CAMPGROUND REVIEW - North Bayshore County Park, Oconto, Wisconsin

We had a quandary last week...

We wanted to go camping but also we had a couple things going on at the house.

One thing was that we were having our city water meter changed. So the water utility repair guys needed access to our basement. We had an appointment for Thursday morning for that. 

Also, on Tuesday we had a much awaited FedEx delivery scheduled. So we wanted to be home for that!

But we also wanted to go camping. We had the lawn cut and the flowers watered and we really didn't have anything else to do all week at home.

So away we went to North Bayshore County Park. It's a small campground of only 34 sites just north of our home along the waters of the Green Bay. It's really only 6 miles as the crow flies. About 8 if we drive on the road!

We checked online and saw that there were a number of sites available for 3 or 4 days...

It is such a nice little county park. It has a marina and breakwater, as well as a nice boat launching area for fishermen. It tends to attract older people or fisherman, because there really isn't a big swimming beach. Things are pretty rocky there. There is some playground equipment for children. But not much else. So it's a pretty quiet campground even during the week. 

The county has enacted a special for Monday through Thursday for only $20 a night for a campsite. Friday Saturday and Sundays it is $35 a night.

We loaded up the motorhome and drove on over. Once we decided on one of the six or seven available sites, we drove over to the kiosk to pay for it. 

The kiosk in the park, located over near the boat ramp area, is available to pay via credit card for any of the sites that are not already reserved. It is the camper's responsibility to either look online or drive over to the park and go through each of the campsites looking at the little calendar on each post. Reserved sites are stricken off. If a site is open a certain number of days, then you can pay for those days at the kiosk. But the kiosk is not hooked up to the reservation system....  We didn't know that. 

Sooooooo

We accidentally paid for FOUR nights on site 11. Technically, according to the strike off marks on the little calendar on site 11's post, it was going to be used by somebody else on Thursday night.

Uh oh.... So now we had a kiosk slip paying for FOUR nights, but we could only stay on site number 11 for THREE nights. I made a quick call over to the courthouse. The gracious clerk helped me switch my fourth night over to site number 10 across the road. That one was not taken by anyone else. So she put it in the computer and everything was completed,  easy peasy.

Here is the link to their website and access to the reservation system:

https://parks.ocontocountywi.gov/parks/camping/north_bay_shore_county_park/

So now I'll do a little campground review. I will start off with a YouTube bicycle tour of every campsite. I am trying to build up my YouTube channel called "What-A-View". It is only going to be videos of camping and campground reviews and camping products. Not to be confused with my other YouTube channel with videos of everything else in my life. 

So this is a bicycle tour going from campsite to campsite --- so you can kind of use it to figure out which site you want to reserve. By seeing them on video it's a little bit easier than trying to look at a graphic map or a Google map view of the park.

Please like and subscribe?

For those who don't care to go to YouTube, here are some photos of shots I took around the park. As you enter the park there's this beautiful little Harbor. There's a nice deck, situated lengthwise to the water, with some little benches. A perfect spot to sit and do some fishing or watching the birds.

We are dealing with the emerald ash borer here in this section of Wisconsin. They ask that you only use certified firewood from the area that's been inspected for pests. They do have this cute little self-serve kiosk that is like a vending machine! For $10 you put it in and you can punch in the number and letter of the door that contains firewood. Just be sure you only punch in the letter and number of one that has not previously been emptied! Also there is a local certified vendor who drives through the park once a day and sells firewood off the back of his truck.

There is a restroom building with flush toilets at one end of the park. There are also pit toilets situated in other parts of the campground and over by the boat launch as well as the group area. But this building is the only one with flush toilets.

It is kept neat and clean, and the campground host is located directly across from the bathrooms which helps to keep down any vandalism or nonsense going on.

The shower rooms that are located on each side of the building are a little more worse for the wear. They could use some updating. Also the showers are coin operated. You get 4 minutes of showering for $1.00. 

(We shower inside of our motorhome)

Outside, there is a water faucet available as well as a drinking fountain. Perfect for filling up water bottles. About 3/4 of the campsites have water faucets. Sites 12 through 21 do not have water at the campsite.  So be sure to fill up from the potable water fill at the entrance if you are on sites 12 through 21.

All in all, it's a quiet park. Located far enough away from any main roads or railroad tracks or noisy residential or cabins. For the price, to get a site with electric and water during the middle of the week it's a bargain! That's why we like coming here. Cellular coverage and broadcast TV are pretty good. And the fishing is great!

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So that's it for the technical review of the campsite. Now I'll get on to our own camping experience while on site 11 and later on site number 10.  As I said, it was just a hop skip and jump from home. To buzz up along the shore and get into our campsite.

Because we were going to run back and forth to home a couple times, I followed Steve in our Kia. I towed along our little utility trailer with the e-bikes and our extra camping gear in it. Normally we just hook it on to the motorhome. But since I was coming along in a separate vehicle, I towed it.

The campsites are nice and deep, plenty of room to park an extra vehicle.

Now again, I made a YouTube of our four days at the campground. If you want to watch it, here is a link below. Please like and subscribe if you do!

We had an enjoyable afternoon and the evening cooled off enough to take a nice long bike ride up the Bay. We found some back roads and had some fun pedaling around. 

After dinner, the sunset was looking a little strange and starting to cloud up. Everything was getting that funny yellowish light, you know the kind, right before a storm? 

Well well well, look at that. We clicked onto our radar app and saw what was coming!  We tuned into the local weather station on TV and watched the announcements slide by on the bottom of the screen. 

As the storm crept closer and closer, the warnings got more and more ominous. We were looking at nickel to quarter size hail, combined with up to 60 mph winds.

Well, motorhomes are insured. But people and dogs not so much. So at 1:00 a.m. when the wind started rocking and the rain was just beginning, we grabbed our wallets and cell phones and the dogs. Hopping into the Kia just as the rain started. We drove the short 8 mi back into town and soon we were pulling right into the safety of our garage.  We curled up in our own bed for the night and the storms raged around us. We didn't need to go down to the basement but a tornado did touch down across the bay on the tip of Door County. I'm glad we made the smart decision and went home for the night. 

The other benefit of going home was in the morning we could grab some cute grandkids to haul back out to the campground. They wanted to do a little fishing! 

We picked up a couple tubs of worms and grabbed the fishing poles. It's one of their favorite pastimes. Grandpa spent most of the time either untangling lures, fixing tangled lines, or adjusting the fishing poles so they could reel in all of these big huge whoppers.

It was a beautiful morning after the big storm. You know how things always look so much nicer after the storm goes through? The air feels so fresh and things are so green.

The total catch of the day was "1". And we let it go to get bigger and bigger and bigger.

While the two older kids were still fishing with Grandpa, Claire came back up to the campsite with me to start some lunch. The kids had opted for cheese pizza. To keep the excess heat out of the motorhome, we took out our Camp Chef oven from our camping gear in the cargo trailer. It's the nicest little propane oven with three different rack positions inside as well as two burners up on top. We could cut the pizza in half and cook both halves at the same time. We just alternated the pizzas on the shelves halfway through.

Kids, camping and pizzas. A pretty good combination!

In the afternoon, it started to cloud over a little bit. The few raindrops started splattering down so we headed on inside. It was getting pretty hot and muggy. We clicked on the air conditioning and popped on some movies on the TV. We have the Starlink along, so they could choose some of their favorites. One of the favorites is a separate little Roku station called The Pet Collective. The grandkids call it the "puppies and kitties" channel. As it started to rain, Chelsea cuddled little Binney, and made sure she was comfortable. Someday Chelsea would like to be a veterinarian.

Claire and Clayton crawled up on the top bunk. We don't often have the extra mattress up there. Usually we store it in the garage. But this time we had it along and they had the perfect perch to lay up there and watch TV.

The storms blew over and soon the sunshine was out again. A cold front had blown in. This time they opted for spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Sloppy spaghetti and little grandchildren don't really go together inside of a motorhome. So we ate out on the picnic table.

The bread sticks from our local bakery / deli are a real hoot. Chelsea was definitely incognito.

We brought the grandkids back to their house and also we waited for our FedEx delivery. One small box came but the main big box evidently had a smeared barcode tracking label and it accidentally got shipped way over to the far west side of the state! Our box was in LaCrosse! So a new shipping label was created and now we would have to wait one more day for the box to arrive at our home.

So Steve and I went back out to the campground and spent another day and another night in total relaxation and comfort 

It was pretty hot and muggy again on Wednesday. We decided to cook and keep the heat out of the motorhome. Steve did up some burgers on his Blackstone flat top griddle.

I got out my instapot that has an air fryer lid attachment. This is another one of my favorite appliances that I carry along in our cargo trailer. On the video up above I show how I made french fries while we were camping. They are much better to eat coming out of the air fryer than anything fried in grease or baked in the oven. 

Yummmmmmmm

On Thursday, We got up early and drove into town to meet up with the city water utility worker. The new meter got installed and the paperwork for the new phone app to go along with it was set up. New technology.

As we were getting ready to head on back to the campground, we got the notification on our phones that our FedEx box was finally arriving! We carefully moved it from the driveway into the garage. That box is going to be one of our next update motorhome modification projects, and you will see that in an upcoming video and blog post. 

But... If you do watch the video from the link up above, I tell you on there what is in the box that we were waiting for!

Anyhow, we went back out to enjoy another beautiful day at North Bayshore County Park. It was time to pack up and move over to site number 10. Our site number 11 was reserved for 3:00 p.m.

About 1:30, we did the big move over across the road. We hand carried the lawn chairs and our ground mat. We pulled in the slides and unplugged the cord. Picked up the Starlink and drove the motorhome across the street. Big move! 

Soon we had everything set back up and Steve sat back to enjoy a nice cold beer. 

The people who had our site 11 reserved pulled in at 3:05 on the dot. I am glad that we didn't delay getting off our site and making the move.

The grandkids begged to come back out on Thursday evening. They pestered and pestered us to be able to sleep overnight. We said it would be okay and they hauled all their gear into the motorhome. Chelsea opted to stay in a tent that she pitched up behind our camper. 

We were going to do s'mores out by the campfire, but it got very cold and windy. So the next best thing was to do something inside. 

On my video up above, I have Chelsea and Claire's creation of making a new treat using mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, a fudge stripe cookie and a sugar cone. Guess you'll have to just go look at the video to see what Chelsea and Claire came up with? 

In the morning, everybody was warm and cuddly and cute--- we had a nice breakfast together. But there was going to be rain coming again about 1:00 p.m. It was probably best to get loaded up and back into town. Chelsea pulled down her tent and we got the gear all stowed back where everything belonged. 

It was time to head on back so I hauled the little trailer behind the Kia. Chelsea was my co-pilot.

But there's always one more task that needs to be done when leaving a campground. It was time for Claire to learn what happens to the contents of the toilet and the sinks of the motorhome when we go to leave the park....  That section is also on the video up above!

Steve had come up with a really good idea for some birthday presents for the grandkid's parents. Our daughter's birthday was on Sunday and our son-in-law's birthday in the middle of July. We figured out a really good idea of something to get them, and the grandkids were really excited to help go pick them out. 

It was two new maple trees from the local nursery. One for each of their parents to plant up at their cabin.

The trees were huge, about 10 ft tall. We really didn't have a way to haul them in the Kia.

But I came up with a really good idea that we could haul them right in the motorhome!!! 

And we did!!!

Yep, Steve wrapped plastic bags around the bottom pots so the dirt did not fall out. He was able to hoist each one into the center aisle and lay them gently down in our motorhome!

Once we got to their house, Clayton got out his little dolly cart furniture mover. It sometimes doubles as a little flat go-kart for him...

So here's three little goomers with all of their camping gear. They are smiling at the delightful thought of their parents surprise at getting two huge trees for their birthdays. 

It was quite a productive weekend, combined with camping, water meter installations, storms, FedEx deliveries and purchasing and hauling birthday presents!

CAMPGROUND REVIEW - North Bayshore Oconto County Park near Oconto

Over the 4th of July weekend we stayed home. We really don't want to subject our dog to the fireworks and we don't care for the noise and rowdiness that goes on in many campgrounds.

One of the exceptions to the rule is the cute little North Bayshore Oconto County campground just north of our home. It's 6.5 miles as the crow flies, but it's closer to 8 and 1/2 miles if we drive around on the road to get there.

They have been fully reserved of course for the holiday weekend right through until Tuesday the 4th of July. But I went online and took a peek and there had been a cancellation of one of our favorite sites for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights! 

We took a ride out and drove through the campground in our Mustang convertible just to see how noisy or rowdy it was. They have a camp host present all of the while and they don't put up with any rowdiness whatsoever. There are no fireworks allowed, nor are there ATVs allowed in the park.  The sheriff routinely makes loops through the park so there's never any mischief going on either.

We were happy to see that the campsite was vacant already early Tuesday morning. We immediately went online and reserved it and paid for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights.

The cost is $30 a night with electric and most of the sites have water.

NOTE: they have a special that goes on during the non-holiday weeks of Monday through Wednesday it's only $20 a night. 

Here is the website link:

https://parks.ocontocountywi.gov/parks/camping/north_bay_shore_county_park/

Each campsite is clearly marked with a little calendar right on a post at each of the sites for the entire month. Little X's appear on the specific nights that those sites are reserved. The camp host regularly updates the signs on each campsite. But it's still best to check online if you are planning to pick an empty site that is not X'd for the evening. 

To avoid the reservation fee, if you are wanting to camp in the park on the same day, you can take a site that is not occupied or reserved. There is a pay kiosk that electronically takes credit cards over near the boat landing. 

Another added plus is there are no vehicle fees required or stickers needed for your vehicles. There's a dump station on site as well as flush toilets and showers. There is a firewood kiosk that accepts credit cards. You put in your card and select your fee and it unlocks a little door in a row of doors like lockers to remove the firewood that you paid for. How cute is that?

The campground is very well kept up with neatly mowed lawns and clean fire pits. It also has dumpsters for trash and recycling over near the harbor. On the other side of the campground there is a boat ramp with two large parking areas. A lot of fishermen use this Harbor to get out into the bay. Many of the people camping also bring fishing boats and there's always plenty of room around your camper to park an additional vehicle and a boat trailer if needed. Some campers just park their boats along the shoreline on the side of the harbor, near the campsites, so they don't have to load and unload their boats each day. 

On the other side of the parking areas far away from the campsite is a fish cleaning house. Beyond that is a large pavilion and group area that can be rented for a very reasonable fee with an additional playground and outhouses over there. See the website for more information.

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Okay, now back to our own camping:

So we zoomed back home and tossed some stuff into the motorhome... We didn't care if it's only a couple miles from home. We were going to go camping!

Here is one of our favorite sites. It's number 15. It happens to be one of the few ones with only grass, no pavement. Most of the other sites are paved. We like it because we can park sideways on it and position our rig to the best advantage. See, the sun comes up over the bay and it's absolutely pretty in the mornings. By afternoon during the hottest part of the day, the site is completely in the shade. It's further apart than some of the other sites. Here's a picture of it before we got parked on the spot. 

The grasses and natural weeds along the shoreline change from year to year. This is the waters of the Bay of Green Bay which leads out into Lake Michigan. Depending on the lake levels of the Great Lakes, sometimes the shoreline is right up to the edge of that picnic table. Other times when the water is low, the area does fill in with natural habitat and weeds. It's something that cannot be avoided and they are not allowed to chop them down.

A VUE WITH A VIEW

Our Saturn Vue is all set up for towing. We used to tow it behind the Safari motorhome that we sold in April. We really didn't plan on towing behind this Winnebago View, although it's perfectly capable of towing 5,000 lbs. The Saturn Vue is only 3,400 lbs.

The Saturn is already set up with a Roadmaster base plate, an Even Brake automatic braking device, and an electric cut off switch so it doesn't drain the battery while towing. The tail lights have additional wiring inserted in them so they operate with the same braking motion that the Even Brake emits, as well as turn signals.  

Since we wanted our Saturn along for the week at the campground in case we wanted to run back into town, we figured ----

Hey, let's hook it up!

Let's see how it works behind the Winnebago. 

Let's see how our acceleration is. 

Let's see how our braking is. 

Let's just see how it feels. 

Look at that, it looks so cute! 

We fell into our same old routine of Steve doing the locking up and hitching up and attaching all of the cables and wire harnesses. Inside the Saturn I take care of shifting it from drive into neutral after idling it for 2 minutes, clamping a rag with a clip to the steering wheel top dead center, opening up the hood for Steve from the interior latch, and then getting the auxiliary braking device, Even Brake, into position. 

Here is Steve's part done complete, and then I double check what he does

Inside here is my part complete. Then Steve comes and checks what I do. 

Then we run the Even Brake through it's testing mode where it tested three times to make sure everything is working perfectly. 

And then right before we take off, we flip this little switch which cuts the power. That way the steering wheel can be free to turn with the key in the on position. Otherwise you get somewhere and you have a dead battery!

We hopped in the rig and got ready to take off. We turn on the rear view camera and take a peek at it to make sure it's following behind correctly and that the wheels are turning. As we go around corners the white napkin clamped to the steering wheel at top dead center lets us see that the steering wheel is loose and freely turning correctly around the corners. 

The temperature was rising, as well as the humidity. But we got on to our campsite early enough in the morning. It sure was nice looking out over the water. 

We got the rig all set up and aimed in the right direction. Then we put out the awning which creates shade on the side of the rig facing to the sun. That is the side of refrigerator is on, so it helps to have it shaded from the awning. 

Everything is so lush and green. It was quite relaxing in the shade under the trees as the temperatures crept up and up and up.  We sat out on the lawn chairs for a while until it was time to make some lunch.  And then we took a nice nap in the air conditioned coolness of the RV. 

Our oldest daughter and son-in-law with three of the grandkids stopped by in the evening. They brought along fishing poles and tried their luck at the really nice fishing pier along the edge of the harbor. 

While the older ones fished, the littlest one Claire decided to jump from rock to rock, dancing and singing and having her own little "Rock Concert" ! 

As we kept the grandchildren occupied, these two Honeymooners were relaxing on one of the park benches. Binney was making sure that no burglars were coming by to take the worms. 

Grandpa was kept busy untangling fishing lines and getting snags loose. There were a few nibbles and they went through quite a few worms. 

Chelsea was the successful fisherwoman with the first and only fish!  Fishing runs in our genes all the way up to her great great grandmother on my dad's side! Olga Groop could tease a Brown Trout out of the tiniest brook alongside of the road. 

She made Waylen give it a kiss for luck before they tossed it back---- to grow big and become a delicious perch dinner for a Friday fish fry someday. 

(Geez this guy is kissing my daughter and then he's kissing fish?)

We took the kids for a nice long walk out on one of the breakwaters around the harbor. There's a long spit that goes out and curves to the left. And then there's another spit on the other side that goes straight out. It protects the area for launching boats and makes it a safe place for mooring up in a storm. 

They sure had fun. 

Here is a YouTube link:

Even though it was hot and muggy it still was a nice day to get out and enjoy the campground. 

Collecting flowers, skipping rocks, finding pieces of moss, and every now and then spotting a fish that jumped or a pelican or seagull flying overhead.

Chelsea was able to lean way over and gather some of the "lotus flowers" from the lily pads. 

Even though they always have bugs in them, they are so pretty. She picked them for her mom and they last quite a few days if you get them into water right away. 

Little Claire did her own artful arrangement of wrapping this tiny clover flower around a piece of stick and carefully knotting it with another piece of stem from another flower. It was quite creative for a 6-year-old.

The kids headed on back home and we had a peaceful relaxing evening. It was still quite hot and humid so we stayed inside with the air conditioning and watched some TV instead of building a campfire. 

The next morning I whipped up a little pack of blueberry muffin mix and we had steaming hot coffee. What a perfect way to start out the morning while camping. 

The view out the window was still pretty good, even though there were rain storms and thunder and lightning forecast for the afternoon.

We hopped in the Saturn and headed up to Marinette, only 10 miles to the north. We had a couple things to pick up and decided we might as well do it before the storms rolled in. We left Binney behind in the motorhome in her "safe spot" up by the dash on the passenger side. This is the first time we left her alone in this new motorhome and went somewhere without her. 

We dashed from store to store, completing the few items on our lists. As we headed on back to the campground, this is the site we could see on the horizon. Ugh! 

Got back to the campsite just as it started to sprinkle. From there it went to a complete deluge.  We were lucky though it was not windy and we didn't have any thunder or lightning. It was just rain. 

We curled up inside with the cribbage board and played a few games. Steve won them all. I guess I have to brush up on my cribbage skills. We played Yahtzee too, and I won two games and he won two games. 

Yesterday the weather was just beautiful and last night we were able to set out around the campfire. It was so peaceful and relaxing. We roasted a couple marshmallows and listened to the birds all around us. The campground was just about full, but it was very quiet. An amazingly, there were no mosquitoes at all!

Little Binney sat between our chairs as we sat around the campfire. It didn't matter if we were only six and a half miles from home. We were in a comfortable place and we were totally enjoying ourselves. We sat out until dark and we burned up the last of our firewood. 

This morning we woke up again to beautiful skies and soft green grasses. The rain really helped brighten everything up. We needed it so bad. We perked the coffee and laid around without needing to be in a rush to pack up and go. Check out time was at 3:00 p.m. there was nobody waiting for our campsite so we didn't really need to rush. 

We slowly packed up and headed on home after lunch. It was such a long long journey to get back home? LOL actually we didn't even bother to hook up the Saturn. Steve drove that home and I took my turn driving the Winnebago View after we were done at the dump station.

It was actually my first turn of driving it since we bought it in April. I just never got around to driving it although it was really no biggie to me. I used to drive a 27 ft Winnebago Chieftain on my own for many years. Then when we had the Safari I was able to drive it too, and that was a 40 ft Diesel Pusher. This little 25 ft Winnebago View is pretty darn easy. It's kind of like just driving a SUV or a pickup truck.

We got on home, parked, unloaded, and set about doing our normal tasks. Filled up all the bird feeders and made up a pot of chili for supper.

No camping for the next two weeks we have babysitting to do for the grand puppies...