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.

Washington Island

I had family come to visit so we took our truck over to Washington Island. We were shocked when they motioned for us to come on board. We got the last space on the ferry and we swore we wouldn't fit. They know how to pack them in and wedged us on board. You can see in the picture that the back ramp/gate isn't closed all the way up to 90 degrees. They couldn't close it all the way because the back end of the truck hung over.

There are a few things to see on the island. One of them is this church built as a replica of an old Norwegian church. It is made out of timbers -- no nails were used on the outside or the inside which is all tongue and groove wood. The only place they cheated and used nails is for the shingles on the roof.

We once again were the last one's on the ferry for the return trip. They squeezed the truck on again and this time they had to close the back all the way because the wind had kicked up and the waves were higher. As it was the truck got a little bit of a wash from the waves splashing.

The fishing has been slow unless you count huge catfish and sheepshead if so then we are doing great.

Sturgeon Bay Channel

We tried going fishing but the waves were 3 and 4 feet high so we took a little cruise through the channel. The Sturgeon Bay channel links the waters of Green Bay with Lake Michigan. It actually makes northern Door County an island. We cruised by all the marinas with the yachts and sailboats. We went under several bridges that have to open to let sailboats go through such as the Tall Ships. We ended up at the lighthouse and coast guard station where the channel dumps into Lake Michigan. We couldn't really go out into Lake Michigan because the waves were too much for our boat. We saw a lot of boats in the channel fishing around the sailboats trying to catch perch. The perch run kind of small -- 7 to 10 inches --but there are lots of fishermen that just love to try to catch them here.

We went out to eat on Friday night with some people we made friends with last year that come to the campground and stay for about a month. Of course we went to a Friday night fish fry - just about every restaurant in the area has to offer a fish fry -- its just expected.

Our fellow workampers as well as ourselves are starting to get the itch to move on -- it's been a busy summer. We are getting jealous of all the folks out there traveling. We wouldn't really want to travel until after Labor Day but its nice to start planning our next adventure. Arizona is our winter destination -- not sure where yet but we'll know when we get there!

The Tall Ships

The tall ships came to Sturgeon Bay. They came down the Lake Michigan shore and then came into the Sturgeon Bay channel on their way to Green Bay for the weekend. A huge crowd of people came out to see them sail through Sturgeon Bay. The ships were beautiful and even fired off some cannon. There were all kinds of boats in the water trying to get close up looks at the ships. The number of people lined up along the miles of shoreline just to see them as they sailed by was amazing.

The heat is finally breaking and it has made us realize how sweaty it could be to work farther south in the summer. We have been helping lots of campers enjoy their vacations. Most of the time it doesn't take much to enhance their stay. We never ask for anything in return but have gotten many small tokens of appreciation. Jim has received expensive cigars and I have gotten locally made candies such as cherry caramels (only in Door County can you find cherry). Jim also was given a small polished piece of jasper in the shape of a heart for helping a man who ended up in the hospital for a couple of days while he was here with his family. We helped the family while Dad was in the hospital. Jim also got their trailer hooked up for them so they could get home without Dad having to exert himself after being treated for a heart ailment.

It is so nice to work somewhere where everyone is just trying to have a good time and relax.