CAMPING - HIgh Cliff State Park in Sherwood, WI

Last weekend we were sitting around on Saturday morning. Can you imagine, WITH NOTHING TO DO?????    So I checked with our good buddies at High Cliff if there were any open campsites, which sometimes happens if there is a cancellation.  Yup... there was one open!  Soooooo in half an hour flat, we tossed in some groceries, some dog food, a few extra clothes (we keep a lot in the rig) and off we went to High Cliff State Park!   (on the NE corner of Lake Winnebago, just east of Appleton, WI.)

As most of you blog readers know, Steve retired from the park in January.  We still like to go back and hang out and visit with the rangers and staff.  This is our first time camping there for this season, and it was like Old Home Week.  The Rangers, the Camp Hosts, and even the Park Superintendent stopped by our campsite to visit.

High Cliff is situated on part of the Niagara Escarpment and it built on the remains of an old Lime Kiln processing facility and mine.  The park is large and narrow, encompassing almost 1,200 acres.

Here is their website: http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/parks/name/highcliff/

Campsites with electric are $28 for WI residents and $33 for non-residents
Campsites without electric are $18 for WI residents and $23 for non-residents.

We are pretty proud of this park, and it's like our home base a lot of the first year we were full-time in our motorhome.  We could stay two weeks and then had to move out for a few weeks to the county park nearby, then move back again.  Steve worked here for 4 and 1/2 years before retiring in January 2017.

We decorated up our campsite, set out our lawn chairs, put up our signs and flags, got the awning put up, hung out our camp lights ---- all settled in for three or four days.

 

Yep, this looks like home to me. Kind of fun to camp with electricity again and run the party lights out on the awning. We do turn them off at night. These draw more wattage than our other set, so we only use them when we have electrical hookups.  The other set are LED and draw much less and we put those up when boondocking.

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon, so I brought out my sewing machine and set it up on the picnic table. I keep this sewing machine in the motorhome closet all of the time, along with enough tools and material, etc. to sew on things when I want.  Less having to pack up when we go on the spur of the moment, like this weekend.  I was working on some little hot pads for a friend of mine, and just putzing and puttering around.

These came out kind of cute. I guess it's supposed to be roses or tulips? It is called paper piecing and then I use two layers of Insulbrite batting in the middle for better protection from the heat when using them on hot handles or baking pans.

The doggies settled in by our chairs and are Good Campground Doggies. I found one of these big carbiener hooks, bought at Home Depot, secures their leash handles right to our lawn chair. Very handy instead of tying them up to things.

They learn to not bark too often at passerbys, but sometimes when they see other dogs they get pretty excited. We try to keep them quiet and shush them and keep them close to us when sitting outside. They are never left outside unattended, and go back inside the motorhome with us. We try to be very good pet owners when camping in public places.

We are enjoying our new oven as well as the four burner cooktop on the stove that we installed aa few weeks ago.  The four burners are nice on top, compared to the two we were limited with before.  The propane oven is a nice alternative. Before we only had the microwave/convection combo. We made lasagna and also used it to brown up some barbecue sauce on ribs that I made in our electric pressure cooker.

On Sunday morning, our friend Vicki came out with her two Shetland Sheepdogs, Tara and Stuart. She enjoys walking out on the trails at High Cliff with the dogs, and we have joined her a number of times to go walking.

At one time, part of the campground had been part of a farm. The old stone walls remain and they make a nice border along a couple of the walking paths. We lined up the dogs and told them to sit and managed to snap this picture with all of them looking in the same direction.

(Left to right: Tara, Stuart, Binney, and Finney)

I made a map of of how far we walked on the trails. It was a pretty hot humid morning but we still managed almost 3 miles. Most of the trails are underneath the shady canopy of beautiful trees so it wasn't too bad.

There is a blossoming romance between Binney and Stuart. Binney on the left and Stuart on the right. Don't worry, both are neutered/spayed so there will never ever be puppies in their lives.

I wore my appropriate accessories for dog walking, which include these wonderful socks given to me by my friend Linda from Tennessee.

After our walk was done, Little Stuart was totally exhausted and fell asleep in Vicky's arms. He is just over a year old and this was a big day for him.  All of the dogs relaxed and drank plenty of water before napping.

Tara was pretty tuckered out as well and curled up at Vicky's feet to snooze for a while while we sat and relaxed under the awning.

Later that evening, the rain clouds moved in, so there was not going to be a campfire that night. We snuggled in our cozy motorhome. Steve watched a good movie while I did some more sewing. The dogs curl up in their little area under the dash. Home sweet home.

He looks pretty relaxed, doesn't he? 

He said it's kind of nice being retired.

Although, the next day the park workers had a problem with the big wide mower. One of the volunteers was using it and suddenly something broke. Steve buzzed on over to the shop and worked on it for a couple hours. He sent someone off for parts and had it back in shipshape and ready to mow again. Once a maintenance man, always a maintenance man!

We rolled back into town on Tuesday afternoon. A shipment had arrived at our home for our next project that I will write about in the next blog.

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Today, Saturday, a wee little munchkin came to spend the weekend with us---along with her two furball doggies. This is Claire, our youngest grandchild.

  

I collect blown glass paperweights. 

The grandtots love to play with them, being glass and all. 

Like a forbidden object they usually can't touch....

but at Grandmuddah's House, they sure can! 

She came along with her two fur balls named Ewok and Biscuit. They have all had a good runaround the back yard and are now begging Steve for some of his breakfast.  "Bacon Bacon Bacon" is what they say....

The dogs are all good around the kiddos, and ours give curious sniffs and then avoidance to not get their fur pulled.  Claire makes a beeline to their doggie tags and hangs on tight and the dogs are trapped! hahaha  The dogs soon learn to jump up on the couch out of her reach.   Smart Doggies!

It is nap time now, so I had a chance to write up this blog. We will have our hands full today and tomorrow with these three visitors in our home.  No projects going on, but I do have one we did during the week to write another blog about.

Welcome Home Claire Bear - and - Halloween at High Cliff State Park

I am so pleased to be able to announce that our preemie granddaughter Claire is thriving! After 6 days being on CPAP machines to help with her immature lungs, and a feeding tube, they were finally removed and she was able to breathe on her own, and nurse as well.

Lookee at this little Claire Bear bundled up to go home! 

She was released on Monday, one week after being born. She is home and healthy and thriving. Thank you everyone for your kind words, thoughts and prayers for her surprise early birth.

She had a check-up today at the pediatrician and has gained two and a half more ounces and has grown half an inch. What a wonderful new addition to the Choate family!!!

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Well she was basking in the care of the hospital NICU, her two older siblings were able to join us at High Cliff State Park.

For the last 4 years we have enjoyed our Halloween celebration at High Cliff. This year was going to be wonderful because we would have six of our seven grandchildren visiting us at the park. It is also my birthday (actually on Halloween itself) so it is a great time to celebrate everything together at once.

This event at High Cliff usually takes place the weekend before Halloween. This way the campground bathrooms are still open, water and dump station are still operational, and everyone is able to enjoy the holiday at home the following weekend. We reserved our camp site, as well as one across the road from us for our son and daughter-in-law with their children for their Salem camping trailer.

The entire Campground gets into decorating and handing out treats on Saturday. The headcount at the main gate was approximately 6,200 people coming through the park. This year I really stocked up on candy so we did not run out!

Here are some of the campsites and their crazy decorations!

and our October Camp Hosts, 

Rosie and Luke

who go all out....

 this is just a small part of their decorations on the host site

It was delightful fun and we had a great time. Our grandtots and our great nephews got all dressed up for the candy and festivities....

Great-nephew Matt took care of handing out the candy from our site

 Thousands of people descended on the campgrounds!  Crowds floated by and we watched all the delightful and creative costumes as they passed our site.  Someone was making balloon animals and swords and toys for the kids. It was like a three ring circus, but it was 6 roads long!  112 campsites full of festive fall fun.

After the trick or treating was all done, we put those kids to bed and they all zonked out toot sweet.  All of that fresh air, walking and playing wore them plum out. They did not get to eat too much candy, so the sugar high was kept to a minimum.  Then we adults sat out around the campfire till well after midnight. 

The BEST part of camping with grandtots is when they all pile into our bed in the morning for a snuggle fest! The dogs hop right in and take part too.  Good thing we have a king sized bed in our motorhome. 

Our tradition is to give them little boxes of cereal to tide them over

until we cook a bigger breakfast once all the other adults wake up.

Notice how early it is, still kinda dark out yet....

(I remember Gram Kafehl getting those boxes for us as kids)

Then my oldest grandson Jameson made me 

a very special birthday cheesecake to celebrate

my birthday! What a great chef!!!

 The younger kids gave me a spa day including a foot massage, a back massage, and brushed and styled my hair for the day. What a lucky Grandma I am!  The kids were busy playing on the long stone wall that runs along the southern edge of the campground, leftover from the farming days in this area.  This is my FAVORITE pic of the weekend....  taken by my daughterinlaw Heather.

We got in time to visit, cuddle grandkids and 

have a nice visit with everyone together. 

(except Erin and Waylen with baby Claire at the hospital) 

The weather was unusually delightful and warm and sunny and on Sunday it actually reached 71 degrees for a high. Imagine that! I remember some Halloween's where it was snowing and we had to wear snow suits under our costumes to stay warm.

Steve and I lazed around the park after everyone left and we took our time packing up. It might very well be our last day of camping until maybe a mid winter vacation somewhere to the South. Sometime this week Steve will winterize the water lines in our motorhome.  Today he also blew out and winterized all the water lines in the park too!