Sunday, September 24, 2023

CAMPGROUND REVIEW - Boot Lake and Boulder Lake in the Chequamenon Nicolet National Forest near Mountain, WI

Last Sunday we took care of a few little things, helped out Steve's dad and his friend Sandy, and then came home to watch the Packer game. Sadly, they lost at the end.

It was a beautiful day, so in between the commercial breaks of the game, we ran out totes of groceries and some clothes to put into the motorhome. 

At the end of the game, we tossed in the dog and headed on up to the Northwoods of the Chequamenon Nicolet National Forest. There are about six or seven campgrounds in the Laona district. The one we are heading to is off Highway 64 just west of Mountain, Wisconsin. This time of year there really isn't a problem with getting the rustic wooded campsites, especially on a Sunday afternoon. 

We set our sights on heading up to Boot Lake. We hadn't been there in about 10 years but we did drive through last year on a ride in our convertible. We figured we would head back that way and see what we could find.

Here is a link to the National Forest website for Boot Lake:

Boot Lake

Campground Details:

The campground sits at the north end of Boot Lake and overlooks the scenic 263-acre lake. It has 36 campsites, of which 19 are reservable. There is a camp host as well as a beautiful swimming beach, shaded picnic area and boat landing with a dock.  The campground has vault toilets and drinking water.

I will add:
There are no electrical sites, and the drinking water is from a well-hand pump.
Cell phone signal is sporadic and weak. The only antenna over the air TV stations are PBS.

 

Camping here is $18 a night for a rustic site. 

With the Federal Senior Access pass it is half price, so it's only $9 a night. 

No credit card kiosks, bring cash or check to put in an envelope and put at the pay post.

Take note, Boot Lake does not have a dump station nor portable freshwater fill faucet.


It was an absolutely beautiful gorgeous afternoon with blue sky, puffy white clouds, and all the trees are just starting to change color.



We drove into the campground and we're surprised to see that out of the 36 sites, about half were already filled.  We managed to find a very nice site with a view of the water peeking through the trees. It wasn't the exact one that we had been hoping for, but it was really maybe the second best or third best of the choices. 

I think it was 

site number 9? 


It was very quiet and peaceful. We could barely see the people at the next campsite through the abundance of underbrush and trees. They were in tents, but extremely quiet. We barely heard a peep. Nobody blasting crazy music, nobody singing songs, nobody running a crazy diesel generator heater device like last week! It was complete peace and quiet!!! 

From our chairs we could look at the lake through the trees and down the little path from our campsite. Every now and then we could hear some loons at one end. And some cranes were over at the other side. Overhead a couple times we saw a V formation of geese flying south. What do they know? It's only the middle of September?



We sat out in our chairs for the rest of the afternoon and then lit a campfire. Grilled up some burgers after throwing on a few ears of sweet corn from our neighbors Sheryl and Ed. Sometimes we like cooking over the campfire if we have a good bed of coals going. 



We walked down our little path to the shoreline of Boot Lake.



Everything was so picturesque. At a few campsites down they had a little boat parked along the shore. And down the road a ways there is a boat landing access. How nice for when they are camping to be able to launch their boat and keep it right by their campsite. We saw them go out in the evening to do a little fishing. Not sure if they caught any, but it sure looked peaceful and relaxing. We had been thinking we should have brought along our canoe. But really the only way to haul it is to tow our Saturn and put the canoe on the roof! Steve has been looking for a little canoe trailer smaller than a regular boat trailer that is lightweight and that we could tow behind the motorhome. Wouldn't it be nice to paddle a canoe through these peaceful waters?



It's good to get away. Even for just a few days like this. Steve needs to kick back and relax once in awhile. When we were at home he works on too many projects. I think this is good for the soul. 


The next morning we decided to bake in the new Camp Chef oven. I think I'm going to call it my Easy Bake Oven! Although it's not too small. It can take up to a 9x13 pan. And with two racks, and three positions, it's really versatile to cook a variety of items. 

I mixed up some little pouches of Betty Crocker blueberry muffin mixes. These are my larger muffin pans so it takes two of those mixes to bake up six muffins. We set it out on my folding Lifetime table with a piece of heat reflecting insulated fabric underneath just in case. I don't know how hot it gets underneath. But this fabric works well. It's actually ironing board fabric that you can buy by the yard at Joanne's fabric and craft store. I had made some ironing platforms for my quilting and covered with this fabric. So this was a leftover piece that I decided would work out perfectly underneath the oven. When not used for the oven, I cover my laptop computer in the front passenger seat with it so the hot sun coming in through the windshield doesn't damage the computer. Dual purpose fabric used for a variety of things. That's what we try to do in the motorhome is have multiple use items... it means less gear being hauled along.

Back to the muffins... 


They baked beautifully and evenly with the hunk of pizza stone underneath. That helps spread the heat around and keeps it from being concentrated in one area right where the burner is. That works in all RV ovens to lay a pizza stone in the bottom right above the heat shield over the burner. 


Yummmmmm



While I was baking the muffins Steve decided to get the solar panel set up. Our batteries had only gone down to about 88%, but he wanted to top them off for the day. He set up this portable 100 watt panel setup which we can move around to soak up the sun from whatever angle it is at. This way we can still park in the shade and get solar charging. 



We didn't get a lot of sunshine, and we really didn't want to fire up the generator. 

By the second day our batteries were down in the 70% range. We really don't care to let them get down that far at all. We were using the propane furnace at night which also uses 12 volt battery power for the blower. Had gotten down to 41°. Brrrrr but we were cozy inside the motorhome. 

Steve was thinking it might be nice to check out Boulder Lake again which is about 14 mi to the south. There are some sites there that are electric.

In a hop, skip and jump we could load up the motorhome and head on out of Boot Lake before we had to pay for another day of camping. Check out time is at 2:00 p.m. and we headed out about 1:30.

We drove on over to Boulder Lake. Here is a link to their information on the website:

This campground features electricity at some sites, an RV dump station, three shower and flush toilet facilities, an expanded beach and amphitheater. Vault toilets and hand pumps still exist. There are 89 single family sites and 6 group sites.

The campground has a picnic area, swim beach and boat landing. Fishing is good in the 362 acre Boulder Lake which has walleye, northern pike, bass, and panfish. Several nearby streams offer trout fishing, too. 

The campground also features a hiking trail. A wooden boardwalk begins your journey into another world of primitive bog vegetation, deer trails, squirrels' nests, and the workings of woodpeckers. Hike up and down the ridges around a large open bog area. The huge boulders you'll see are the calling cards left behind when the last glacier receded and formed the rugged terrain over 10,000 years ago. Campers can access the trail from several points in the campground.


What we like about this campground is that it is long and drawn out with little loops here and there. That way you are not camped in an area where every single piece of traffic drives by your campsite. There are 2 loops with electric... One is when you first enter the park (9 through 16), and then a loop way back up in the corner that we like to go that has 14 more electric sites.


Camping here is $18 a night for a rustic site. $28 for electric. 

With the Federal Senior Access pass it is half price, so it's only $9 a night for rustic, and add $10 for electric use. We paid $19 a night with our pass. 

No credit card kiosks, bring cash or check to put in an envelope and put at the pay post.

Boulder Lake also has a dump station and fresh potable water available via faucet to fill your tank. Thank you Whereas, Boot Lake does not. 



What is nice about fall camping in the Chequamenon Nicolet National Forest is that right now all of the sites are "first come first serve" . Although in the summer you would need reservations at this very busy campground-- this time of year you have a pretty good chance of getting a good site by just driving in.

We were pleasantly surprised that among the 14 or so electric sites in that loop, that only four were occupied. We snagged site number 52. We could not see a single person or another RV from our site--  they are so well spaced out.
 

The woods are full of little sounds of rustling chipmunks gathering acorns. Every now and then an acorn falls down and plops on the roof of the motorhome. It can be quite startling at times until you realize it's just the acorns.

We set up the awning and put out our little gigaws and spinners and solar patio lights. Steve hooked up our EMS from Progressive Industries, an electric management system, which is a surge protecting system on the post... and all was good to go to plug in. 


Binney said that was enough for traveling in one day, 14 miles suited her just fine. She relaxed in her lawn chair and would open her eyes every now and then to look at the chipmunks bustling around. She has long ago learned that she will never catch them, so it's not worth trying to chase them. 


I simmered up a little mug of apple cider... 


I add a teaspoon or so of this wonderful spice mix. I bought some packets of these a few years ago. We might be heading that way later today I might have to stop and pick up some more! It's from Mud Creek coffee shop in Stockbridge, Wisconsin. 


It was such a beautiful day that I asked Steve to set out my folding table again. It folds in half and stores neatly in the rear compartment of our motorhome. I took out my little Singer Featherweight sewing machine and started to work on my quilt. This is an extremely pleasant pastime to sit in the woods and sew or daydream or create or just chatting with Steve. 



I only have about eight or nine more blocks of this quilt to go. Then I will be able to put it all together, add the border, and put it on my large quilting frame at home to finish it up. 


The pattern is called North Star from the Missouri Star quilting company. When it's done it will look like this:


Those are just laid out but not yet sewn together to kind of see what it will look like. 


We finished up the next few days by staying at Boulder Lake. It was so quiet and lovely. We took a few walks around and just relaxed. At night, the TV stations came and went sporadically but we were able to stream on our Roku by setting Steve's phone on hotspot. He has an unlimited data plan from Visible through Verizon. We also use a WeBoost cell phone booster to get in a stronger signal when it seems to get congested on the towers in the evening. More people in the area going online.

We had to pack up on Thursday and head on home. Not that we really wanted to because the weather was absolutely gorgeous. But we had another commitment to take care of... 

BABYSITTING THESE TWO RASCALLY LITTLE GRAND PUPPIES!


Ewok and Biscuit were here for a few days while their family was out of state. They are two little stinkers who love to come and visit and romp around and pester Binney. She usually looks at us and wonders "When are they going home?"

I also picked the last of my garden tomatoes. There's a few green ones on the vines yet that I'm not sure if they will ripen or not. I might have to pick them and ripen them in the house in a paper bag. It's good to get them off the vines before the first frost. 



We had damp foggy weather rolling in, and the last two mornings looked like this out in our backyard.


By mid-afternoon the sun breaks through the fog and my she-shed is bathed in sunshine. I brought in my quilt pieces from the motorhome and was working on them at the treadle machine. I think I'm ready for some hibernation and some quilt-making for a few days. 



After a few appointments this week, vet for Binney and dentist for me, we might go camping again. Perhaps a loop through northwestern Wisconsin or even into Minnesota?

Stay tuned, you never know where we end up.


Monday, September 18, 2023

Around The House - Getting Ready To Go Camping Again

We decided to spend a few days at home, mainly over the weekend and get a few things done. We really don't care to camp on the weekends as people get too noisy. In the quiet places that we like to go, we appreciate the peaceful serenity of the woods during the weekdays. 

Since we were home for a few days, Steve decided to work some more on his garage project. He's been doing a little at a time. First he did all of the insulation. Then he sheetrocked everything. Now he is doing the taping and mudding and covering of all the screw holes. Sooner or later he will be painting. It's not that it needs to be done by any certain time. It's just a project he's working on a little at a time. It's the entire ceiling and walls in the 4 stall garage. 



We also cleaned up the flower beds around the house. Some things got a little overgrown while we were gone for a month. In no time at all we're going to have frost, so it's time to make some decisions about our outside flowers and plants. 



The three beautiful Boston ferns that I kept going all summer are so full and lush in their cocoa matte baskets. If I was going to change them into indoor plants, it would mean I'd have to get three big pots and transplant them. The cocoa matte baskets allow water to run right through them and would not work for an indoor plant. I guess I really wasn't keen on making them into indoor plants. Especially if we go south this winter them I would have to impose upon my kids or grandkids to take care of them.

So instead, I posted this pic on Facebook Marketplace:

I met a really nice lady who came over to buy them. She's going to keep two for herself and transplant them into bigger pots that can be used indoors. The third one she picked up for a co-worker. So now all three ferns will have a lovely warm home and enjoy being indoor plants instead of dying a horrid death from the wicked frost!!! 

~~~~~~~~

We had a sassy little visitor the other night, who was very bold. Instead of feeding way out by the other bird feeders, he came up close to the house. He actually kept nudging that one suspended bird feeder with his nose, rocking it to and fro, and knocking more and more of the seed down on the ground. Pretty smart hey?



I took these blurry pictures through the glass window, but if you look carefully you can see his young buckhorns growing on his head.



Of course, Binney was very excited to have this guy so close to the house. It really fired her up and kept her barking for about 20 minutes. He realized he was safe and totally ignored her. 

~~~~~~~~~

Another project that I wanted to get done before the snow falls was the painting the columns on our pergola. They were originally pretty chipped up when we bought them. We found them CHEAP in an architectural salvage section of a antique store. They exactly match the rest of the columns on the front of our house. So we built them into the pergola and just gave them another coating of paint 3 years ago. 

Before the grandkids started school this fall, I had them over for one afternoon to let them chip all of the loose paint off the columns. They had a blast! They said it was like picking a scab, or picking on dried skin after a sunburn. They absolutely were focused and transfixed and trying to get more and more and more loose stuff off.



All three of them went to work and just were busy as little beavers. They didn't even want to take a break to eat supper!



Even after supper they went back to do some more. Chelsea was even reaching way up to get the higher up spots so we brought out a little ladder for Claire so she could help too. They were competing to see who could get more off which column. Girls against the boy. 




Well, since they got most of the loose stuff off, I figured maybe I could get some more. I tried first using this oscillator tool with a little chisel piece on the end-- similar to a putty knife. Really didn't work that well. 



I used work gloves and a good mask for the dust. 



Next, Steve picked me up a new "paint eater" disc. We used these years ago to remove the old varnish finish off our log home prior to selling it. They work pretty good. They can either be screwed onto a right angle grinder like this or actually installed onto the "paint eater" power tool from Wagner.



By now my arms were starting to hurt. The right angle grinder has a lot more twist and momentum when using it. So Steve took over using the power tool. Once he got any more loose stuff off, it was my turn to do the clean up and shop vacuuming. My neighbors must think I'm really nuts to be out shop vaccing paint chips out of our lawn! I had a really good Supervisor for my job:



It scratches up the wood a little bit but not too bad. At least it took off the loose stuff. The rest of it is dried on like concrete and I don't think it's ever coming off.



I figured it was as good as it was going to get. Now it was time to get a layer of primer on and a couple coats of paint. I had a beautiful sunshiny afternoon to get started.


Soon I had it all done by supper time I gave the final coat. I think it really look good and it is going to help preserve the columns for years to come. I hope. Binney says I did a very good job. But, I pay her with doggie treats to say that. 



Looked out in the backyard that evening and noticed we suddenly have gotten the pileated woodpeckers again. They've been missing for most of the summer and we don't know where they went. But they are back. Here are two of them, one on each side of the big cottonwood tree.


Well, that's about it for this blog. I'm actually dictating it into my phone while we are sitting up in the Northwoods. 

I will do my next blog about our campsite at Boot Lake. 



Tuesday, September 12, 2023

CAMPGROUND REVIEW - We Energies Wilderness Shores Rec Site #1

Even though we just got home from a month-long trip, we had the urge to go camping again already by the weekend.  So we tossed some stuff in the rig and away we went.



It was a beautiful Friday morning with sunshine and blue sky. Those white puffy clouds mean the humidity is low. Just perfect to get away and escape into the woods. We don't often go camping on the weekends, but time is running out, and winter is coming.



If you read my last blog, you will know that I am very happy to have my laptop now accessible from the front passenger seat. I have my GPS dongle sitting in the windshield and it functions perfectly. Microsoft Streets and Trips is still operational, even if they are no longer supporting it. I love having the big screen with the accessibility to plan a trip and look forward, look back, zoom in and zoom out. 



The new laptop stand with articulating arm works perfectly. It is bolted right to the seat frame and can rotate with the seat to face the rear of the coach. It works really well and does not vibrate at all as we are driving. The only change I'm going to make is to switch over to my corded mouse. Twice I dropped my cordless mouse and it went down in the stepwell by the door. If I had the corded one I could have easily retrieved it.


NOW ON TO THE CAMPGROUND:
We headed up to a little out of the way place called the We Energies Wilderness Shores Rec Sites. There are thirty different locations scattered around northeast Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, all maintained by this energy company.  Here is the blog post from another time when we were there:



The We Energies system has various dams built along the Menominee River. Around the edges they have cultivated little recreation sites for camping and fishing. Here's their website with more information.:


Our favorite one is called Rec Site #1. Located just south of County K, at the border between Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, near the Chalk Hills Dam. So we set our sights on getting there early and looked for an empty campsite. At Rec Site #1 there are 4 little campsites to occupy first come first serve. The rate is only $15 a night. It is rustic camping with no hook ups or water source. There is a pit toilet, trash can, and 4 picnic tables and fire rings at each site. There's a pay post and envelopes for cash only. No reservations, no credit cards, nor any campground host.

We pulled on in and managed to snag site 1 C!!!   The sites are 1A, 1B, 1C and 1D. How wonderful! A beautiful shady site, and we can pull right up to the water's edge with the motor home. It is grassy and, level as all 4 sites are. We have a little picnic table and a fire ring made of rocks.



We are on the Michigan side of the Menominee River, and just across the river from us, down about 10 miles, our oldest daughter has a cabin near Wausaukee.



We got set up. The view out of our door and our windows is absolutely fantastic. We are only about fifteen feet from the water. 



 The colors of autumn are rapidly changing in the area. Trees are starting to turn faint hues of red and orange. The last of the wildflower blossoms are opening up to the sun before the first frost takes them out.



Binney got out and about and sniffed around the camp site. She gave it her seal of approval and settled down in the sunshine next to the fire pit. She supervises us setting up camp.



We put out the slides and our camping ground mat with our relaxing recliner lawn chairs. This sure was quite a comfortable site, and it was total peace and quiet. The neighbors next to us were out fishing and we didn't hear a peep.



One we were all settled in, we whipped up a quick lunch. Then it was time to relax and take a little nap for the afternoon. We had all of the windows wide open and a soft breeze blowing in off the river... it was a very pleasant afternoon



We had bought some firewood nearby on our way into the campground, and Steve unloaded it next to the fire pit. It turns out, the neighbors that came back from their fishing excursion and invited us to share their campfire for the evening. So we carried some over by their fire pit.



We were treated to a beautiful sunset, and nice camaraderie around the campfire. They had caught some fish and decided to cook them up and share sample tidbits with each of us around the fire. What a treat. Fresh perch and bluegill... yummmmm!



As the sun was setting, I snapped this picture of the neighbor's lawn chair and fishing pole. I hadn't gotten mine out yet, but I planned to do it the next morning.



Our new neighbor, Chickie, did something we've never seen before. She has a little shovel and some old aluminum disposable pie tins. She shovels hot coals out of the campfire and sets them into the pie tins. Using her shovel, she carefully slides them underneath each person's lawn chair from the back side. The heat coming up off the coals can really be felt while sitting in the lawn chair! Every 30 minutes or so she would replenish the trays underneath our chairs!



We sat out around the fire with them till well after 11:00 p.m. and a few beverages were consumed. It was time to toddle off to bed as the temperatures were dropping and it was going to be a very chilly night.

We did have some other people that moved on the other site next to us to the north. Two couples who set up a couple of tents earlier in the evening. They were kind of loud. But we certainly did not expect them at 10:00 PM at night to fire up a diesel heater and place it between their two tents!!!!  From the noisy diesel engine, they ran two hoses expelling heat into each of their tents! This diesel heater was quite loud, similar to a generator. Of course there are generator restrictions in the campground after 10:00 PM. We weren't going to cause a ruckus by complaining about it, because really there wasn't anybody to complain to. So we just bit our tongues and put up with it.

By early morning, I glanced at the outside temperature which was down to 41°! Brrrrr but we were cozy warm inside our little motorhome. Their diesel heater had run out of fuel about five o'clock in the morning. They were slamming and banging around and having an argument amongst the two couples. I kinda presume it's one who didn't have enough fuel along for the the heater?  They settled back down by 5:30 and had to finish the night by sleeping in their idling vehicles.

We got up and perked our coffee. We were just going to ignore them. They were prepping to go out fishing. So we didn't need to have a confrontation with them anyhow. There would have also been a slight language barrier, although I've heard a few English phrases and words every now and then. My high school French is not nearly good enough to follow along with their French Canadian dialect.

With coffee cups in hand, we took Binney for a nice little walk out of the campground and around towards the boat landing.



It was such a beautiful morning, crisp and cool. Just the type of morning to put on a nice, thick sweatshirt and sip a steaming, hot cup of coffee. The birds were singing, and it was absolutely magical. I love fall camping!


It was a short walk over to the boat landing. Binney doesn't like to go walking too far any more. Everything was calm and peaceful. The river was like a sheet of glass, perfectly mirroring the images along the shoreline.



We walked out along the launching pier to check for any signs of fish in the area. Binney had her own ideas and said, absolutely no way, no how was she coming out on that pier? 



We didn't see anything of any size other than a few minnows flickering about here and there. But I still decided that I was going to dig up some worms in the woods and overturn a few rocks around the campfire pit and see what bait I could find.

Well, I was getting breakfast together, Steve decided to haul out the solar panels. We really didn't need them because the batteries had only gone down 7 or 8% from watching a little TV before we went to bed. But he wanted to charge up our batteries, of course, without running our generator. In no time at all, he had them topped off to 100 percent. These Thunderbolt Panels from Harbor Freight are kind of handy. They separate into four individual pieces and can be stored away in a narrow compartment. I made flannel fabric sleeves for over each one so they don't get scratched. They can be hooked together in pairs or triples or all four, or just single. Each one is 25 watts. 100 watts was enough to top off our batteries. Steeve thought if we had needed more than that, we could have started up the generator.




In our last blog, we mentioned the new little camping oven and stove that we had bought last week. This will be a good addition to our meal prep equipment. Inside of our motorhome, we only have a built-in 2 burner propane cooktop, no propane oven. The only oven is a microwave convection combination, which requires either electrical hookups or the generator running to bake things. So our next best alternative was to purchase this Camp Chef propane oven and camp stove. It was either that or cut out the countertop and put a complete RV oven and stove in the motorhome. We did that in our last Safari motorhome and it worked really well. Here is a link to that project:


This cute little Camp Chef oven rides in our closet. We carried it out and set it on the picnic table and made sure it was kind of level. It will run off either a 1 pound green propane cylinder or a 5# or 20# propane tank with the hose.



I added a pizza stone to the bottom surface of the oven. This is an old RV'ers trick. It helps spread the heat to distribute it more evenly while baking. It eliminates the hot spot and burning of the pans or cookies in the middle of the tray.



We fired up the oven to make some toast on the baking racks. Steve made some bacon that he set aside in the oven to keep warm. Then he started up a square griddle full of hash browns and at the end I fried up the scrambled eggs. We usually cook in pairs and make a great team! 



We are pleased to report that it worked perfectly fine. Our outdoor cooking was a success and we could use anything as large as a 9 x 13 pan in the oven.



Our friendly neighbors next door were getting ready to go fishing again. They had two very friendly golden retrievers. This one was named Brooks, and he came over to visit and become Binny's new boyfriend. She really seemed to like him and kept following him around. Soon though he had to jump in their truck and go fishing down the river below the dam.



The sun was out, and it really seemed to be a really nice day. There was absolutely no rain forecast for the next three days.. (or so we thought). It was so nice that we hung up our solar lights on the awning and put out our little whirly gigs. We were only planning to stay for one more night, maybe two, but we felt like putting them out anyhow. Then again, if our neighbors to the north of us were going to be loud and obnoxious, maybe we would pack it up and just head home?



Everybody was gone fishing, so our campground loop of four little sites was again totally peaceful and quiet. We were the only ones there. I wandered around in the woods a little bit with a stick and dug out some of the moss covered lumps and piles of piles of leaves. I found four little red angle worms and one maggoty looking grub to go fishing with. Good enough for me. Who needs to buy nightcrawlers at a store?

I set myself up next to the water and had my little fishing buddy at my side. It was her job to guard the worms in the container while I was busy feeding the fish. I had lots and lots of nibbles, but no good bites and no big fish at all.



About supper time, Steve thought maybe we should give the oven another try. This time we were going to make a pizza. The cookie sheets I have couldn't quite contain a whole pizza. My pizza pans at home are a little too large. I'm going to have to look for 10 inch ones. So instead, I did the next best thing, I chopped the frozen pizza in half and put 1/2 on each of the cookie sheets. I always lay a piece of parchment down to keep things from sticking.



While the pizza was baking, we took out the cribbage board and played a couple games. This is the one that our granddaughter, Chelsea, made in her woodworking class last year. It's one of our prized possessions when we go camping.



Pretty soon the pizza was done to perfection. Look at that! Absolutely no complaints... the oven baked evenly and perfectly all around. We did add a little oven temperature gauge. The reviews of this Camp Chef oven said that the gauge that is installed at the top of the oven is not inaccurate. Mainly because the sensor is located up at the top and really doesn't give an accurate reading of the temp in the middle area of the oven.



As the sun was going down, we were treated to another really nice sunset. But some clouds were rolling in from the West. We checked the weather app on our phone, and realized that the weather had changed. Suddenly it looked like there was going to be some extensive rain showers coming our way. We decided to roll up our awning and put away our lawn chairs before we went to bed. It was a lot better than trying to deal with wet stuff in the morning if it did rain.



And yes, our tent neighbors to the north fired up their diesel generator again right at bedtime. They must have went and got some diesel fuel from somewhere. We tried to drown out the noise by playing our TV for a while, but then there was another noise starting outside. What was that? RAIN! and lots of it!

It poured and poured during the entire night. At times, the sound was almost deafening on the roof. Other times it was a gentle rain that was so peaceful and easy to sleep to. We had no complaints, we were high and dry. As for those noisy neighbors, at first light, they were packing up all of their wet gear, and they weren't too quiet about it either. They threw it all into their vehicles and left the campground. Oh, well.

We perked our coffee and hung around the campground for a while. And then we decided we would contact the kids and see if they are still at the cabin. They were just getting ready to cook breakfast. So they invited us over. It was a mere 12 miles away. We hopped in the motorhome and headed on over. What a nice way to have an early morning breakfast on a rainy, icky day.



So that was about it for camping at one of our favorite spots in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We will go back again probably one more time during September. They do close up by September 30th and they are not available for camping into October or November, like a lot of the National Forest campgrounds are. So if we want to enjoy it one or two more times, we'd better get back up there..

~~~~~~~~~

We headed on home and took care of a few tasks around the house. The rain was splattering on and off all day. But that's okay, we were going to curl up and watch the Packer game by 3:15. They won and it was a fun game.

I've been picking tomatoes every other day and canning them up. We brought a bag full today to go visit Steve's dad down at the Hospice Center. Excited to get fresh tomatoes, that he cut one up right away and ate it as soon as we came in his room.



I got a special package in the mail from Canada. In my blog a few posts back I mentioned where I had bought some beautiful fabric at a quilting store in Sturgeon Falls, Ontario. I realized I hadn't bought enough of this fabric --- and it's been discontinued. I can't find it anywhere else. I was able to internationally call up the owner of the store, and she took my order over the phone. She cut all the remaining yardages that I needed. Of course, in Canada, it's called meters. She bundled them up carefully and put them in the mail. I got them yesterday, and they are absolutely beautiful.



Last night, we decided to watch some Monday Night Football. it was to see how our EX Packer player, Aaron Rodgers, was doing in his new position with the New York Jets. We settled down in front of our fireplace and tuned into the game. I had a mug of spiced apple cider to sip on. We were ready for some Monday Night Football! Well, it didn't last long before Aaron Rodgers was out of the game.


From there on in, I decided to do some sewing instead. I half listened to part of the game and later we turned it off and tuned into some HGTV shows instead. It was a lot more entertaining.

And as a final note, our oldest grandson has been working a summer job at the A & W root beer stand. He is continuing on into the school year, working on evenings and weekends when he can. His boss let him off early. He needed a ride home. He's only 15 and not yet driving. He couldn't reach his parents, so he did the next best thing. He called me up and asked if I could pick him up???  

He dubbed me "Grandma Uber"


It is a name that I will proudly wear from now on.