May VaCay 2024 - Brunet Island State Park, Cornell WI

Steve asked me what I would like to do for Mother's Day. 

Of course, I said camping! 

We visited with our children and grandchildren the day before. We would prefer on Mother's Day that our daughters get to spend their days with their own children and not be obligated to run around visiting all the other grandmothers. So it was nice to get together with them the day before. 

Sunday morning came and we loaded up the motorhome. Away we went!!!

We packed a good 2 weeks worth of supplies, so we are hitting the road and heading west. Not quite sure exactly where we are going. 

Our first stop is about 200 miles away. That's about our limit of driving for the day. We don't like to drive much further than that. 

We looked up one of our favorite campsites at Brunet Island State Park which is near Cornell, Wisconsin. It's up in the northwest corner north of Wisconsin, past Eau Claire. We really, really like this campground and especially site 43!!! 

Let me tell you a little bit about the state park:

The campground is located on an island out in the middle of the Chippewa River, just north of the small town Cornell with a dam. 

The main office, as well as the dump station, are located right before the bridge within the park. Be sure to fill up your freshwater tank there because there are no water hookups at the campsites.

Cross the bridge and you're on a hunk of island which contains the boat landing, the picnic grounds, and the campground.

It has two loops of campsites along the Chippewa River. The South Loop has electrical and I believe there are 24 sites with a shower building and flush toilets etc. The sites are a little close together but all in all, located close to the beach and the picnic grounds.

The North Loop is larger with about 48 sites. These are all rustic sites with no hookups. Although there are drinking fountains and water faucets around the loop. This loop has a beautiful series of lagoons and ponds in the middle--- with campsites scattered all the way around the edges. The western edge of this loop also runs along the Chippewa River so there are campsites on each side of the road that are waterfront sites. 

Our favorite site is number 43. It faces out to the little lagoons and right near the tiny bridge that leads out into the river. Right across the road from the campsite is the Chippewa River --- which is much wider and has boat traffic.

Here's their website link for more information and the reservation link:

Brunet Island Wisconsin State Park

We had looked ahead to make sure 43 was available. Yes it was, and once we reached the campground we were able to log on and pay for the site. Wisconsin State Parks have an online reservation system that if you are reserving something days or weeks in advance, there is a reservation fee. But if you are just coming in for that night and the site is vacant, you are able to go online to pay without the additional reservations fee charges. It wasn't always this way, I'm glad they changed it. The office was closed and there are no longer any pay posts or envelopes within the park to pay for a campsite on the same day of arrival. 

The rustic sites are $15 a night, and I think the electric ones are $28. Don't quote me on that, because I didn't look them up. 

We were set up on our site in no time at all. This campsite is pretty level, as are most of the sites in the park. Some of them are big rig friendly size and we have actually put our 38 ft Safari motorhome on this same site in the past. The 25-ft Winnebago with our cargo trailer easily fit on this pull through site.

The sun was starting to go down, and it was time to whip up a little supper. We were thinking about going out for a bike ride, but instead we decided to just relax and take it easy. The temperatures had crept up into the low '80s. Although we did not have air conditioning, there was a nice little breeze blowing through when we opened up all of the windows.

The mosquitoes were getting a little thick, so we took out a couple thermacells. 

These things work fantastically wonderful! Creates an invisible bubble about 20 ft around that the mosquitoes don't bother you. Because there was a slight breeze, we put out two thermacells and hoped it would do the job. They work best on calm days with no wind. The operate with small butane cylinders and a pad infused with a type of chrysanthemum oil. They don't really give off any type of any chemical smell and are safe to use around children and pets. 

We have seen that they have a new version out of thermacell. Now it can operate off a battery that is rechargeable via USB cord. Instead of messing with the little pads, they now have the oil contained with a new cartridge that snaps into place. When you buy the original unit the cartridge is good for 12 hours. The replacement cartridges are good for $38. 

We don't have one yet but we did get one for our oldest daughter for Mother's Day. They sit outside a lot at their cabin and use thermacells all around the campfire. This new version is supposed to have a larger range of coverage as well.

We did take a little walk around the loop for a ways. But Binney pooped out and wanted to go back. It was pretty hot for her. She is still wearing her winter fur coat. She hasn't shed yet this spring

It was so peaceful with out any sounds anywhere. We watched a muskrat, we think it was, or a beaver, swim across the lagoon by our campsite. A couple geese had stopped by. There was a Mr and Mrs Mallard duck also paddling around.

A couple turtles had been on this log when we first got there, but they slipped quietly away into the water when we came close to the edge.

Our camper was all set up and we also hooked up our new Starlink satellite system. 

I made this little YouTube video clip of our campsite: 

After dinner, we curled up with our favorite HGTV shows before bedtime. 

We had warnings of some Canadian wildfire causing smoke problems with haze and poor air quality in Wisconsin this morning. They said it would burn off about 10:00 a.m. they were right. We sat outside in the sunshine with our coffee cups this morning and it was calm and quiet.

Binney was busy finding a relaxing spot underneath my lawn chair. She hides out underneath me and we don't hear a peep out of her.

Nicholas, on the other hand, keeps a watchful eye out on every bird, squirrel, butterfly and bug. He snaps at the flies, and is always on patrol.

We took a bike ride around the park this morning and I made a video of it. Once I get it edited and put together onto YouTube, I will come back here and add a link.

By 11:00 a.m. we packed up all of our gear and headed on out on the road again. Our next stop is going to be Highland Ridge Corps of Engineers Park near Spring Valley, Wisconsin. We were there quite a few years ago, and would like to go back again. From there we might hit six other core of Engineer parks over in Central Minnesota. That's kind of our tentative game plan, we're not sure. We will see. 

No time frame

No constraints 

and

No real plans

VACATION - Looping Around Lake Superior - Day 1 Burnet Island SP WIS

Day One is in the box. This is our vacation looping around Lake Superior up through Canada.

A lot of well-meaning people on here and Facebook keep suggesting places to see in the UP of Michigan. I love their suggestions, but please realize that that I grew up in the UP and have been to all of those places many times. That is why I posted a map of our route so we are looking for good boondocking suggestions along the North Shore of Minnesota and into Canada and around into the west side of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.

We left the house at 9 a.m., right after I mailed out a bunch of packages when the post office opened. Rosie: your reeds are on the way along with your map. Pops Pfundtner: your digital amp meter is on it's way. Also I sent out a customer's DVD order and a rebate to Menards. Now I could concentrate on vacation!

We headed on North through the road construction around Appleton, and made our way West on boring Wisconsin highways that we are already familiar with. Nothing much to see. We stopped at noon in Stevens Point at the local Fleet Farm Store. For those who don't know, Fleet Farm is like a Man's Mall, as it is fondly referred to. It's a chain of hunting fishing farm equipment sports etcetera. Steve said he was taking me on a "lunch date"!

We went inside and bought tortilla chips for his salsa, that we had forgotten at home, and also a roll of summer sausage to make sandwiches for lunch. He even held my hand walking through the parking lot. What a romantic date.

From there we headed north and further west until reaching the small community of Cornell (hwy 29 and 27 then north). This is the location of one of the most beautiful state parks in Wisconsin, in my humble opinion. Its called Brunet Island State Park and yes, it is located on an island. After you cross the little bridge, it is a wonderful maze of loopy paved roads interspersed with lagoons and ponds that are all inter-connected.

Link to the park inormation:

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/parks/name/brunetisland/

This time of year all of the campsites are "first come first serve", there are no reservations accepted. I was really hoping that our most favorite site number 43 would be open. Imagine our surprise as we get closer to the park to see the Chippewa River was drained about 3 feet down! The local power company has drawn the water down to this level to do some work on the nearby hydro-dam. This is the river that also feeds all of the little lagoons and ponds within the park. There is still water but it is very low. It I still pretty!

We were very happy to see our favorite spot vacant! Even though there are many beautiful sites around and almost every single one is on the water. We really wanted to get this one because it's where we have stayed before. There is water right up almost to the side of the rig, and then just on the other side of the rig is the road and there is water to look at from that direction.

When parked here, you can watch the sun coming up from the East over the water and watch it setting down in the West on the other side. Here is our sunset view from our bedroom window.

We got settled into our camp site easily and then back tracked with the Tracker to find a registration station that was still being serviced by the park at this time of year. I am sure due to budget cuts, the two registration posts in our loop are no longer being used for the fee envelope collections. Both of them in our loop were marked "out of order". We thought perhaps we would have to drive all of the way back to the main office, but went into the lower loop which is more populated and found an open registration post for fee collections there. The lower southern loop in this campground has electricity, whereas the northern loop where we are does not.

FEES- $18 for our non electric sites and $28 for the sites with electric for WI Residents. Non Resident are slightly higher and vehicle stickers are required.

Steve took care of the bug splatter on the windshield so I can take good pictures the next day. Best to get it done before they get too hard and dried on the glass.

The dogs enjoyed getting out to sniff and look around. We bought them new harnesses this week that I think are more comfortable on their bodies then the original strap type ones we had before. These are like a little vest that they step into and come up around both legs and snug tight to their chest. The top ends clip tight above their shoulders with a secure snap clip.  Then two D rings adjoin together as you hook the leash onto them. They seem pretty secure and I think they are more comfortable for the dogs. With so much fur, it's hard to see the vests!

 

They will be wearing them 24/7 for 3 weeks straight. We leave their harnesses on at night because that way we can get them out quick in the morning for potty time. Of course their collars are always on with ID tags. Good pet hint here: when you travel with a dog, it's a good idea to have an ID tag with your mobile phone on it, not your home phone landline if you have one. That way if your dog is missing, you would have much easier communication from someone who found it. Not that we would ever want our dogs to get lost!

We popped two frozen pot pies from Hilde's Deli of Chilton into the oven. She makes the most wonderful chicken pot pies, and sells them to me as unbaked frozen chicken pot pies. We pop them into the oven on a cookie sheet for about 45 minutes. Thank goodness for my handy propane oven that Steve installed in the motorhome last month. It's exactly perfect for situations like this.

 

We are camping without electrical hookups and would not want to run the microwave convection combo for 45 minutes from the generator. Nor would we want to drain down our batteries on inverter for running it that long. Having this propane oven now within the rig keeps the warmth and heat inside while baking -- which saves us on heating propane too.

We relaxed along the waters edge and observed this solitaire Canadian Goose wandering around by itself. He didn't seem to bothered by us or the dogs.  I think this is My Favorite Pic of the Day.

The colors in this area are just starting to turn on the trees. After our scrumptious dinner we took a nice long walk around the campground with the dogs. They thoroughly enjoyed sniffing new sniff spots and seeing new sights. So did we!

It's very quiet here, with only one other camper in our entire section of the campground. They are down quite a ways and we can't even see them from our camp site. In the electrical loop there were about 5 or 6 other campers, but not too many.

The sun was setting and the light was right----

This is our Second Honeymoon

We went around Lake Superior on our honeymoon 20 years ago.

Toast!

We settled in our lawn chairs until the sun went down and then retired indoors to have a piece of the apple pie that I had baked on Sunday.

We tuned into an old movie on TV and enjoyed watching Dustin Hoffman, Seann Connery and James(?) Broderick in "Family Business".

After a peaceful night's sleep in the quiet woods, we awoke this morning to thick heavy fog. According to the local news station to should be burned off by about 10 a.m. and we will have great sunshine and up to 80 degrees today!!

Our goal today is to reach Duluth, Minnesota which is only 150 miles away. We are going to meet up with my great aunt Nancy. Actually she's my mom's cousin which would be my second cousin, but I just like calling her Great Aunt Nancy because it fits! 

231 Miles traveled today

PS: hurricane update from my Mom and Lyle in Florida near Gainesville. The church they were sheltering in had some damage to the back annex area and cafeteria but the main hall where they were was fine and everyone was safe. They were able to travel the three short miles back to their house later in the day after moving lots of big tree branches to get through. Of course the power is out but they are happy to say that their home is still standing! It is her double wide manufactured home they just recently moved to Lyle's land in the country and they had just spent a lot of money having it moved and put into place. Of course the building codes require permanent attachment to the ground with hurricane tie down cables excetera. The only damage their place suffered was part of a roof on one of the storage sheds. Easily repairable. I am so glad that they are safe and sound. Thank you everyone for your concern and prayers. I just wish everybody could have made it through the storm with no damage at all. Things on the National news on TV look pretty grim for both Texas and Florida. 

When I was buying my bottles of water at the store in Chilton I told people that I was evacuating too. I said I was leaving Wisconsin and heading north in case the hurricane came!!!

VACATION - Another Sunny Day! Touring Blackberry Hills Farm and Brunet Island

What do those weathermen know?  They forecasted clouds and rain today.  Ahem?

Not that we are complaining, mind you, but we have another blue sky puffy cloud day here!~

After a panny-cake breakfast, we hopped in the Tracker to go see a fiber farm.   Yes, a farm that grows fiber... not wheat, barley or oats... no no noooooooooo  FIBERS!   Like llamas and sheep!

http://www.blackberryhills.com/Blackberry_Hills/Welcome.html

http://www.etsy.com/people/blackberryhillsfarm/favorites

Loretta Pederson said come on over, while she would still be milking a cow or goats when we got there, come on down to the barn.... and we did!

We saw the note on the door to head down and around back to the barn... and there we found her milking four goats in a row.... they were just finishing up and being sent out to the pasture.

The lovely soft fawn colored Guernsey cow had already been milked and was asking for a scratch or two... and Loretta warned me that she wanted to LICK me too!  She tried to lick the camera, and I managed to get a pic of her drinking water before she slobbered the camera lens!

After cleaning the lens off, I was able to snap a few more pics

The faithful border collie, Reba, is a geriatric 15 years old, but greeted us warmly and waited for more scratches and pets as we wandered around, snapping pics of the llamas and sheep.

(baby llamas are called crias)

Isn't this just a jolly old fellow?

The rolling hills and meadows made the most picturesque pasture lands

Once Loretta's chores were done, we went to the house to see her looms and wheels and fibers!  Wheee it was a virtual HEAVEN of fibery toys... from a big Harrisville Rug Loom with Shaftswitching levers, to her faithful Louet David sitting in the corner.... Loretta posed for a pic so you all know who I am talking about.

On a side room there were more looms and fibers, and in the main area were 2 Rio Grand walking wheels... among other wheels and toys for spinning yarns.   Down in the lower level she had more looms, more toys and lots more fibers.   She even had a huge LeClerc Kebec loom that takes two weavers to operate because it is so wide.  We visited for a while and she showed me a bunch of her projects she has been working on.  It was such a delightful show-n-tell, but before we knew it, it was almost noon!  We had to get back and move on out of our campsite at the park.  We said our Goodbyes and headed back to Interstate park.



Hitting the road after grabbing a quick sandwhich, we drove about 75 miles east to Ladysmith, where we looked for a fiber shop, that was opened in 2008.  It's now closed and something else is in that building, so we drove on the last 25 miles south to another state park for the evening.

It's called Brunet Island State Park and the whole place is on an island just north of the town of Cornell, WI.   We went into the north campground because it was less crowded and non-electric, which was fine with us.  We are situated with a lagoon right out our door on one side, and the wide spot in the Chippewa River on the other side... the park is a loop of sites with water all around.  What a lovely place!   There are 2 other campers in the whole northern campground loop, and about 15 or so in the southern campground.

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/parks/specific/brunetisland/

We are a shoreline site, so we pay $15 a night instead of $12.  Believe me, it's worth it!

Here we are on site 43---   what a gorgeous place!   

 We have a lagoon in front of us and a wide spot of the river behind us

And SOMEONE is starting to relax!!!!

After visiting with the host and hostess for a bit, and some other neighboring campers who rode by on bikes (they have a sheltie too)  we fired up the Easy Bake Oven for some lasagna....  It was Stouffer's veggie lasagna outta a box, but it sure tasted GREAT!    With a bottle of wine, and some quiet splashes of jumping fish, and a setting sun....

We took the dogs for a walk along the shoreline... of course they had to SNIFF! 

the sun was setting and everything was golden!

Life doesn't get much better than this!