain is coming down in buckets and it’s 48 degrees out. I’ll walk up to the office later and send this along to you. Right now it’s time for a movie.

Land of the Cheese Heads

Artsy-Fartsy. Quaint. Yuppie oriented. Land of Fish Boils and big red barns. That’s the best description I can give you of Door County, Wisconsin at this point. I’m not so sure yet that this is the kind of place that Ole and Lena fit in. But that’s not going to stop us from having a good time.

We’re a bit early for much leaf color – another week will be about peak, so maybe by the time we leave things will be more picturesque. There are a few maple trees here and there and an odd oak that are in full color, but that’s about it.

We arrived on Friday afternoon in the rain, it rained all night and finally about noon on Saturday the sun came out for a bit. So we quickly planted our backsides on the Harley and took off. We got spit on off and on the remainder of the afternoon, but nothing serious.

We rode up to the northern most point of Door County and watched the ferry going back and forth to Washington Island. Then started back down the road on the Green Bay side of the peninsula. That’s the crowded and busy side of Door County this weekend. There are a number of Fall Festivals going on which means tons of people and everything is really busy. Egg Harbor (unusual name, huh) is having the biggest wing ding this weekend, so we decided to avoid that area.

I took in an Amish quilt show in Sister Bay that just about blew my socks off. Unfortunately they wouldn’t allow any pictures to be taken so I don’t get to show you what I saw. The quilts were all hand stitched and words can’t describe them. They were all for sale, most running between $800 and $1000 each. Yes, that’s a lot of money, but each of the quilts took somewhere between 1200 and 1500 hours to complete.

Then we stopped at an outdoor craft show full of artsy-fartsy stuff – all things I could do without. Oh, don’t get me wrong, there were beautiful things there, but I’ve collected so much “stuff” over the years my house is full and I don’t need anymore. My Word for the Day these days is “downsize.” So unless I come across something really unusual everything gets left behind. Besides, there’s a reason for taking the Harley on these trips – there’s not much room to haul things back to the RV (chuckle).

By this time it was getting late in the day and turning quite chilly so we headed back toward Bailey’s Harbor, where we’re staying. We stopped for a quick burger, visited with a couple of local folks, and then headed back to the RV.

So I suppose you’re wondering what a fish boil is. Well, the way it was described to me – they put lots of potatoes and carrots and onions in a huge pot outside – like a big cauldron. Fill it full of water and bring it to a boil until the veggies are cooked. Then they dump in a bunch of white fish caught in Lake Michigan of course, and bring it to a boil again and this time let it boil over for some reason. I’m not clear on why. Anyway, then it’s done and they dish it up and everyone (the locals) keep telling all the tourists how good it is. Yah – I bet. Sounds like eating lutefisk with a few veggies added to me. Neither Ole nor I are real enthused about boiled fish so I think we’ll pass on this one, thanks.

We noticed a lot of orchards today, both apple and cherry orchards. So when the crowds slim down come Monday, we’ll be making a few stops in those kinds of places. There are also a lot of wineries here so you can bet your bippy that Ole will be stopping there to check things out and sample a bit.

Sunday dawned bright and clear so it was back on the bike this time heading south on the Green Bay side of the peninsula. There’s LOTS of money up here – you can tell by the houses or should I say estates. We ended up in Sturgeon Bay for lunch and then took a back road across the peninsula where we found a little country bar called Bley’s Crossing. So of course we stopped and had a most interesting conversation with the owner.

He’s been a life-long resident of Door County and told us of all the changes that have taken place. The economy now is strictly tourist based, although there are still a few dairy farms and operating orchards around. Dairy and orchards are what the economy used to be based on, but over the years the Big City Folks have been coming up here, buying up the property and building huge homes. This in turn, changes all the dynamics of the governing bodies of the small villages, townships and county – of course to what the Big City Folks want. Sad – but I guess that’s what happens.

We also visited the Cana Island Lighthouse this afternoon. It’s still an operating lighthouse, and is set on a beautiful island with a rocky causeway that you can walk over to get to the island.

By this time it was getting late in the afternoon and getting cool so time to head back to the RV. Temps today were up in the 80s, so it made for nice riding. Couldn’t ask for more.

I’ll check in in another day or two – so hang tight – okay?

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We're Outta Here

Well, Folks, I have all the necessities of life loaded in the RV, Ole's out loading the Harley in the trailer, and then we're off - that is IF we can get out of the driveway.

Two days ago the County Road crew decided to rip of the highway for a half mile stretch out in front of our house. Yesterday when I ran to the post office I had to hurdle a windrow of groundup asphalt that rubbed the tummy of my car. It even rubbed the underbelly of Ole's truck, which sits up high enough that I need a step ladder to climb in. Not that the RV won't get through a pile of asphalt that high, but it will create a rocking motion that will empty all the cupboards!! And THAT aint a pleasant thing to have happen!!

Anyway, we're outta here - I'll be in touch in a couple of days.

BTW - see that little green arm on the right side of Wisconsin? That's where we're going. Bet you didn't know where Door County was, didja??