Horicon, WI

On the way south, I stopped in Horicon, WI for a few days in late August.  

I went to Horicon Wildlife Refuge several times, biking and walking in the refuge. 

They have a great floating boardwalk on one of the trails.

I saw lots of ducks and herons.  I also spotted a Bittern, Falcon, Hawk and a Bald Eagle.  Below is a Yellowlegs, I’m not sure if it is a Lesser Yellowlegs or Greater Yellowlegs.

The 2 pictures above were taken while riding my bike on the Old Marsh Road thru the refuge.  The first is a close-up of a Peregrine Falcon, the second is the marsh, with the tree that the falcon is in.

I also stopped for a couple of hours at Dodge County Ledge Park.  I stopped to check out their campground, but found an interesting trail – Ledge Trail.

After walking for a little while, I wondered if I was still on the trail.  I wasn’t concerned because I knew I wasn’t that far from the road, but still I like to stay on the trail.   After turning a corner, I saw this

and felt a little better because I was still on the trail.   This is a neat little park. Most of the campsites were for smaller RVs and tents, but they had some that would work. I’ll definitely keep this in mind if I come back to this area.   

From Horicon, I stopped in Rockford, IL for a couple of days for an appointment and to run errands.  After that I stopped at Starved Rock State Park, IL.  I’ll write about that in my next blog. 

Chippewa Falls, Wi – Lake Wissota State Park

As I mentioned a time or 2, the reason that I came back to this area was for the wedding of Chelsea, my niece (my sister’s oldest daughter).   Just like last year (for the wedding of Chelsea’s sister) I stayed at Lake Wissota State Park.  This is a nice campground, with hiking and dirt biking trails.  For a couple of days, I relaxed, walked and ran a few errands.  Then I had to pick my mother up at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport.  It was a couple of hours ride from the campground and I got there about 15 minutes early (and that’s after stopping at Trader Joe’s for a few items).  Luckily they have a cell phone lot, where I could watch the planes and wait on my mom to call.

I met my new niece, Avery, for the first time at dinner the day before the rehearsal dinner.  My sister and her family adopted her in April of this year.  She had fun playing under the tablecloth skirts at the rehearsal dinner.

I didn’t take any good pictures during the wedding because my view was of the back of the best man’s head! I did get the one above of my niece and nephew (Summer and Parker) as they walked back down the aisle.  I took some pictures after the wedding while the photographer was posing everyone for the official photos.

The Wedding Party -

The Bride and Groom, with my sister (Amy), her family and my mother-

One of my favorite pictures, Chelsea (the bride) and Morgan (her sister) -

Avery, letting everyone know she is tired of having her picture taken, and Gavin who looks like he may be thinking the same thing -

Avery looking at baby pictures with her dad, Tom.  It amazes me that at 18 months she knows to swipe the screen to see the next picture.  Amy tells me that when Avery walks down their hallway she tries to swipe the pictures/photographs hanging on the wall as though they will change also!

Taking wedding photos is a lot of work, everything has to be just right!

Parker pulling Avery around in the wagon-

Avery trying to get a drink out of the bathtub -

My mom playing ring toss.  Luckily you didn’t have to actually get the ring around a coke to get a prize! 

My sister, Amy, and Avery.  Her dress didn’t quite fit in the stroller!

The day after the wedding several of us went on a tour of the Leinenkugel Brewery.  Below is Morgan and her husband, Dirk, in the gift shop.

My sister taking a picture of me taking a picture of her.  The free tour included 4 small glasses of beer to allow you to taste their different flavors.  I don’t drink beer very often anymore, but I liked their Summer Shandy beer (slight lemon flavor). 

Avery and Gavin appear much happier in this photo than in the wedding photo above!

The following day, I took my mom back to the airport and then had a couple of days to myself.  I hiked and biked and relaxed.  I also started back to Weight Watchers.  Even though I know how to eat right, it seems that I am the type person who needs to go weekly and get weighed and stay for the meeting.  Hopefully I will stick to it this time!

One more picture of Avery, with her dad at the wedding -

And Chelsea in one of the few photos I have of her taken during the ceremony -

From here, I had about 2 weeks to make my way back down south.  I have reservations for the month of September in Townsend, TN (the quiet side of the Smokies).  My next stop was Horicon, WI.

Wakefield and Iron River, WI

The first week in August, I stayed at Eddy Park Campground.  Last year while in the Upper Peninsula, I saw this campground from the road and thought it looked interesting.  Many of the RV spots are directly on Sunday Lake, mine was not.  It was an ok campground, but not great! 

I did enjoy walking around the lake most mornings, I think it was almost 3 miles.  One of the main reasons that I stayed here is that Porcupine Mountains State Park was not too far from Wakefield and last year I enjoyed hiking in this park.  One of my favorite hikes in the area is along the Presque Isle River.  If you looked at my blog last year some of these pictures may seem familiar.  I didn’t take as many pictures this year as I can just go back and look at the August 5, 2011 blog if I need a reminder of what it looks like. 

I love the way the water has eroded the rocks in this area.

A couple of the waterfalls along the hike-

In case you forget where you are, many of the benches have a porcupine etched into them.

In one of the small towns close by, I got a laugh out of this sign. 

You know you are in a small town, when the local Chinese restaurant also has “Authentic Mexican Food” on the menu!

I also went to a small park along Lake Superior called Little Girls Point and enjoyed the rocks along the shore.

I found a small beach I liked just on the edge of the State Park.  It was a bit warm, but I found a spot that was shaded part of the time.  I also enjoyed sitting on one of the large rocks by the shore watching the water.

From Wakefield, I headed down to Iron River, MI and camped at Iron River RV Park for a few days.  This is another place I stayed last year.  Once again, I enjoyed walking and biking the trail next to the park.  I also went back to several waterfalls and trails that I did last year.  My favorite is Bond falls.

I love Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  It is not only beautiful, but also much cooler than most of the U.S. this time of year.  From here, I headed to Lake Wissota State Park in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. 

Houghton, MI -

 

No Surprise, I am way behind in my blog!  I stayed at Houghton RV Park the month of July.  I stayed at this same park last year, but only for a few days.  Since I liked the area, I decided to stay a month this time.  One of my favorite activities was just relaxing by the river and watching all of the activity along the river (including a small cruise ship).

Below is a picture I took from inside my RV of sunset. 

For most of the month I was in one of the few spots with trees.  Unfortunately, some type of sap was falling and I quickly had sap spots on my RV.  I talked to the folks who manage the park for the city and ended up moving to another spot the last few days of the month where I washed my RV.  It wasn’t too bad as we had rain several days and most of the sap had washed off.  The picture below was taken from my second RV spot.

Below is the small cruise ship that docked for the night just a short distance from the RV park.

I drove up the Keweenaw Peninsula a couple of times and visited Fort Wilkins State Park (one of the places I stayed last year).  Below is the lighthouse in Lake Superior at Fort Wilkins.

One of many scenic spots along the lake.

While relaxing beside the river I noticed an activity that I had never seen.  After looking it up on the internet, I found out it’s called Wake Surfing.  It was interesting to watch.

This trip, I visited several small county/city parks along Lake Superior.  One of them was a bit different than the others.  It had darker and much coarser sand than the other sand beaches.  That made it nice because it didn’t stick to everything.

Just about every day, I walked and/or rode my bike on the 4-mile path through Houghton.  It began at the RV park and the paved part ended at Nara Nature Park.  Many days, I rode my bike to the Nature Park and walked a couple of miles, then rode back to the campground – A great way to start the day.  Below are pictures of Nara Boardwalk Trail and Nara Nature Trail.  The third picture is part of the bike trail. 

After 4 miles, the trail turned to a dirt path.  Several times I rode several more miles on the dirt trail.  It is a great trail – both paved and unpaved!!

Last year, I enjoyed Canyon Falls very much so I went back and had a great hike.

On one of my last days, we had another great sunset.  This is a picture of my neighbor fishing off his deck. 

From here I headed to Wakefield, MI. 

Marquette, MI

I stopped in Marquette, MI for a few days and stayed at the Marquette Tourist Park.  My main reason for stopping in Marquette was to go to Best Buy.  I have been having problems with one of my cameras for a while and since I was going to be only 1.5 hours from here for more than a month, I finally had a chance to get it fixed.  So one day I ran errands in the morning, including dropping the camera off at Best Buy and then I went to Munising for the rest of the day. 

I did a bit of sightseeing (no major hiking) around Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  Since I was just here last year it was not as exciting as it was then, but it’s still beautiful.

Marquette has some great bike trails.  The campground was beside one, so I never had to get on the road for some great biking!  Within a mile or so of the campground I could ride to the trail beside Lake Superior.  Most days, I would ride to Presque Isle Park, where I enjoyed the rocky shores.

From here I head to Houghton for a month!  I’m looking forward to be able to settle down for a few weeks. 

3 State Parks in 3 Different States

This blog is a mixture of several short stops.  I decided to head around Lake Erie, slowly making my way to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan.

My first stop was Lake Erie State Park.  This is the first time that I got to a place and could not figure out why I decided this would be a good place to stop.  It was an okay park, but I couldn’t find much to do in the area.  I did find a small city park in the next town where I enjoyed their walking trail next to the lake.  In my research I am sure I must have found something that looked interesting in the area, but who knows!!

This is a view of sunset from the State Park.

Below is a shot of the beach from the city park that I walked in. 

My next stop was Maumee Bay State Park in Ohio.  This was a great state park.  First they accepted Passport America, so the rate was great for a state park – I think it was $15.00.  The spots were paved (which was nice since it rained a bit) and my spot was in a cul-de-sac and I had trees and big bushes on both sides of my site.  So I had privacy!  They had walking/biking paths to the beach.  That made for a nice walk in the mornings and great biking (although not very long trails).  Once I set up, I typically drive around a bit to get a feel for the area (town and park).  On this trip, I was about 1/2 mile from the campground and all of a sudden there was a loud racket coming from my car.  I quickly figured out it only occurred when I had my fan on.  After looking at the engine for a few minutes (not that I know what I am looking at), I decided that I was going to have to take it to the shop.  The next morning I headed to the nearest Honda Dealer and had them look at it.  I ended up spending all day there.  My air compressor had gone bad and I had to get a new one. 

In addition to biking and walking in the park there were several wildlife refuges nearby.  Due to spending one whole day at the Honda dealer, I didn’t have as much time at the refuges as I hoped.  I ended up going to only one and didn’t see too much wildlife.  I did see several egrets, herons and a couple of swans. 

My last stop for this blog was in Hartwick Pines State Park in Michigan.  This is a nice state park.  But warning to those visiting Michigan if you are not a resident of Michigan you have to pay $8.00 per vehicle per day (that’s $8.00 for the RV and $8.00 for the car) in addition to the campground fee at their state parks.  But since I knew I was going to be visiting several state parks in the car, I paid the $8.00 per day for the RV, but got an annual pass for the car.

Hartwick Pines has several trails through old growth forest.  On one of these trails there is a chapel that I found interesting.

There is a nice nature prayer under the cross.

In addition to walking the trails, I biked a trail through a stump field.  This is the trail.

And why it’s called a stump field--

From here I headed to the Upper Peninsula.  I will stop for a couple of days in Marquette, Michigan and then head to Houghton, Mi for a month.    I’ll blog about those later.