Campground Review – Veterans Memorial Park - Marinette County, WI April 2010

(THIS POST IS MADE BY A SOLAR POWERED COMPUTER) 

Now,  after all of the campground reviews I have done over the long long winter, this is the first one being done in REAL TIME!    Hahaha, yes we are camping this weekend, the first time of the season!
We did camp here last year, but in my alphabetical order of campground reviews over the winter, this one was up next!   So much better to do it in real time than from memory.

Steveio had made a deal with a guy to haul four pickup truck loads of firewood from his cabin this weekend, that the guy was selling (cheap) … so Steveio wanted to waste a perfectly good camping weekend by hauling firewood on a Saturday.  ACK!   Once we got the guy’s address to his cabin, it turns out it is only one road over from a campground we can go to!  So I got on the phone quick as a bunny, I called Marinette county parks, and yes, it is OPEN for the seaon already.  All their other parks are closed, but this one being no hookups or water lines to get going, all they had to do was plop in the picnic tables and they are set for business. 

Marinette County Parks

Thursday night we de-winterized the rig and starting loading in the dry goods and some extra clothes.  By Friday morning I had the rig loaded up with the cold fridge food and dogs and laptop and router.  As soon as Steveio got home from work at 3:30, he hopped into the driver’s seat and I hopped in the truck and followed him.  It was gusty winds up to 30mph but we were only going 40 miles, so it wasn’t too nerve-wracking for him.  Some parts were headwinds, some were side winds.  This Safari handles the wind much better than our other Coachmen did.    We got up to the park by about 4:30, and lo and behold, not another camper in sight!  We have the place to ourselves.

We backed into a site… chose number 13 this time.  All the sites are wooded and spaced far apart from each other.

Right away the doggers wanted to get out and SNIFF!   So we walked over to the self pay post and paid up for 2 nights.   What is nice about these parks in Marinette county, is that for every lot rent you pay, you automatically get 2 stickers for your vehicles.  Now THAT is a good system, instead of how state parks and state forests nail you extra bucks for each and every vehicle, even if it’s our scooter up on the back rack.  Rah Rah for Marinette County parks for being SENSIBLE!

 

It is also nice to see some improvements, even in the times of cut backs and nonsense spending.  This park needed new outhouses and by golly they got some nice ones just installed.   Even though we don’t use them, it’s good to see the park improved for tenters and pop up folks too.  We noticed some of the sites even got new tables this year too.

Their firewood is a bargain too, the bundles are very large for the price.  We have infestations of the emerald ash borer beetle so this helps to prevent it’s spread by folks bringing in firewood from other places.  This weekend is so dry and windy, having a campfire might be a risk.  So it wasn’t a problem to not have wood available. Areas to the west of us have on fire bans, and I am sure we will too soon if we don’t get much rain.

Before Steve got home from work on Friday, he made a stop at Van Boxtel RV in Green Bay.  We had ordered a replacement head for our batwing antenna.  Ken and Nanette of http://ouradventurechronicles.blogspot.com   just put one on their motorhome and said it helped.   So we ordered one for $45 and within 15 minutes of getting here, Mr. Steveio Zoom Zoom had out the ladder and was putting it up!

It was a very easy installation, you use the same mast and crank-up mechanism from the old Winguard Batwing setup, this head goes on with just 2 pins and retaining clips, screw on the coax and you are good to go.

The jury is still out on if it works any better than the batwing.  Because when we got here, we only get one set of stations 2-1, 2-2, and 2-3 from Green Bay even with the batwing.  And once we set this up, we still are only getting those stations, and sometime 5 will flicker on and off.  But in all fairness, we are about 80 miles from the towers!  LOL

The other thing Steveio picked up (you don’t think he could go in an RV store and buy only ONE thing, do you?)   was an LED light bulb for our outside “porch” light.  He has wanted one for out there, which saves on power but also is brighter than the dim 12 volt auto bulb that is in there now.   We don’t leave it on all night, but do use it to tie out the dogs one last time before bed.   We have an LED bulb in an inside fixture too, just to see how good they work.  They are costly, about $18 a bulb.. ack!   Now that we are solar’d up with the new system, we really didn’t *need* this---  but you know Steveio!  And if it makes him happy, oh well. 

After the antenna was up, and the bulb in place, we sat and thought about supper.  It was too windy for a campfire.  But we did see that the bar down a few miles on the corner of County Rd W and Parkway had their fish fry special on.  So we did like *tourists* and left our rig and the dogs inside and drove over in the pickup truck to the bar for fish fry!   It was good!  Steve had the walleye and I had the yellow perch.    Great meal for under $20 plus we each had a drink too.   The service was fast and we were back to the motorhome in time to enjoy a stroll around with the dogs.

After dark (no campfire) so we came inside the rig.  I played on the computer for a while and went into RV Dreams chat… Steveio read his freebie paper I took from the mailbox before we left.  Then we turned on the tv and dvd  player (all from our batteries now) and watched a movie from Netflix .. the Johnny Cash movie I Walk The Line.   After that we headed to bed and I had the tv on in there till about midnight.  We only used up 10% of our battery power, and woke up this morning to sunshine and fully recharged before 9 am!   That is sooo cool!    The temps were down to 33 degrees, but the Olympic Wave 8 heater just about cooked us outta here!   We had it set on MED while watching tv, and turned it to LOW when we went to bed (with a window cracked for fresh air)    Was comfortable in the morning, but we turned it back to MED while getting up and dressing etc.   It works quite well.


Later today we will take a walk down to the waterfalls. These photos are from last year when we camped here.  The woods are no where THIS green yet…

 

After breakfast, Steveio hopped in the pickup truck and went over for a load of the firewood.  He just called me from home, and said he was all unloaded and coming back up for another load.  He promised the guy we would buy four loads.  Two were supposed to be with a friend of ours, who now backed out.  So I guess we are buying four loads of firewood this weekend too.  Sigh.    We have a woodburning fireplace at home and can stockpile for next winter.  I got outta helping because Steveio said I can stay here and guard the camper.  Haha.   My lifting restrictions are off a month or more after my surgery, but he said he can do it himself. 

So here I sit, typing this blog.  And going to haul out my spinning wheel in a bit.  Soft music playing on the MP3 player and two dozing dogs… what more do we need?