Hey all,
This past weekend, Nancy and I headed 400 miles north up to the Hayward, WI area to camp on the Chippewa Flowage and to visit with Nancy's son Mike and visit with Nancy's childhood friend Pat.
We headed out late afternoon on Thursday, hooked up the trailer and drove to Lake Delton in the Wisconsin Dells area. We stayed at Country Roads Motorhome and RV Park for the quick over-night. We'd stayed there in 2004. It's a nice park that's layed out very well. Nearly all sites are pull-throughs. While you can bring children, they cater to adults. It rained pretty hard overnight but it didn't bother us inside the trailer at all. This is a huge improvement for me over my travel trailer in 2004 (ping, ping, ping all night long - I can still hear it!).
We headed out from Lake Delton early Friday morning and had rain nearly the whole way to Hayward. We took 90/94 west to 53 North at Eau Claire. Once we got within 60 miles of our destination though, the county roads were merciless on the rig. Chuck City! I've never chucking as bad as I had it those last 60 miles. Must have been an asphalt crack repair ever 6 feet for miles upon miles. Needless to say, we took an alternate route back to 53 and it was great.
Lake Chippewa campground was great. And big too. But not so that you'd know it as it was all tucked into a huge wooded acreage. The site we had was long and wide (as campsites). Like all of their RV sites, we parked on gravel and had a grass side yard, a fire ring and trees. Everything we wanted really. Okay, Wi-Fi would have been nice
While is was cold everyday and rained most everyday, we made the most of it. We had a really nice time in downtown Hayward with all the shops and such. We took the puppies into all the stores (except those selling or serving food) in their carry bag. One shop owner even told us we could let them out to run around the store. It was a small shop so we did. It was at her peril I warned and puppies did not disappoint as Emme left a nice yellow lake on the wood floor Mommy cleaned it up and all was well. Back to the shops - it was your typical tourist sort of downtown shops - quaint, nice.
Due to the rain, we watched our first movie ever while camping. Kind of nice to have a big TV and DVD player for those times.
We did a bit of driving around the Chippewa Flowage area, ate and shopped at local spots and such. A lot of people in this area are Native Americans, indigenous to the area - all of them very friendly.
Oh, and a highlight for me since I love the food, we met Nancy's friend Pat for dinner at the original Famous Daves, near Hayward on Round Lake. I'll post a few pictures of the place later. I also got a bit more history on Dave Anderson and his ventures as well as the first name given to his restaurant before he was compelled to change it. Nancy's friend Pat worked for Dave in the beginning so it was kind of neat to get some of the history. Okay, enough about my Famous Dave's obsession.
Finally, on our last full day in the area, it wasn't raining when I got up! I mixed up a batch of blueberry muffins, tossed them in the oven and went outside and made a campfire! We had muffins and coffee around the campfire at 8 am.
Couple of boo-boos to mention (I must love public humiliation). When I parked at the theater, I parked next to a light post. The post was in concrete. I made a mental note to back out of the spot. Two hours later, that mental note escaped me. Oopsie! Yep, got a nice scrape on the end of the bumper and the apron above the bumper.
Boo-boo two was a rookie big trailer driver error. When I pulled out of the campground and onto the county road, while I did pull out long for a wide turn, well, I didn't pull out quite far enough. Seems this stop sign on a metal pole jumped out and scraped the side of my new trailer - yikes! All I saw in my mirror was this stop sign flopping around on its post - too late. It was really too close to the driveway but I suppose I should have been more inside the lane. Live and learn. I think I can buff out most of the scrapes on the gel-coat. The real appearance issue will be the scrapes on the tinted dinette windows.
The rest of the trip home was great. Nice weather too. Like our last trip, I was able to pull off for lunch in a shopping center parking lot, park alongside a grassy area and run out the dinette slide while Nancy walked over to a nearby Fazoli's to get lunch. When she returned, puppies and I had the table set, the trailer heated up and we had a nice lunch - not in the cab of the truck for a change. As luck would have it, right there was a Petco too. Just like last time. So puppies got to do sme shopping in one of their favorite stores and on leashes, not in their bag.
Sorry for the long report - I'll post some pictures to this later in the week just to make it longer. Go here to see a few of the pictures I was able to get put up last night.
Happy Trails,
Jim
This past weekend, Nancy and I headed 400 miles north up to the Hayward, WI area to camp on the Chippewa Flowage and to visit with Nancy's son Mike and visit with Nancy's childhood friend Pat.
We headed out late afternoon on Thursday, hooked up the trailer and drove to Lake Delton in the Wisconsin Dells area. We stayed at Country Roads Motorhome and RV Park for the quick over-night. We'd stayed there in 2004. It's a nice park that's layed out very well. Nearly all sites are pull-throughs. While you can bring children, they cater to adults. It rained pretty hard overnight but it didn't bother us inside the trailer at all. This is a huge improvement for me over my travel trailer in 2004 (ping, ping, ping all night long - I can still hear it!).
We headed out from Lake Delton early Friday morning and had rain nearly the whole way to Hayward. We took 90/94 west to 53 North at Eau Claire. Once we got within 60 miles of our destination though, the county roads were merciless on the rig. Chuck City! I've never chucking as bad as I had it those last 60 miles. Must have been an asphalt crack repair ever 6 feet for miles upon miles. Needless to say, we took an alternate route back to 53 and it was great.
Lake Chippewa campground was great. And big too. But not so that you'd know it as it was all tucked into a huge wooded acreage. The site we had was long and wide (as campsites). Like all of their RV sites, we parked on gravel and had a grass side yard, a fire ring and trees. Everything we wanted really. Okay, Wi-Fi would have been nice
While is was cold everyday and rained most everyday, we made the most of it. We had a really nice time in downtown Hayward with all the shops and such. We took the puppies into all the stores (except those selling or serving food) in their carry bag. One shop owner even told us we could let them out to run around the store. It was a small shop so we did. It was at her peril I warned and puppies did not disappoint as Emme left a nice yellow lake on the wood floor
Mommy cleaned it up and all was well. Back to the shops - it was your typical tourist sort of downtown shops - quaint, nice.Due to the rain, we watched our first movie ever while camping. Kind of nice to have a big TV and DVD player for those times.
We did a bit of driving around the Chippewa Flowage area, ate and shopped at local spots and such. A lot of people in this area are Native Americans, indigenous to the area - all of them very friendly.
Oh, and a highlight for me since I love the food, we met Nancy's friend Pat for dinner at the original Famous Daves, near Hayward on Round Lake. I'll post a few pictures of the place later. I also got a bit more history on Dave Anderson and his ventures as well as the first name given to his restaurant before he was compelled to change it. Nancy's friend Pat worked for Dave in the beginning so it was kind of neat to get some of the history. Okay, enough about my Famous Dave's obsession.
Finally, on our last full day in the area, it wasn't raining when I got up! I mixed up a batch of blueberry muffins, tossed them in the oven and went outside and made a campfire! We had muffins and coffee around the campfire at 8 am.
Couple of boo-boos to mention (I must love public humiliation). When I parked at the theater, I parked next to a light post. The post was in concrete. I made a mental note to back out of the spot. Two hours later, that mental note escaped me. Oopsie! Yep, got a nice scrape on the end of the bumper and the apron above the bumper.
Boo-boo two was a rookie big trailer driver error. When I pulled out of the campground and onto the county road, while I did pull out long for a wide turn, well, I didn't pull out quite far enough. Seems this stop sign on a metal pole jumped out and scraped the side of my new trailer - yikes! All I saw in my mirror was this stop sign flopping around on its post - too late. It was really too close to the driveway but I suppose I should have been more inside the lane. Live and learn. I think I can buff out most of the scrapes on the gel-coat. The real appearance issue will be the scrapes on the tinted dinette windows.
The rest of the trip home was great. Nice weather too. Like our last trip, I was able to pull off for lunch in a shopping center parking lot, park alongside a grassy area and run out the dinette slide while Nancy walked over to a nearby Fazoli's to get lunch. When she returned, puppies and I had the table set, the trailer heated up and we had a nice lunch - not in the cab of the truck for a change. As luck would have it, right there was a Petco too. Just like last time. So puppies got to do sme shopping in one of their favorite stores and on leashes, not in their bag.
Sorry for the long report - I'll post some pictures to this later in the week just to make it longer. Go here to see a few of the pictures I was able to get put up last night.
Happy Trails,
Jim
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lake_chip_cg_site_fire_01_lg.jpg -
lake_chip_cg_site_fire_03_lg.jpg -
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lake_chip_cg_site_fire_02_lg.jpg -
lake_chip_cg_sign_lg.jpg
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