Monday, August 2, 2021

Yesterday around 6 pm I set my trailer up at Two Lakes Campground in the Chequamegon–Nicolet National Forest. It’s a few miles from Drummond, Wisconsin. This is “Up North” . There are a couple of solar powered electric water spigots in the campground and a dump station. Not sure if I’ll go fishing. A fish dinner would be nice. If you aren’t wealthy and even if you are wealthy National Forest Campgrounds are great. This site costs me $12 a night. If you camp for a month at private campgrounds with full hookups at $40 to $60 a night it comes to $1200 to $1800 a month. Full time RVing can get pretty expensive.

A nice spot, very private
Bass Lake

The campground is between Owen Lake which has some motorized boat traffic and Bass Lake which is a small no wake lake. It’s difficult to get a photo of more of the lake because the forest is so thick.

I took a drive north through Ashland, Washburn, and Bayfield to Cornucopia. An old friend lives in Cornucopia. Ashland and Washburn are small cities on Lake Superior and sit in low, not beautiful spots. Bayfield is hilly and beautiful. A ferry runs from Bayfield to Madeline Island. Because of the beauty and ferry it’s very touristy and it’s hard to find a parking spot in a town of 497 people.

View from Ashland Harbor to Ashland

Much of the shoreline north of Bayfield and west to Cornucopia is part of the Apostle Islands National Shoreline. Madeline Island is not part of the National Shoreline because it was too expensive for the Fed. to purchase.

Meyers Beach is very close to Cornucopia
View from Cornucopia Harbor towards Cornucopia
Cornucopia
Cornucopia harbor
Part of the Apostle Islands National Shoreline

In the distance of the above photo is a spot people hike to in the winter to view “ice caves”.

Thursday, July 29, 2021

Today I went to “Beyond Van Gogh – The Immersive Experience” which has been showing in cities across the country. These days I try to avoid recommending anything to anyone but I do recommend seeing this show, There are three rooms. The first room contains many large lighted “signs”, for lack of a better word, which are pieces of paintings with words on top. The “signs” are either quotes or dated and describe something going on in Van Gogh’s life.

Outside the entrance
First room

The second room is colorful movement on one wall.

The Third Room. The walls and floor have almost constant movement as paintings are “painted”

Friday, July 16,2021

I’ve been thinking about spending all of November and December and a couple of weeks in January camped at La Posa LTVA on BLM land just outside of Quartzite, Arizona. I guess in the winter up to 750,000 campers, people not vehicles, can be in the area. The area was featured in the movie Nomadland. It would be an experience.

Wednesday, July 14, 2021

When the weather is pleasant I ride my bike over to Lake Shore Drive and go to downtown Milwaukee and back home. It’s about 12 miles one way.

Lake Shore Drive is a small portion of the Lake Michigan Circle Tour
A streetcar using the old rails
The Milwaukee Art Museum
The new Northwest Mutual Insurance Company building

Tuesday, July 13, 2021

While “Up North” the first week of August I’ll visit Bayfield, WI and Madeline Island. Two years ago I drove through Bayfield, a beautiful little town on Lake Superior. There is a ferry that runs every half hour to Madeline Island. Once there you can walk, or rent a moped, or an e-bike, or a bicycle to explore the small island. It will cost about $80 for a round trip ferry ticket and a moped for two hours. I have a friend I went to college with from 1970 to 1972 who lives in Cornucopia, Wisconsin. I’ll stop by his place for a couple of games of chess the day I visit Madeline Island. I have a toolmaker friend I worked with who lives in Superior, Wisconsin whom I’ll meet for lunch during the my “Up North Trip”.

Monday, July 12, 2021

I made camping reservations for the first week of August at a Chequamego-Nicolet National Forest campground. There are many National Forest campgrounds on lakes in the area. Wisconsin has more lakes than Minnesota. I have a float tube so I can float around these small lakes and try to catch dinner.

Thursday, July 8, 2021

Can’t go anywhere the rest of July. The first week of August I intend to do a Lake Superior Circle Tour or an “Up North” Wisconsin trip if the Canadian border isn’t open. I still have reservations for a New Mexico, San Juan River trip this September but I’m watching the weather out west. If it’s super hot out there most of the summer I’ll cancel the trip and do a trip closer to home.

The last two summers I’ve had a Nova Scotia trip planned and canceled. If I don’t do it soon it won’t happen. Here is my plan for next summer…

2022 Nova Scotia Trip

Places to Visit

Circle Nova Scotia,   Meat Cove, Bay of Fundy, Halifax

New Brunswick Fundy National Park camping

Prince Edward Island ???

Maine ???

Start with Lake Superior Circle Tour. ???

Canadian Cities, Art Museums, Major Museums. find campgrounds and museums

Sudbury

Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum, Hockey Hall of Fame, The Art Gallery of Ontario

Ottawa. Canadian War Museum, National Gallery of Canada

Montreal Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal

Quebec City. La Citadelle de Québec

Miles starting from Richfield, WI

To:

St Ignace 365 miles

Whitefish Bay 75   miles

Copper Harbor 300 miles

Duluth 250 miles

Nipigon ON 250 miles

Sault St. Marie 375 miles        

Toronto 435 miles        

Ottawa 280 miles 

Montreal 125 miles

Quebec City 150 miles

Prince Edward Island 560 miles

Meat Cove Nova Scotia 375 miles

Halifax 300 miles

Bar Harbor Maine 450 miles

Syracuse NY 600 miles

Chicago IL 700 miles

Richfield WI 125 miles

Total 5700 miles

.

.

And for 2023

2023 California Coast Trip, if California isn’t on fire. I’ve canceled this trip twice because of fires out west

Starting from Richfield, WI to

miles

Sterling, CO 950

Albuquerque, NM.   525

Santa Barbara, CA  900

Monterey, CA 250

Mendocino, CA 275

Coos Bay, OR 360

Port Angeles, WA 450

Spokane, WA 400

Billings, MT 550

Rapid City, SD 350

Richfield, WI 825

Total 5835 miles

Thursday, July 1, 2021

I’m considering a Lake Superior Circle Tour Museum and Fish Cooking trip as soon as the U.S./Canadian Border opens. I’m not interested in visiting private goofball museums but there are many local municipality museums that I wouldn’t normally consider visiting.

The Fish Cooking part – I don’t know exactly what this means. If I can catch a walleye or some perch fishing from the shore that would be great. These days I don’t know if there are local fish shops that sell local fisherman’s catch. I haven’t done any research.

https://lakesuperiorcircletour.com/

Tuesday, June 28, 2021

Spent about 11 hours behind the wheel today which I don’t much care for anymore. This will probably be the last post of this trip. I’m going to head straight home from here. Should be home this Wednesday (today) afternoon.