CAMPGROUND REVIEW - Shawano County Park in Shawano Wisconsin

We were chomping at the bit to go camping again even though the weather looked like it really wasn't cooperating. On Thursday we thought maybe there might be a break in the rain and we figured let's throw a few things into the camper and head on out to a campground that we don't often get into in the middle of summer.

We wanted to stop at Senzig's Furniture Store in Shawano and take a look at their two-person loveseat recliners. We wanted to see if any of them were narrow enough to fit in the 57" slide of our motorhome. So we stopped there first. There were only two possible options and neither one were exactly right. One was in the $2,000 range and custom ordered, the other one was on sale for $1,300 and it still wasn't exactly right. So we headed on over to the campground. 

This is Shawano County Park and Campground on the North shore of Shawano Lake. It is about 30 miles west of Green Bay on Highway 29. Loop up on County Trunk HH and it goes around the lake. 

The campground is very busy in the summer months and you definitely need to reserve to get a spot. Shawano Lake is a large recreational lake with a lot of boating and fishing and water skiing and jet skis etc. The campground itself has a separate entrance in the road from the beach parking and swimming area.

It's only 45 minutes from home so it was easy enough to head on over and take a first come first serve campsite.

When pulling into the campground there is a firewood kiosk and a self-pay post. The rates are $30 a night for an electric site with water. There is also a water spigot near the entrance to fill up as you enter the park ... with a larger parking area nearby if you want to unhook a towed vehicle. You can also register at the bar part way down the hill.

The outer edge of the main loop of the campground is comprised of all seasonal sites. The assorted campers are already pulled in for the year, but there wasn't anybody around at any of the campsites.

The inner loop is for first come first serve or reservations when it gets busy. We chose site number 46 under two big tall pine trees.  Our power post only had a 50 amp outlet so we needed to use a dog bone adapter for our 30 amp cord. It appears that every two sites share a power post in most circumstances. 

The back area of the campground has a road that goes up a hill around the back side of the shower building. The outer loop is good for RVs but the sites back up to the County Trunk HH by the fence. It's more wooded and pretty back there, but I think you get a lot more road noise. The other half of that loop are tenting sites that are tucked away in the trees and seem to be kind of nice. They are very close to the bathrooms and showers. 

There is a small dump station at the end of that loop before you come back down the hill to the main campground area. 

We didn't go into the bathrooms or showers stalls so we can't really report what they were like. But the building looked nice and neat and new, and there was another one on the other side of the campground too.

All in all, it seemed to be in good condition and a well-kept county park. Each site had a fire ring and picnic table and there were some new tree plantings around nearby to make up for some of the trees that seem to have recently been cut down. 

Here is a link to their website. On there are also links of where to go to make reservations:

https://www.co.shawano.wi.us/departments/county-parks/county-campground/

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From their website:

The Shawano County Campground sits on the shores of Shawano Lake, and has much to offer for all kinds of campers. The beauty of the great outdoors, coupled with the many accommodations the campground has to offer will ensure you always have something to do. With picnic tables, barbeque grills, and shelters open to the public, its the perfect place for family gatherings. Even children will find numerous activites to keep them occupied. A new playground, just a short walk from the lake, is the perfect place for kids to have some fun. Campers also have access to the boat launch. The campground also has several amenities for RVs. Including electric hook-ups, water, and a dump station. We also take great pride in our clean restrooms and shower houses. New in 2018, is a fish cleaning station by the lake.

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Thursday afternoon, the sun was shining and the sky was clear blue! We got all set up on our site and took out the lawn chairs. A little walk around the loop with the dog and we were all set and ready to make up some supper on the griddle.

We enjoyed figuring out some more things on our new to us Winnebago View. We had the owner manuals out and we were reading up on various features. It was very comfortable to curl up for the night. Everything was peaceful and quiet as there was only one other camper in the entire park besides us. I am sure in the middle of summer this place is jam-packed!

We woke up the next morning to a cloudy sky. The weatherman suddenly changed his forecast. The scattered showers instead was changed to rain all day. That sure didn't sound like fun!

We put out the awning for a while as it was raining, but not windy. We learned in the book of how to be able to tilt the power awning for rain runoff. We sat inside and watched a little TV until we just decided to curl up and take a nice afternoon nap. It really didn't even look good enough to go out for another walk in between the rain showers or have a campfire. So the nap seemed to make the most logical sense!

About 3:00 p.m. we woke up. Steve was perusing his magical wonderful methods of scouring Facebook Marketplace for good deals. Well, he found one. But it meant that we had to pack up quick and head back home to get our SUV and trailer. We had to swing by the bank before they closed at 4:30 to grab some extra cash!

So we went from fully set up with slides and everything out to becoming roadworthy in about 14 minutes flat!! 

What A View!! 

(My next blog will be about what we found to add to our motorhome)

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!!!