Wisconsin - 2nd stop

Portage

We are staying at the Sky High Campgrounds, we arrived here on June 22. There motto is Family Camping with a View and they are not kidding.
The campgrounds are on Cascade Mountain. It is a large campground and has sites for any size RV, camper or tent, plus cabins to rent and there is plenty to do on site. They have two pools, a regular one, plus a small 1' pool for toddlers.

There is a poolside bar that is open on the weekends. They have putt-putt golf and a 3 par chuckers golf course that wanders through the campground. A large playground with a sand box. They have a game room with game machines, pool table and air hockey. The store is very well stocked with food items and other necessities. The grounds are maintained fairly well, not the best we have seen but doable. Not impressed with the laundry facilities. The floor had puddles of water on it that you could tell had been there for awhile, and there was a great deal of lint around all of the machines, and two of the four dryers were out of order. The bathrooms were very clean. The staff is friendly, but it is not the personal service we have found at the other camps. Taking out the laundry the place is pretty nice. A little glich the last morning, in the midst of cleaning we discovered we had no water when Nancy went to rinse out the bucket. They had shut off the water in our section of the campground for maintenance but didn't let anyone know - would have hurried things along if we had known. There were only 4 campers left so it wouldn't have been that hard to notify us.

On our way to Wisconsin Dells, we had to drive through Baraboo, love that name, it is home to the Ringling Brothers Circus Museum. We didn't find time to get to it, but one of our neighbors in the camp took their teenage granddaughters and they had a blast.

Nancy always thought that Wisconsin Dells was an area, and was surprised to find it is an actual town. It is definitely a tourist town. There is a Ripley's Believe it or Not, and wedding chapels, candy, fudge and T-shirt and souvenir shops line the streets. There is no end to the hotels, motels and resorts either. Not to mention wall to wall people. Some people love all of that but it is a bit much for us. We did find the River Walkway, which was the calm in the middle of the storm. Short cement walkway with benches and chairs, plus two checker/chess tables to enjoy the river from. There is a nice view of the river and you can watch the boats go by.

Yikes - that is a very high ride

The walkway ends at a bridge over the river and under the bridge is a giant rock that looks like a beach. While standing on the bridge we could see a salt and pepper type ride over the tops of the trees, the amusement park is two or three miles away.

 After the craziness of the Dells, we ventured back into nature at the Devil's Lake State Park. Our intention was to do an easy short hike. Well that didn't happen. We hiked for 3 1/2 hours and covered roughly 4 miles of very rocky and steep trails. We wanted to see the Devil's Doorway and the Balancing Rock so off we went.

Our view from the trail as we started

The trail turns here and continues to head up - nice view though

When we started out we were marveling at the rock wall we were hiking next to - little did we know that very soon we would be climbing it. About half way up the mountain side as we made our way through the twists and turns of the path we came to a turn where the edge was a sheer drop. Nancy's fear of heights kicked in about this time and she was stopped in her tracks. There was a large boulder at the corner and she hunkered down next to it, to let people coming down go past her. The kids that went by were very encouraging and as they got past, the girl said to her companions, "Wow, my mom would never do that". Those were the words Nancy needed to hear to help her along. Les came and stood towards the edge to block her view and she crawled up the steps to get past the corner. She has the bruises on her knees to prove it. It might not have been the most graceful climb but she was pretty proud of herself for doing it and only shedding a few tears in the process. Once on top of the ridge it was worth all the effort. The views were spectacular. Every turn in the path brought a new view and they just kept getting better and better. We spent a long time at each one, just soaking in all the beauty, there just are not enough words to describe it and the pictures just don't do it justice.

We made it to Devil's Window and the Balancing Rock and are so glad we did.

We found a Hippo tree

This was the path - had
to take off our backpacks
to get through

Butt crawled these steps

 The hike down wasn't as bad as the one going up, but it was hard to tell sometimes where the path was. There was a spot that Nancy did it on her butt. Again not graceful but whatever it takes. If you ever get a chance to go there - do it.


Mielikki loved jumping from rock to rock and found herself a resting place at Balanced Rock.
You would think we would be done for the day but oh no. We checked out Spring Green, a small town south of us and then went to Portage for an outdoor concert at the VFW Hall. Thankfully they had food because we worked up an appitite and had no picnic dinner this time.

There is an area near here that is called Amish Country and we needed some Amish butter, so we went to check it out. After two food/general stores and a cheese shop we are still without butter, when we asked at one of the stores if they knew where we could buy some they looked at us like we were crazy. Guess it's back to regular butter from the store. We did find some spices and seasonings at one store and we stopped at a bakery and got two small pies, cherry for Les and blueberry for Nancy, some of the best pie we have tasted. While driving around the area we kept seeing cows in the ditches along the side of the road, they were just laying there eating the grass. Never seen that before.

Stopped in Portage on our way back and hiked a small portion of the Ice Age Trail, a National Scenic Trail that is a thousand-mile footpath that highlights the continental glaciation sculpts that were left behind as the glaciers retreated. It travels through some of the state's most beautiful natural areas. The Trail is entirely within Wisconsin and is one of only eleven National Scenic Trails. There were lots of bugs so we didn't get far. We saw another turtle, we have seen one in just about every place we have been. Adjancent to the trail was the Historic Indian Agency House, so we checked out the museum. The house was built by the U.S. government for John Kinzie in 1832, who was the Indian Agent to the Ho-Chunk Nation. John and his wife Juilette lived there from 1832-1843. John and Juilette were the grandparents of Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts.

While back in Spring Green for an Arts and Craft Fair and Farmers Market we went to the Franklin Lloyd Wright Museum, to check on a tour, but the next one wasn't for three hours and it is 2 hours long. Would need to leave the dog at home if we are gonna do that and not enough days left to get it in.


We also went to the The House on the Rock, and that tour is 3 1/2 hours long so a no go there as well. The driveway of the House on the Rocks is lined with huge flower planters and metal sculpture birds. If you get a chance check out the photo gallery on their website - the place is insane.


Before heading home we stopped at the Natural Bridge State Park and hiked to the bridge. It reminded us of the Arch on Mackinaw Island. A nice hike, not to long and only a slight incline at the end.

There were outcroppings along the way, as well as spiders and leaf shadows to enjoy

Black Hawk Rock - Sam the tour guide

One of the best things we did this visit was to take a Dells Boat Tour. It is really the only way to get to see the rocks. We went out on the Red Cloud, with Chris as our captain and Sam as our tour guide, both have some really cheesy jokes to tell.

Center picture is Louis Bluff - named after one of the areas first white settlers. 

Picture on the top right is High Rock (L) and Romance Cliff (R) Indian weddings were performed there
Bottom left is The Palisades

The center photo shows the measuring rock - at times the water has covered the rock

We had two land stops while on the 2 hour tour.









One at Witch's Gulch, with a wooden walkway through the splits in the rocks. There is a small water fall under the walkway. As you pull into the dock the small bay is neon green with algae, and where you can see through the water it is crystal clear.
The second land stop was at Stand Rock. It is a large columned rock with a flat platform on top. They have a viewing area where you watch a German Shepherd jump across the opening onto the platform and then back again. This location was used by photographer, H.H. Bennett. He invented the first stop-action camera and he had his son Ashley leap the five-foot gap so he could prove his invention worked. It took 17 jumps to get the photo below.

The path has some amazing rock formations. One looks like a table and is called Visor Ledge and another like mushrooms called Toadstool Rock.
There are numerous cave like sections, and foxes live in some of them.

The Demon's Anvil is shown from the water side and the trail side.

A boat tour is highly recommended. If you stop at the visitor's center and pick up a coupon book, you can get one ticket free.




Of course we found many Roadside Oddities. Once again we found some on our own and some from the website.

Pinkie the Elephant - Sissie the Cow and the Climbing Mouse

Some we found on our trip to Madison for a stop a Camping World and Trader Joe's. While trying to find Trader Joe's we got a picture of the Capitol building.

The rest we found in Wisconsin Dells and Baraboo.

The Largest Flamingo, and the Largest Steer, plus a cowboy Muffler Man. As you are traveling down Wisconsin Dells Parkway, you can see this Trojan Horse for miles.  

Denny's Dinner for our friend Denny Rasch. The small Helicopter is at the entrance to the airport and we loved the Moosejaw place and their delivery cars are wild. Our friend Nigel Berry, worked at a sports and outdoor store in Ann Arbor, MI called Moosejaw, so this made us think of him.

You can sit inside the large Teddy Bear although we wouldn't suggest it because it was rather gross. The large moose is in front of a furniture store and you get to walk under the large dinosaur to get into the store.

 
There is plenty to do in this area. There were Farmer's Markets almost every day in the surrounding towns. We found an Artisan and Antique market that is held every Sunday in Baraboo, we also discovered an Indian Antique Show, lots of arrow heads, leather, beaded work and rocks and crystals.
We made our first visit to a Menard's. Oh my gosh what an amazing store, they have everything, yes everything, from milk to riding lawn mowers. If you haven't been in one, you should check them out, but wear comfortable shoes because they are big.

Until we meet again...

Happy Trails to you


Tips and things we have learned along the way
~ when you have done a lot of cleaning and have emptied your bucket of water a number of times, and then take a shower, you should empty your grey water tank before running any other water. If you don't it will back up into your shower that you just scrubbed.

Wisconsin - first stop

Shell Lake 

We arrived in Shell Lake on June 18. We are staying at the Red Barn Campground, owned by Dottie and Lee, who are 2nd generation owners.







It is a really nice campground. Very family oriented. The grounds are very well kept up and the sites are a little bigger than average, so once again we weren't cramped in. Our site offered us a view of one of the pastures, the campground is surrounded by their farm. The pasture we could see held two horses, two ponies, two llama's and two goats. It was really quite peaceful. They have a large playground, miniature golf, and all of the animals are very people and child friendly and they encourage interaction with them. They have a beautiful red barn where they hold social gatherings. The bathrooms are older but very clean. Great personal service.

The last morning of our stay the two goats got out and came for a visit. This of course sent Mielikki into a tizzy, which the goats weren't bothered by one single bit. They just kept eating the grass and nibbling on the trees.






Before we get to the adventures of
Shell Lake we need to finish up one more day trip from Iron Mountain. The last post was getting so long we figured we would include it in this one, after all it was a trip to Wisconsin. We spent one whole day exploring Green Bay and Sturgeon Bay and the peninsula. We were pleasantly surprised when we got to Green Bay. We stopped at Lambeau Field and found a few roadside oddities.

A metal sculpture of a mule team and an explorer and his canoe. The largest football is at the entrance to an arena next to Lambeau Field.


The dinosaur and his pet is a random sculpture on the side of the road and we found this interesting bird while getting a shot of the dino.

While crossing the Fox River we discovered there is a beautiful river walkway on the DePree side of the river. There is a lighted fish tunnel, metal fish are mounted on the walls with LED lights in them that are supposed to make it look like they are swimming, unfortunately not all the lights were working but it was still a cool little tunnel to walk through.

They have large wooden lounge chairs and a number of smaller sitting areas to rest at.









The walkway is lined with apartments and condos, restaurants and hotels.

More art than you can imagine is along the walkway.

This map was pretty neat, it is a detail map of both sides of the river. It looks like a giant circuit board.

We headed out Hwy 57 and then took Hwy 42 up the west side of the peninsula and Hwy 57 down the east side. The east side is mostly residential but the west side is hopping with things to do and see. Each new town we drove through seemed even better than the one before, which seemed impossible. Egg Harbor was amazing and Sister Bay was a hoot with goats everywhere, real and pretend ones. We of course found a few more roadside oddities.

In Egg Harbor we stopped at the Harbor View Park for our picnic dinner, we had a beautiful view. While we were eating, people kept showing up with lawn chairs and picnic dinners. After about 30 people arrived we were really curious as it didn't appear anything was happening. Nancy asked one of them what they were waiting for and the response was, the concert that is being held on Thursday that we thought was today (Tuesday by the way). So they all just stayed and ate, drank and chatted.
The park was beautifully landscaped and they have a number of metal wind sculptures and other art. Nicest picnic spot so far. The town has events every weekend, as did most of the towns we went through.

Stegg by Sally Everhaurdus ~ Untitled Pineapple by Dave Riemer ~~
Living Canopy by Cynthia Board and Kathleen Mand Beck

The large metal sail boat sculpture was in a perfect spot with the lake behind it, and a view of the park from the marina was so inviting.

Old Salty is a sandstone carving and the wind sculptures looked like large flowers and trees.

Some of the roadside oddities we found were from Roadside America and some we just happened to come across. The two Easter Island Heads are at the entry to the Harbor Ridge Winery in Egg Harbor.

Cookie the Cow is at a dairy farm and when we stopped to take the picture Mielliki barked like crazy at her.

The Indian and twig tepee were a random find on someones lawn.


The last stop was in Sister Bay, we had found an oddity on the Roadside website that was about goats on the roof of Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant. We thought they meant statues - boy were we surprised when we got there and there were real goats on a grass roof. The goats are brought in each morning from a local farm and are taken back at night.

Almost every business in town has a wooden goat sign hanging out front.


Would highly recommend a visit to Green Bay and a drive up the peninsula. Unless you like winter we suggest you go in the summertime.

Now back to Shell Lake. First thing on our agenda was a wedding in Hudson, WI. Emily, a dear friend and former roommate of Katrina's was getting married. Her and Rachel got married on the Grand Duchess boat.
The ceremony, performed by our previous pastor, Ken Wilson took place on deck. It was a beautiful ceremony and both brides were glowing with happiness.
Once the ceremony was done the boat headed out onto the St. Croix River. It was a perfect evening for a cruise. We were so happy that we could share in this special day.

We attended an after party at the Smiling Moose Saloon in Hudson which was great fun. We boarded Mielikki for the evening so we didn't have to worry about her being alone in the RV for 8 hours. The drive was an hour and a half one way so that made it a late night. We used Piney Ridge Kennels in Trego and we were so pleased with them.





A big bonus of attending Emily and Rachel's wedding was that Katrina and Steve were there too. That meant we got to spend Saturday with them and a little bit with Tina, Steve's sister.
We met up in Minneapolis for the Stone Arch Music and Arts Festival. It was a large festival with over 200 artists and 5 music stages. It was fun looking at all of the art with Katrina and Steve.
The festival was in the park right next to the river which was a beautiful setting.



There was a great drinking fountain in the middle of the festival.  The fountains were placed in a circle and each had a sign over it and in between each one was a faucet for filling your own water bottle.

After the festival we went to the Surly Brewing Co. in St. Paul and met up with Tina, and Anne and Kelly, friends from Ann Arbor and Tina's friends from the area. It is one huge brewery, a large restaurant area, gift shop, and an upstairs event area. A wedding reception was happening while we were there.

We had some of the best burgers we have tasted, and the fries were seasoned just right. The beer was good and they have the best names for their brews.
After saying good-bye to Tina, we headed back to Minneapolis with Katrina and Steve to the Republic House  to try a flight of beer there. First time I have seen a flight of beer that comes with a shot of whiskey. Sad to see the day end as it meant saying good-bye to Katrina and Steve for who knows how long. So hate good-byes.

The last thing we did in Shell Lake was to find a few more oddities. Again some came from our favorite website and others we just stumbled upon.

Life is Great on Hwy 8 chair is about 15 feet tall, it reminded us of Lilly Tomlin's, Edith Ann character. The Ape is on a pawn shop in Rice Lake and the Beaver resides in Cumberland.

The Two Tail Fish is in downtown Shell Lake, and honestly it is kinda ugly.

Nancy fell in love with this hobbit type door and plans to have one when we settle down again somewhere.

 The strangest thing we saw while in the area were the names of the streets. First, all the highways are letters A - Z, and each county uses the same naming system. This makes it confusing when you are looking for someplace and it's on say County Highway C but you don't know what county it is in! The best part though are the side roads, the pictures will explain.








7 15/16 Street?Really?




Update on our hydraulic jack issue. We didn't need to use them at this campsite so we figured we were good to go on the last day. Well, we figured wrong. When we put our living room slide in, the problem jack went down and you guessed it, it wouldn't go back up. In the process of opening the hydraulic cylinders the ends broke off two of them. Need to get this taken care of, Les had to crawl under the RV again and it had stormed all morning so he was one muddy mess. Camping World here we come.

Some random things to finish this off. The campground asks for an extra $2.00 a day if you use your AC or heat. Well, two of the nights were chilly so we turned the heat on, not sure if it kicked on or not but wanted to pay for it just in case. When we went to pay, Dottie couldn't believe we had used our heat. She must have said, "really, you used your heat?" three or four times. We had to remind her we are from the south and we were cold.
While driving to Portage we passed the 1/2 way point between the Equator and the North Pole in Tilden, WI. We also passed a couple of Perkins Restaurants - does anyone eat there?

That's all for now, thanks for keeping up with us.

Until we meet again...

Happy Trails to you.


Tips and things we have learned along the way
- It would be advisable to bring one nice outfit with you in case you get invited to a wedding while on the road. We hit up a Salvation Army store and found dress-up clothes to wear to Emily and Rachel's wedding, so we didn't have to show up in jeans or shorts. 
- Have a good iron with you. We brought our travel iron and it just isn't the same. It took a while to iron Les's shirt and even longer for Nancy's dress. She bought a linen dress and shortened it, so a good iron would have made it so much easier. Our regular iron wouldn't be taking up that much more space than the travel one we brought.