Finally...

Now that we're almost ready to head back to our Pacific NW home, I've reached deep down and mustered up the motivation to finish my backlog of posts from our trip to Wisconsin in June and July. They're done.

The main effort this week is to get everything ready to head back west again early next week. This will be a quicker trip... we'll be moving with alacrity... whoever he is. Don't want to incur any overage charges on the U-Haul Trailer.

Itchin' to get back on the road.

Aug 11 - Notes from the North

When we last heard from our Intrepid Explorers they were heading north to Door County in Wisconsin. It was just for a weekend... which turned out quite agreeable. We ate too much, picked a bucket-load of really ripe tart cherries (a local specialty), patronized a couple trendy local restaurants, and tried to work off all that food with a good hike along the lakeshore bluffs. Evening campfires were a must.

After a few days back in Beaver Dam to resupply we were again heading north. This time the destination was a small NFS campground at Colwell Lake in the Hiawatha National Forest. Dar's family has made camping here a tradition that's nearing a continuous 20 year run. The lake itself is small... about 80 or 100 acres... but large enough for fishing and water-skiing.  And water-ski they do, with several among them veteran bare-foot water-skiers. Here again, the nightly campfires are a highlight. And, of course, we ate too much, drank too much, and had a great time. I did have a moment of catharsis when I realized I was the oldest of the 20 or so people around the campfire one night. I got over it.

Cell phone and internet availability are spotty at best at Colwell Lake... so, other than a couple quick trips into Munising, we were "in the dark" for much of the week. Being away from all things electronic for a few days ain't all bad. You learn to adapt, find other things to do, read, and think a little differently than when you're a slave to the hand-held gizmo.

From there Dar and I headed over to our favorite Camp S... a private facility near Michigamme. Here, we hope to spend a few quiet days working and getting caught up again on photos and posts to the blogs.

A few pics from our week... (more can be seen by clicking on our Photo Albums tab above)

Trumpeter Swans at Seney Wildlife Refuge

Pictured Rocks Natl. Lakeshore and Lake Superior

Seem to find these wherever we go.

Breakwater in Grand Marais

Supermoon

July 25 - Heading North for a Weekend in Door County

It's been more than a dozen years since we've been in Wisconsin's Famous Door County. This peninsula poking into Lake Michigan gives Wisconsin it's signature shape and is a very popular tourist destination during the summer. (During the Winter... not so much.) After a little prodding from my brother Jerry we thought we'd brave the crowds and add this experience to our summer of 2014 adventures. 

Check out http://doorcounty.com/ for more.

July 23 - Update on this year's visit to the Midwest

We arrived in the Beaver Dam Wisconsin area on Friday, July 11. High levels of activity usually accompany fresh arrivals and this year has not been an exception. Family, friends, setting up our little "apartment" at the farm, a class reunion (mine... doesn't seem like 45 years!), and many fix-it jobs and mini-projects have kept me away from the keyboard and the many delayed daily posts to the blog from our recent trek through some of the best parts of the USA. They will be done, but it's going to take a little more time.

In truth, I'm re-thinking the blog, it's purpose, and it's future. During our recent 4 week trip with the truck and camper I found the blog to be a burden. Why? Primarily the lack of time and the alternative uses of the time I did have. Traveling with the bushouse we would usually match a day of exploring with a day of "not-exploring" or rest, which gave us time to process photos and write. But we found traveling with the truck and camper is more intensive. We get going earlier in the day, stay out later, and find we're moving almost every day... a pace we found agreeable but a pace that left little time at the end of the day. And I'd rather spend that time hashing over the day and planning the next day with my partner instead of trying to hammer out a post.

I've been writing The RV Sabbatical Journal for going on 8 years now. The reasons I write are three-fold:  to document our travels, to make it possible for family and friends to see what we're up to, and to occasionally get creative... to stretch my writing muscle... and write something fun. Because I get restless and weary after a time of doing things the same way, I'm going to make a couple changes.  I want the RVSJ to become more "travelogue"... the where, when, and what of our travels... a quick and easy record primarily for us. It will only be updated when we're traveling. My intention is that it be "just the facts" and, thus, easy and quick to write but probably not all that interesting to anyone else.. I hope this will satisfy the first reason.

I will also be a little more active with Facebook and Twitter to take care of the second reason: keeping family and friends updated. I've been a late adopter of social media... was fairly critical of it at first... but have come to see some value in it. These updates are quick and require little effort... and I can reach a much larger audience.

And to address the third reason I write, I'm hoping to focus more on my creative side. To be done mostly while we're "sitting" -- whether at our home base in Sutherlin, during our visit to the Midwest in the summer, or if we sit someplace south in the Winter -- I want to stretch myself... fiction, non-fiction, essays, humor, human interest... it's all on the table. When something is ready I'll post it to a separate blog that will contain all this sort of thing.

In the next few weeks we have a couple camping excursions planned... a short one to Door County here in Wisconsin, and another longer one to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It's been a while since we've been in Yooper-land and we can't wait to get back.