CAMPING VACATION - Day 1 - Chilton to Roche A Cri State Park

Steve is able to take time off from his old fart party bus job... so we took a week to escape a bit before all the lawn work and flower beds and tomato planting begins! Plus we are going to start dressing up the trim on the house this summer.  Good to get away and do some camping before we get too involved.

The temps earlier in the week were in the high 70's and low 80's in Wisconsin.  But today it turned wet and cold and only in the low 40's. The weatherman said even a few snowflakes will fall!!! ACK!

We have no plans in mind, other than kinda head west.  We were thinking of heading south westerly to the other side of Madison and angle downwards to a few state parks in that area, then maybe a COE along the border to Minnesota and maybe into Iowa.  Steve checked the weather for the week and it's going to rain almost every day in that direction!

Last night we looked at our Streets and Trips program (still works even if not supported by Microsoft) and decided to head more directly west and then perhaps northerly. The northern part of Wisconsin is due for warmer weather and no rain. Go figger!

I like the Streets and Trips because of the little GPS dongle... it hooks right into the USB on my laptop with the big screen.  I plan all our trips and make changes as we go. It leaves a mouse trail of wherever we travel.  Plus I can put "pins" with info of things we see, where we stopped and reviews of campgrounds or best campsite numbers to choose for reservations in the future.

This is a screenshot from our trip last fall around Lake Superior...

We loaded up most of the motorhome last night after attending our oldest grandson's choir in Oconto. We normally keep it fully stocked (minus the refrigerator food).  Since this is our first trip out this spring after being winterized, we have to reload a lot more.  All of the dry goods, canned goods, cleaning supplies, clothing, bathroom supplies and of course, dog food!   That all stays in the rig during the spring, summer and fall.  Then we only need to pop in the fridge and freezer food, the dogs, the laptops and cell phone and we are ready to roll!!!!

It is now Friday morning and I set the tire sensors for the tire pressure monitoring system.  They need a "base line" temp reading setting before the tires are warmed up from travelling.  We take the sensors off the motorhome and Tracker tires to not drain their little internal batteries all winter long.

We use a tire pressure monitoring system from Nvision, called Hopkins, which is what we bought about 8 years ago.  Since then we have replaced the 10 individual sensors at least twice, some even three times.  They are NOT cheap for a pair. (about $45 a pair)  High costs when you have 10 tires to monitor!   6 on the motorhome and 4 on the Tracker. We had decided that when this system finally takes a crap, we will invest in another system with replaceable batteries instead of these all in one units.

But then last summer we stopped at a rummage sale and there was a whole new system in a box with 6 more sensors for only FIVE BUCKS! The people said their parents never got it set up right, and it is confusing to find, locate and lock in each reading on each tire, so they gave up. (it is very futzy to do it) Their loss, our gain.  The whole setup is about $400.00  We nabbed it up fast!!!!

See... we are not nuts on this system that much anyhow. Sometimes we would lose the signal from the Tracker tires if we keep the monitor up near the front of the rig.  If we move the monitor towards the back, then we lose the signal from the two front tires of the motorhome.  We really needed to get a signal repeater to increase the range... but never got around to it. Now we don't have to because of buying the second unit!

I used one monitor now for the six tires up on the motorhome and set that one near the table in the middle of the rig with the 12 volt plug-in at the table.  The second monitor now I set up with the four sensors for the Tracker and locate that one near the rear of the rig with the 12 volt plug in by the bed.  I set it on the bed, facing forward and I can glance back at any time and see the reassuring green light that all is well back there.  That way we don't need a repeater unit and we are able to hear it if the alarm goes off. I got the readings set and all is good to go.

I went out into the motorhome during the afternoon and simmered up a pot of chili. That way when Steve got done with work between 4 and 5, we could just hit the road and eat when we felt like taking a break.

Steve arrived home at 4:30. We backed the motorhome out of the driveway, and then he drove it out of town to the extra lane for the turn off to the high school. I followed him with the tracker and we stopped there to hook it up. Once we tested the lights, the brake, the shifters, and the steering wheel --- we were good to go. It was still pretty cold but the rain has let up for a little bit.

Sitting at my Command Central

Navigating with the

Streets and Trips GPS on the laptop

Happy Motorhoming Man

We looped around the bottom half of Lake Winnebago past Fond du Lac and up the western shore to Oshkosh. From there we turned West, which was really nice because there was a wind blasting at us from the East. Now it was a tailwind and we didn't feel a thing.

We only drove 123 miles and ended up at Roche a Cri State Park.  Roche A Cri State Park (Wisconsin)  There are 41 campsites, but only five are electric. Since it is so cold, we decided to splurge and take an electric site. There is only one other camping trailer here, and one tenter with a boat and a pickup truck. (Not counting the hosts).

We self registered on our site for $28. We have annual stickers on both our motorhome and tracker so we do not have to pay the additional vehicle fee. Thanks to Uncle Pete for a nice Christmas present!!

I plopped the pot of chili back on the stove from where it was safely riding in the sink. Steve took care of the levellers and the electric cord while I took the dogs out for their potty break. Soon our chili was ready and we ladeled it out over the pre-cooked noodles. I don't put the noodles in with the chili because they get mushy. We had a fine meal and now we are settling in for the night.

It's kind of nice to splurge with the electric campsite, using our mattress pad heater on the bed, and the electric heater to supplement the heat and not use our propane as well.

Tomorrow we will explore the area and see if we want to stay here for another day, or if we should move on and look for warmer weather.

Day one- 123 miles driven today

Doc gave O.K. and we are back to High Cliff State Park

A relaxing morning of hot coffee and sweet cinnamon rolls with our friends... it was a great way to start a great day!   Then the guys had a few more tasks to do, and I had to reset a few of the sensors on our Hopkins Tire Pressure Monitor.  I swapped a few from the Tracker to the motorhome, just to be sure we had sensor coverage on our steer tires.

Last week, I had called the NVision Hopkins company about the bulging sensor that let the air outta the tire last week.   The person I spoke to was very helpful and offered to not only replace the sensor, but to replace ALL ten of my sensors, along with the main control module too!  Seems they have a newer system and better sensors with better batteries.  Hmmmmm  So he said he would put them all in a box and shipp them to me in care of Steve's work address.  I will let you know how the new system works as soon as I get it set up!   And to make it even nicer, he said he will ship them out right away, and include a pre-paid shipping label to return my set to him AFTER I receive the new ones!   Amazing!  Now THAT is Customer Service! http://www.nvisionsafety.com/tire_safety/

Speaking of tires.... Mel hauled out his "wreath" to show us what happens to a toad tire on his Saturn when pulled behind his motorhome.  They had a flat and this is ALL that was left of their tire!!!!  So this creative couple made a wreath outta it to hang in the campgrounds during the holidays.

The guys were waiting for the dew and dampness to dry off Mel's motorhome roof to add one last coat of the elastomeric paint with the leftovers in the bucket.  But the danged humid weather would not cooperate.  Instead we made ourselves "road-worthy" to head on out.  Then we got all teary eyed and huggy.  Geesh, we are gonna see these friends in probably a few days over at High Cliff for a visit, but we were all weepy anyhow.  We kinda went through "stuff" together the last 10 days and it was hard to leave! 

We finally left Paula and Mel's with big blasts of the air horns (sorry neighbors)  and some toots from the little Tracker horn.   I followed behind Steve as we drove over to nearby King's Campers to refuel our propane tank.  Our motorhome has a large built-in tank so it is necessary to drive up to a propane seller to get it filled.  Our tanks holds 50 gallons liquid propane (LP) and it is only filled to 80% so that is 40 gallons.  Well, our tank took 31.5 gallons, so I guess we were getting pretty low.  King's Campers was only $2.95 a gallon... whereas Van Boxtel RV in Green Bay was at $4.00 a gallon.  It was worth filling up where we did, and saved us over $30 bucks!   http://www.kingscampers.com

At 2 p.m. we had an appointment with Steve's surgeon in Green Bay to take out his remaining stitches and give him the okay to get back to work.  Well, I say "remaining" because Steve had been snipping and pulling out some of the most irritating stitches on his own!   Honestly though, his incisions are healing well, no sign of redness or pulling or irritation.  Might as well, eh?  After a quick check of Steve's vitals, the nurse snipped off the remaining stitches and gave us the complimentary tweezers and the tiny scissors paid for by the comp insurance (the scissors will be great in my knitting stuff!)   and the doc came in.  He really liked the look of Steve's knee, and was very encouraging and positive all was well. He showed us photos of the surgery and examined the knee.  Then he signed the release paper to allow Steve to get back to work.   We really like this guy, his name is Dr. Eric Nelson, and if you need any orthopedic work done, we recommend him.   Dr. Eric Nelson

I like this line on his bio: 

I really do my best to be punctual and respect my patient's time. No one likes to sit and wait. I am always honest, and I work very hard to involve the patient in the decision making process. I don't like the passive "you're the doctor..." approach; my strong belief is "yes, but we are talking about you're health, life, and goals." 

After we left the doc office, we headed on down to High Cliff State Park.  It was only 30 miles to the park.  We stopped at the office and sure enough, the box with our Hopkins Tire Monitor and Sensors were there, just as Hopkins promised!   

Steve caught up with the boss for a bit, and then we headed to the dump station to empty our tanks from the 10 days at the Stuplich's.  We had reservations for our site number 57, so we headed on into the campground and are all set up and cozy in our "home" ...  our site is very nice and wide in the back yard area and wooded all around.  

After supper, we buzzed over to The Chubby Seagull near the entrance to the park.  This place is gonna be the downfall of us all!  http://www.chubbyseagull.com/     

They put chocolate dip on their waffle cones and then roll them in sprinkles!  Then they have 14 flavors of hand dipped ice cream (oooh Mackinaw Island Fudge)  or soft serve.   Also pizza, burgers and other treats. We are going to have to limit ourselves to ONE cone a week!   And we did take a nice long walk around the campground to wear it off.  LOL 

Tomorrow Steve goes back to work, and I have some fiber shipments to send out.  

Back to the old routine, but in a FUN setting of this park

and living in our motorhome! 

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FLAT TIRE- Thank Goodness for our Hopkins Tire Pressure Monitoring System!

Steve used to scoff at  my insisting that we own a tire pressure monitoring system.  He made fun of all my fiddling with the sensors and pressure and helping me set the "cold" limits and putting sensors on all the 6 tires of the motorhome and 4 tires on the toad.   He kinda looked at it as a new-fangled toy that we didn't really NEED ... ya, right!  

Well, just now, while driving up north to go camping, we were about 80-90 miles since home.  Suddenly our alarm goes off on our Hopkins Tire Pressure Monitor!   We pulled over right away, and yes, our driver's side front tire on the toad, the Tracker, was flat!

There is no way to tell if you have a flat tire on a toad, as you can not feel it up in the front while driving the motorhome.  You don't know till someone points it out to you, or till your toad catches on fire... also endangering your rig!   Our toad is padlocked onto the Blue Ox tow bars, and grabbing keys and unlocking a burning vehicle is pretty dangerous.  

(this is the set of 6 sensors, we later added 4 more for the toad) 

Soooo glad we have our tire pressure monitoring system! 

In between spurts of rain showers, we got the tire changed out with the full sized spare we have on a back rack on the Tracker.  The flat is now bolted in it's place, ready to go back to the dealer where we have a road hazard warranty on it.  Not sure yet why it went flat, as we dashed back into the motorhome just as the rain started pouring down again!


He ain't scoffing now.