CAMPING VACATION - Day 3 - Buckhorn to Black River State Forest and Mothers Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there! 

This is one of my favorite pics of me and my Mom.  We were doing a craft booth together and we are looking at each other, just about ready to burst into laughter. I think my sister Linda took this pic. I love it! 

I heard from my mother in Florida, as well as from our two daughters and daughter-in-law back home. I am glad they are spending Mother's Day with their own children and we meet up sometime soon to have our time together. I really like it when our daughters and daughter-in-law can be the stars of their own day with their own children around them. I never wanted to be that kind of mom who would demand that everyone come and see me on Mother's Day. Especially when they are mothers themselves!!!

Daughters Erin and Heather, and Daughter In Law Heather

It was a lovely morning waking up in our camper knowing that the weather was going to clear up and it was going to be a beautiful day

We started out with coffee and amaretto sponge cake, and Steve gave me a beautiful card to go with the two gerbera daisies that he gave to me in advance on Friday. Now we could enjoy them for our entire vacation before going home to plant them next week.

The dogs were antsy and decided that we needed to take them for a walk after coffee. There is a nice little path that winds through the woods. It went from the campground down to the main recreational area.

The birds were singing and it was so calm and peaceful walking through the woods.

We came upon some of those little carts I talked about yesterday. These are for the people using the backpacking sites where they can load their gear into a cart from a parking lot and bring it back through the woods to their designated campsite. Those sites are inaccessible by vehicles and these little carts must make it easy instead of carrying everything on your back.

We wandered back to the motorhome and made a little lunch. The morning sure went quick.

Steve decided to do a little motorhome maintenance. He regularly checks our four deep cycle 6 volt batteries. He checks the water levels and he tops them off with distilled water, and he is very careful about corrosion on any of the posts or clamps. He took the time to scrub up some of it with some baking soda solution to make sure he has clean posts and good connections.

Our batteries are nine, yes nine years old!  With proper care and never letting them draw down below 50% of charge, we are able to keep them maintained and operational. Watching the water level is very important and Steve does it about every month.

Then we were looking at the map and thinking about moving on to another state park further to the North and the west where the weather was going to be a little nicer.

We drove 60 miles to the Castle Mound Campground in the Black River State Forest.

When we got here, we unhooked the Tracker and looked around. There are many sites that are pull through and some have electric, we didn't really need it, but for only $8 more, we took one with electric.  Boy oh boy are we getting spoiled!  We usually boondock or rustic camp with our solar panels supplying our needs.

We talked to the ranger a bit about some of the other campgrounds within the same State Forest. We figured we would just stay here for tonight and maybe go explore those tomorrow in our Tracker. This campground is okay, but it doesn't have any real features other than you are in the woods and it's only a few miles off the interstate. If it's really quiet we can hear the highway sounds. There is only one other tent in the entire campground so it is very peaceful. Nobody is even at the tent, and we saw a car drive off hours ago. We pulled out the lawn chairs and relaxed in the sunshine for the afternoon.

We whipped up a supper of roasted veggies and some nice juicy burgers on the grill. Topped off with a beverage of our choice, we were totally satisfied.

The dogs didn't let us sit very long, they were begging us to get up and get moving and take them for another walk. It's amazing how well Binney likes to walk now and to sniff things in the woods. It's a lot easier on her than when she walks on city sidewalks with cars and people around which scares her and distracts her. Now when he we ask her to go for a walk, she comes to us with her tail wagging. What a change!

We sat around in our lawn chairs for the evening until the sun went down. 

The temps are perfect on the skin, no jacket needed.

No bugs (other than one woodtick that landed on Steve) 

and peaceful quiet woods..... 

Yup.. this vacation is all about relaxin! 

We debated whether or not we wanted a campfire tonight. But I think instead we are going to go inside, take some hot showers, and crawl into bed.

I got some fun jammies to wear (available at Walmart) 

53 miles travelled today

CAMPING VACATION - Day 2 - 303 Steps and Buckhorn State Park

We woke up to a beautiful day of sunshine, even though it was still pretty crisp and cold outside. The first morning of a camping trip, waking up in the motorhome, is such a special feeling. It makes me really thankful that we are able to travel and enjoy getting out and about. Gotta do it now, before we get too old.

We perked up a pot of coffee. Nothing smells better than coffee in the morning when you are camping!!

I had a couple orders that needed to be shipped out, so we hopped in the Tracker and ran to the nearby little town of Friendship Wisconsin. We found the post office in time and got the packages out. On the way back we saw a flea market. We walked through the vendors stalls, but we didn't get any fleas. We did find four glasses that matched my set at home and had to bargain the lady down to $0.50 a glass. She was pretty reluctant, but that's what happens when you don't mark your stuff in the first place!

We got back to the campground and made a little lunch. It was finally warming up into the 60's.  We had to leave the dogs in the camper (with the TV on loud to drown out any outside noises and all of the shades drawn) because the dogs were not allowed to go on our next adventure.

We drove over to the huge mound in the middle of the park. It is a glacial formation called Roche A Cri.

The park built this amazing staircase to get to the top...

they used helicopters to bring up the building materials! 

Sooooo of course, because we are here,

 WE MUST CLIMB IT! 

The journey to the top begins with the first step.

You just put one foot in front of the other.... right? 

up upp uppppp

 THREE HUNDRED AND THREE STEPS later.... 

Yes, that was 303 steps----

We made it to the top!

I was really quite proud of myself for making it the whole way. There were a few rest stops along the way, I must admit. But I made it to the top! You got to figure that if average is 13 steps per flight of stairs that is over 23 stories up!

We took this 360-degree photo 

and this video clip at the top

For those of you who don't know, a number of years ago I was in a chemical spill and damaged my lungs. Having been on supplemental oxygen for years, my lungs have somewhat healed. I think that I am going to show my pulmonology doctor this blog post!

We worked our way back down, and I admit going down was much easier than going up.

And here is the last step

We looked at the map and decided to try another state park. It was only 23 miles away. So we got the rig roadworthy and I led the way in the Tracker with the GPS.  Steve followed me with the motorhome. We really didn't need to hook it up for just 23 miles.

Buckhorn State Park in Wisconsin

We got over to Buckhorn State Park which is located on the confluence of the Wisconsin River and the Yellow River. The park has a nice variety of activities for all type of nature enthusiasts. We are in the campground for RVs, but there are also individual hike in sites. What is interesting is that this park furnishes two wheeled carts to help you get your gear from where you park your car into these individual hiking in campsites.

We were able to get on a large paved site that is normally a handicapped site. They have 4 such sites so we were allowed to take it as it has electricity. There are only a few campers in the entire park, and they all took the few electric sites the park has. The rest are non-electric.  But the gals in the office said it was fine for us to take it as there are no reservations.  Tonight will be another comfy night in our coach!

We got all set up on our beautiful campsite and decided to start some supper. Tonight was grilled brats, the first of the season for us.  While Steve did the grilling, I enjoyed some wine in my "Grown Up Sippee Cup, courtesy of my friend Linda Guelig!)

I steamed up two cobs of sweet corn in the microwave, in the husk, for 7 minutes per ear.  I made up some homemade potato salad earlier in the day so it was chilled in time for our meal.  I got two lovely pots of gerbera daisies from Steveio for an early Mother's Day present, so we took them along for the trip to enjoy.  When we get back home next week, we will plant them in the yard.

Just before we were ready to eat, a few raindrops started splattering down here and there. We moved our food indoors to enjoy the rest of the evening inside while the rain pitter pattered down outdoors.

It let up enough to take the dogs for a loop around the campground before dark.  Now I can work on my blog and we are "in" for the night.

I think we will take hot showers and hit the bed early tonight. Those 303 steps might be a reason why?


A whole 23 miles travelled today.  Wheeeee!