Back On Track - Blogging Again - CAMPGROUND REVIEW - Big Eau Pleine Campground

Yes yes yes, I know it's been a long time since I've blogged. I've been getting repeated requests and inquiries as to our health and our situation. Everything is fine here. We have just been so danged busy all summer that I've never gotten back around to blogging.

I keep thinking about things I want to write about, and I collect photos in to albums of topics I want to write about. But then I've just been getting so dang busy that I never get around to writing them, editing them, or publishing them. I am so sorry!

So this week, while sitting around this campfire, I decided to take a picture and start a blog again. I will go through the next couple weeks doing some Campground Reviews of places we've been this summer. Also I will do some posts on some of our house projects, although those have been winding down lately. Then also some posts on my newest fiber creations, quilts, and other fun stuff.

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So, to start with, here we are sitting around this beautiful campfire. What a perfect place to sit and think about camping and give a good Campground Review.

On last Sunday afternoon, the weather was absolutely beautiful. So we decided to load up the camper and hop in and take off to a campground that we drove through last year at this same time. We weren't able to camp there because they were updating all of the electrical services. So we had made a mental note that we always wanted to go back there. It's about 120 miles away, so we figured on a relaxed 2-3 hour trip. 

I plugged it into the Microsoft Streets and Trips on my laptop, attached my GPS dongle, and away we went. I like using this large screen rather than just the little screen on the handheld GPS on my phone. But I do double check with my phone in case there's some areas of new road construction, because the Microsoft Streets and Trips is no longer supported, the updates are not always there for the newest roads.

Steve was happy as ever to be in his driver's seat, as we drove away on a beautiful sunny Sunday morning. The colors were just starting to turn and it was going to be a wonderful week of weather ahead to go camping.  

As you can tell, we are always ready to hop in our big comfy chairs and glide on down the highway. Everything was operating perfectly with the motorhome, and our travels were peaceful and relaxed.

 As we headed west, everybody else was heading east  to Green Bay for the Packer game! It was a good time to head West. Our goal was to central Wisconsin, to a county park.

The campground we chose was called Big Eau Pleine Campground which is part of the Marathon County Park system. We know that during the summer months this is a very busy campground and you need to make reservations. But after October 1st, it is all "first come first serve" for the month of October. We figured on Sunday afternoon that we would have a pretty good chance of getting a nice campsite. Here is their website link for more information:

Big Eau Pleine Campground Marathon County Park

The county park is very large and has two separate Campground units. There are also many trails and picnic areas and even equestrian trails for horses. There have been a lot of updates to the campground and as we were driving in, they were working on the road surfaces. All of the electrical has been updated. There is water available at the dump station as you enter the park but there is no water at the campsites. 

We chose the West unit Campground which every site is electric, which is updated to 50 amp 30 amp and 20 amp on every post. At the South unit, about half of the campsites have electric, the rest are rustic.

There are no showers, nor flushing toilets, just pit toilets. They are very clean and the park is in really nice condition. It's located only about 10 miles away from the small town of Mosinee to run back for anything you might forget. It's about 20 miles Southwest of the larger city of Wausau.

We unhooked the Saturn from the back of the motorhome up near the Rangers office in the parking lot for the equestrian trails. From there we took the Saturn through the park to locate a campsite of our choosing. Because it's first come first serve, any site is up for grabs. we drove through a few times, and noticed a chair saving a site, but when we looped through again, the chair was gone.  We stopped at the site right before the one where the chair had been. 

It was a really nice lakeside site. As I started filling out the tag, another camper from 2 sites away approached me and told me I couldn't camp there! She said that there were three other campers coming and she was saving those 3 sites. But there were no tags on the post! 

We suggested that she go and pay for those sites and make her friends pay her back. We figgered out the ranger had made her move the chair and told her she can't save sites.  She had somewhat of an attitude of entitlement, stating that they have camped there for 40 years and never had to do that. We said well if the ranger had told you that you're not allowed to save the sites, (which he had just done), then you can't save the sites. 

But we decided we didn't want to camp next to them anyhow, there were plenty of other beautiful sites in the park. So we drove back over to the other loop that had even better views of the lake, and chose a site there. It was a little more sloped, so we used a few more boards to get ourselves level. But that's okay, we had an absolutely beautiful campsite. We did notice afterwards, that same lady was over at the self registration post, paying for the other three sites!  LOL ... guess our suggestion was well-taken after all. 

Our site was looking out over the water, right across the road from the lake. There was only one other camper in our loop and they were slated to leave the next morning.  The Lake here is actually a large reservoir, which is controlled by a dam downriver. The sandy beach and rocks were a nice contrast along the shoreline.   The rates are normally $21 for an electrical campsite, but for only $2 more, the lakeview sites are a premium, but well worth it!   The only other strange charge is that the dumpstation fee is $7, whether you camped there or not.  We have never paid to dump when we already paid to camp at a campground, so we thought that was unusual. We doublechecked it with the friendly maintenance guy who was going around, and he said yes, everyone pays to dump.  He said it's the park policy.  Oh well. 

For such a great site, we didn't complain! 

The view out of the front and the side windows from all angles was absolutely wonderful. I am so glad we chose this site. Even though it was a little more difficult to back into, with the row of rocks across the roads, Steve maneuvered it quite well. But it is something to keep in mind that it's good to have a spotter put there to see those rocks located down below your bumper area if you are backing in to a campsite.

We were soon set up and into place. We scanned the TV channels and pulled in all of the major networks. That was great, because we wanted to see the Packer game start at 3:15. It was such a wonderful cozy sunny afternoon while we snuggled in to watch the Packer game. I had a mug of spiced apple cider and Steve chose a beverage of choice while we enjoyed watching the Packers beat the Patriots in a nail biting overtime game.

Earlier in the week I had picked up a couple of these tasty chicken pot pies from the deli at our local grocery store. We grab as many as we find and toss them in the freezer at home. They are great to take along and toss in the oven when you don't feel like doing a large meal outside over the campfire or the grill.

They make them from the leftover rotisserie chicken and they are absolutely delicious with fresh vegetables and a flaky crust.  Easy way to end the day without having to cook a big meal. 

As evening was falling, the sunset over to the West was gleaming across the lake. Things were peaceful and quiet. There were no noises, no nearby roads, no nearby railway lines, and everything was relaxing and tranquil. We walked around the park one more time with Binney before darkness. Gosh it's getting darker much faster now as Autumn has arrived.

Ahhhhhhhhhh

We took a walk around the next morning, and met the people who were camped behind us before they packed up to leave again. Now we had the entire Loop to ourselves. We couldn't see anybody else and couldn't hear anybody else for that matter either. It was a very quiet Monday in the park. One of the park maintenance people came by to let us know they would be working on installing a new outhouse the next day and also repaving the entrance road into the park. By the time we would be ready to leave, the road should be completed and we would drive out on brand new pavement!

We spent three tranquil days looking around out of these windows, going for walks, or just relaxing in our lawn chairs by the campfire.  I did some spinning and some knitting.  It was a good respite after our house projects during the past week.  We just have to get away sometimes and take a break. 

Some RVing friends from nearby Weston stopped by, and we had a nice campfire chat in our lawnchairs.  Norm and Mary own a vintage Foretravel motorhome, and I will blog more about them in another campground review at another lake. 

We soaked up the sunshine and watched the water and the birds and the chipmunks,  A HUGE eagle swooped down near the shore and grabbed a big fish from the water! 

The sunsets were breathtaking because we were facing to the west. The weather reports for Monday Tuesday and Wednesday were absolutely perfect. But the weather reports for Thursday and Friday were rather ominous. There was a low pressure front coming in and they were going to have temperature drops as well as freezing rain, and maybe even some of that S word. You know? *S*N*O*W*!

We took a little drive on Tuesday into Wausau and patronized a favorite small town local butcher shop. We brought back a cooler full of steaks and roasts and ground chuck to load up our freezer to take back home. We try to stop there any time we were driving through the center part of the state of Wisconsin. You don't find meat markets like that very often anymore, with butchers that cut your steaks fresh off the slab, wrap it up in butcher paper, and charge you by the pound. So much better than supermarket plastic wrapped old stuff.

Driving around the park, the colors were getting better and better with each passing day. I would say the middle of Wisconsin is just about at it's peak color at this time. It was cold at night down in the 40s, but each of the days we're reaching up into the low 70s.

Mother Nature's paintbrush just absolutely is amazing,

pictures don't do it justice.

We decided to pack up the rig in the morning after we had perked our coffee. The front was coming in and the winds were kicking up. Everything went back into place and we were roadworthy in no time. Just as the park maintenance guy had promised, our exit out of the park was on beautiful smooth freshly paved roads.

We stopped for fuel on the way home after relying on the Gas Buddy app. From one station to another there was a difference of $0.40 a gallon! That makes a big difference when you are fueling up 75 gallons or more of diesel. Now we are topped off and ready for our next trip. Who knows where? 

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I had a couple mushy bananas that hadn't been eaten. So after we got home, I whipped up my Aunt Lois's reliable favorite banana bread recipe. I made one loaf of plain banana bread and the other two I added chocolate chips.

The house smelled wonderful! 

Here is her recipe:

Now I promise to get more blog posts done, I will go back in my records in reverse and do a campground review of each place we've been so far this summer.

But camping is not done for us yet us yet this year, we hope to get out a couple more times if the weather permits. But for the next day or two or three we will hunker down here because it's going to get cold. It's going to get down to 30 tomorrow night and perhaps some of that Frozen Precipitation???

Stay in, stay warm, stay safe.

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!!!