CAMPGROUND REVIEW- Tillada Falls Wisconsin and Stopping Home to Regroup and Head Out Again

 (I forgot to post that we traveled 35 miles yesterday)

Monday at noon we left Old Veterans Memorial Park and Campground by West Salem, Wisconsin. We hit the highway with our sights set on going to Big Eau Pleine County Park near Mosinee, Wisconsin. It was 120 miles, approximately two hours or so of driving.

We meandered our way up through Fort McCoy and then through an Indian reservation to get there. We traveled a lot of beautiful back roads past cranberry bogs. 

Ocean Spray is located in this area

 and they were harvesting the cranberries. 

Quite an interesting process that they grow them underwater in the bogs, then they go through with big pieces of machinery to knock the cranberries free to float to the surface. Then they load them all up into trucks to be processed.

It was such a coincidence, we saw wild turkeys walking along the edge of the bogs. Turkeys? Cranberries? Thanksgiving? 

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We even had to take one portion of gravel road to get to Big Eau Pleine County Campground from the west. The road was treated with something so that it wasn't very dusty, which was good for us. Because our air intake and radiator are on the back of the motorhome by the diesel engine, we tried to avoid gravel or dusty roads if at all possible. 

link to the campground website:

Big Eau Pleine

We wound our way down into the park and stopped at the Ranger Station. It was closed. So we unhooked the Saturn and drove over to the two different campground loops to see what we could find. Their website said "first come first serve" and to self register, but it didn't say a word at all about the electrical updating process going on and that the campsites were CLOSED! What a disappointment! 

There were a few places we could have snuck in on a rustic site, but it was so well shaded with trees our solar would not work. We don't really need the electric, but our solar needs to charge up the bank of 4 batteries unless we minimalize the draw and reduce our comforts in the colder autumn nights. Having a sunny spot is optimum for charging up our batteries. The last thing we wanted to do would be running our generator. If we are going to pay to camp, we might as well have the comforts.  There was nobody else there. Even the electrical workers were done for the day. All of their big construction equipment was quiet and the campground was all torn up with new trenching equipment and big piles of dirt everywhere.  Everything was cordoned off and we couldn't even swipe a site if we wanted to and pay at the post. For that matter,  we could not even find a pay post to self-register!

It was very disappointing. But we will put it on our bucket list for next year. With the new electric next year it will probably be a very nice campground to visit. 

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So we decided to move on and maybe travel home. It was 120 more miles and it was after 4 o'clock PM. We really don't like driving after dark --- and this time of year it's dark by 6:30.  

That means we would be getting home just about at darkness... it also means another 120 miles of driving that we didn't count on. We really like to do less than 200 miles a day if we can.

As we were driving along,  my handy Streets and Trips on the laptop showed me a little private campground not too far off the highway.  It was called Tilleda Falls by a small town called Tilleda, Wisconsin. About halfway between Wausau and Shawano. The website looked interesting, so we decided to take our chance.

link to Tilleda Falls website:

https://tilledafalls.com/

We drove on the lot by the office about 5 pm and talked with the owner who was very gracious. She was able to find us a site long enough for our rig because she said that they have quite a few seasonal sites already occupied.  She looked up on the computer and found us site number 13. 

Although the park was small, what from what we could see of it as we drove in it was quite charming. 2 little cabins for rent, and also a "glamping tent" was available. The main office and bar and restaurant area are on one side the river and there's a little walkway bridge to the other side to the campground. It appears to have been an old mill building and the water wheel is now gone. To reach the camping sites with a vehicle or RV, we needed to go back up on the road, drive over the bridge near the falls, and then drive back into the campsites. This is located on the Embarrass River. The little waterfalls (which are actually made by a dam) are all private land that is owned by the campground on each side of it.

We easily found our campsite and she had directed us to come from one way versus the other for easier back in position. Although the sites are closer together, what you find often in privately owned campgrounds, each one had it's own unique view.  The one that we were given she called their "Premier Site". It backed up right onto the Embarrass River. What a view! If we had a fifth wheel with the big windows out the back, it would have been wonderful to be backed right up to the river. I think we could have pulled in nose first for a nice view out our from front windows. Our bedroom is at the back of our motor home with a solid wall, no windows, thus no view.  But because we had already approached from the other side of the loop, we were all prepared to back in.  If we really wanted to change, it meant going back up to the road to turn around and come back. We decided to just back in because we were only here for one night.

But that's okay, we could see a lot just sitting out at the picnic table or walking around the campground.

Didn't take any pics till the next morning. 

We got settled in, and I whipped up some chicken pot pies from our freezer and thawed them out in the microwave for a bit in soup tureens. Then I transfer them back into the metal pans and put them in the oven.

Our little local grocery store deli in Oconto makes the best chicken pot pies from leftover rotisserie chickens that don't sell from the day before.  They have really good homemade crust and real vegetables. We stock up on them and toss them into the freezer. They make a great traveling meal that we can easily cook 15 or 20 minutes.

By the time we were done with dinner it was dark for the evening.  That's okay, we would walk around the campground in the morning. We settled in with for the night.  We were able to scan and get our local stations that we are familiar with from Green Bay. We got caught up on the weather reports. It doesn't look too nice for the next few days. We figure we may as well leave in the morning and head back to our house. There we can regroup, restock, and maybe head north to a couple national campgrounds or something later in the week or into the weekend. Maybe we will stop by our kids' cabin and see if they need a hand. They are working on finishing up the living space at their cabin in the woods. It will be nice to see some of the grandkids again too. 

We snuggled up to a very nice quiet evening. Although the campground had quite a few seasonal campers parked, there really wasn't anybody there during the week. Maybe only the first two or three sites as we enter the campground had anybody staying there. It was quiet and peaceful, next to the little flowing river . I know this is more than we usually pay for camping, it was $50 for the night. But we really enjoyed having a place to stay instead of driving the rest of the way home. 

Sure, we could have boondocked in a Walmart for the night in Shawano. But what the heck, let's go out with a bang and spend a little more to have a peaceful place to rest our heads on the last night of this lag of our journey.

139 MILES TRAVELED

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We woke up in the morning to a slight bit of fog and haze. It soon burned off to beautiful blue sky shining over the wonderful colorful hardwood forest that we were camped in! Steve perked up our coffee and we took a stroll around the campground with our mugs in our hand and the dog on the leash.  It was very pleasant. 

Here is a video called clip I did of the waterfalls by the old mill building area:

Here are some pics we took

as we walked around the campground.

 

We walked the rest of the loop of the campground and Steve's spied something or someone peering out of the woods at us! Watch the video clip below:

Fun fun fun!

If you can't open You Tube clips,

here is a photo:

Amongst the camping sites there are also two cute little cabins that can be rented, as well as a glamping tent built up on a wooden platform alongside the river.  

The campground was impressive, even for its small size. Every site was neat and clean and well-taken care of. There were a few other sites we probably could have fit on. But the premier site backing up to the water was just fine for us.

We walked around enjoying the colors and warmth of the sunshine on our faces. There were a few other people camping that were out walking dogs and greeted us for a little chitchat.  Very pleasant and very comfortable. We got back to the camper and I whipped up some breakfast French toast with my cinnamon and vanilla in the batter. Steve fried up a few pieces of our thick slab bacon and we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast with the sun streaming in the windows. 

We started gearing up to get on the road and did a few preliminary things that we normally do once we're back home. Delaying our leaving just a bit longer. We put fresh bedding on the bed in preparation for our next stretch of camping. We also gathered up the dirty clothes and put a few things aside that need to be carried in the house.

I took stock of what we have on hand and what we need to replenish and made a little list. Our newest treasures that we bought at the various thrift shops will be carried into the house and a few new things brought back out. 

I think we'll stay home this evening and hop in the shower or maybe I will take a long soaking bath in my tub. But then I think we will gear up and head out to the north. There's a few favorite spots we like to go in the northwoods, and now that the colors are at full peak I think it will be enjoyable. Plus, I can stock up on some more of the tomatoes that may have ripened from my vines. I picked them all before we left and put the green ones on a folded towel on top of the clothes dryer. I can add some water to my indoor plants and the coleus I put in the basement. We haven't had a hard frost yet so some of the flowers outside could use a good drink of water too. Although the forecast says that might rain on Thursday and Friday and maybe even on the weekend, we can never count on that. A lot of times they are wrong. We will get done what we can, and still leave the rig fully loaded to head back out again.

Also I want to wipe the new spider webs off all of our security cameras.  We have had some false alerts to our phone from the webs swaying in the breeze or wasps crawling on the cameras.  Time to clean them off a bit so they function as needed. 

Steve decided that we should fuel up right before reaching home for $3.15 a gallon diesel. 

Our trip computer on the dash gave us these figures:

Average miles per gallon 7.7 for the whole trip

61 Miles traveled today      

543 miles traveled in full.

Average 39 miles an hour

HOME AGAIN HOME AGAIN JIGGETY JIG

We made it home, Dumped our holding tanks at the city dump station by Holtwood Campground for $2 fee.  Steve is now cutting the lawn, I started a load of laundry. Time to grab the mail from the post office and ship out a few things to customers from my Etsy shop.  

Hmmmm it's a beautiful day outside, I want to just hop back in the rig and go camping again!!!