Saying Goodbye

The owners of the campground are too the far left, John and Marty. The couple on the far right are Carol and Lewie. We have ended up meeting Carol and Lewie in our travels both going south and coming back up north. The couple next to them is Wade and Gail -- they were the mangers this year and in the very middle is Dorothy. She cleaned the cabins while we did the bathhouses.

One couple is missing - they already left to visit family in New York.

We will miss them all but more than likely meet up with many of them again during our travels. We will be heading to Memphis next -yeah its warm there!

We will be spending the winter close to Yuma, Az in a small town 20 miles east of Yuma called Wellton. We found a nice rv park -- at least it sounds nice and the picture we saw looked good called Pioneer Rv Park. We plan to be there sometime in December and stay until April.

Here Comes the Judge

We survived another pumpkin patch festival. The campground offered hay rides, a bonfire with singing, hot chocolate, cider and treats. Last year Jim got to tend the bonfire and I helped judge the pumpkin carving contest. This year Jim and I were the judges so Jim got to wear the judge costume. Some folks go all out carving pumpkins and decorating their campsites. Everyone had a lot of fun but it was a lot of work for us workampers. The campground was pretty much full except for some open basic tent sites. At least this year the weather was much better. It was in the 60's during the day and mid 40's at night. Last year there were snow flurries in the air.

We've said goodbye to one workamper couple who left to go visit some relations in New York and then they head back to southern Missouri until after Christmas. We may meet up with them when we head that way around the first part of November.

We are pretty much packed up and ready to leave ourselves. We head out Monday morning the 18th. Our first stop will be a little campground in Illinois close to the intersection of Interstate 39 and 80.

Big News!

Sorry, I have been trying to put a fall color picture on the blog. I have to give up and try next week. I did want to let everyone know that we have accepted a job for next summer in northern Minnesota. We will be working at Northern Lights Resort & Outfitters. The resort has 11 cabins of various sizes and a large dock area with assorted boats for rent. We will be cleaning cabins, working the dock, store, answering the phone and helping with some guest activities. It is a very nice resort. We will be working with 2 other workamping couples. The resort has 3 rv sites for us workers. Jim is very happy at the thought of having the boat on a dock again.

The resort is on Lake Kabetogama which is part of the chain of lakes that make up Voyagueurs National Park. We couldn't ask for a better setting. If you want to check out the resort their web site is www.northernlightsoutfitters.com. We know the fishing is excellent there since we used to fish the area at least once a year. Now we get to spend a whole summer fishing it!! There are a few drawbacks -- groceries are a 60 mile round trip expedition. The nearest Walmart is 70 miles away. We may have to eat out more at the other resorts around the lake.

We start May 1st so we will be back in Minnesota in April. We will be praying that there isn't snow and the ice is out on the lakes, especially that far north. We will be working there u until the end of September which is much better than mid October here.

We will definitely enjoy Arizona this winter for as long as possible!

Potawatomi State Park

One of the many windy days lately we took a little drive around and ended up at Potawatomi State Park. It is on the south side of Sturgeon Bay. We were standing out on a fishing pier taking this picture out into the Sturgeon Bay channel that flows out into the waters of Green Bay in the background.

The brown trout and even some salmon are coming into the channel itself. You don't have to fish way out in the lake to catch them. These fish are coming into the shallow harbors and channels this time of year.

Fall colors are not very good yet. I'm not sure if they will be good this fall with it continuing to rain so much. We have three weeks left here --- getting "hitch itch"-- that is --itchy to hitch up and move out. Although we are busy hitting our favorite eating spots one last time.

Septemberrrrrrrr

I didn't have any adventures to report this week so I'm showing the picture of the U.S.S. Badger car ferry. This is the ship we watched dock in Manitowoc.

It's started to get very cool here -- no fishing for us. Jim took the boat in to get the motor tuned up. They wanted to winterize it for us but we said no thanks we don't need that done. We're heading south in less than a month!

Life on the road takes some planning. I am cramming in my doctor and dental appointments while here in door county. Also, getting haircuts done before leaving is important. Once we hit the road this time we will probably be moving every few days maybe staying as much as a week in some places until December.

We are planning to head to Memphis and then through Arkansas and then zig up to Chanute, Kansas for some warranty work on our 5th wheel trailer. After that -- at least at this point --we are planning to make our way over toward Yuma, Arizona unless some fabulous winter job pops up.

Manitowoc

We took a day trip down to Manitowoc -- along the Lake Michigan shore. They have a great maritime museum with a World War II submarine that you can actually tour. This is a picture of the U.S.S. Cobia. It was so interesting to go down into an actual submarine. The small little cots the men slept on and the tiny lockers for their personal possessions -- they had to be pretty small guys. The cots were suspended over the torpedos. The head (toilet) was a very complicated gadget to operate. There were about 12 steps involved in using/flushing it properly.

The tour guide did a good job of describing the heat -- in the 90's down there and the deafening noise of the engines and how thick the air would get if they couldn't surface and replenish it.

The museum had a few full size yachts and smaller sailing vessels as well as incredibly detailed miniatures of ore boats, steamships, paddleboats, etc.

We also saw the U.S. S. Badger come into dock. It is one of the few car ferries left on Lake Michigan. It transports people and vehicles from Manitowoc, Wi across Lake Michigan to Ludington, Mi. It takes about 4 hours to cross the lake. It is a huge ship and we could take our whole rig on it -no problem-- just a little expensive. Many people use it to avoid going through Chicago to get over to Michigan. Maybe we will take it sometime!

Wind & Waves

We went out fishing one day trolling the coastline south of Sturgeon Bay -- over half way to Green Bay. We didn't have any luck because fishing has slowed down with the cold fronts and wind.

Jim took this picture over on the Lake Michigan side of Door county peninsula on a typical windy day here. The waves were 7 and 8 footers. It was perfectly sunny a few miles inland but here the fog, haze, mist rolled in along the shoreline. The wind somehow whips it up and blows it ashore.

Labor Day weekend at the campground was very busy even though we had 4 inches of rain between Wednesday and Thursday. The boat was sitting in a newly created lake and almost started to float in the field where we store it. It was a miracle that by Friday afternoon most of the water had soaked into the ground. The ground here is a thin layer of soil covering a very porous limestone rock so it filters through pretty quickly.

Leaves are starting to change, fall is in the air and we are getting the itch to head south. We will stay here until around the 13th of October and then make a beeline south.