CAMPING - Holtwood City Campground Oconto WI and Back to Blogging

I am finally getting around to Blogging again.

We finally got up and about and did some camping as well.  So this is kind of a campground review on Holtwood City Campground in Oconto Wisconsin

http://cityofoconto.com/Camping.html

We decided to head on up to Holtwood City Campground in the city of Oconto, Wisconsin. Many of my readers remember that is where we used to live. We decided to go up there to camp and visit with the grandchildren. Our oldest daughter and son-in-law needed us to babysit Friday night while they celebrated their anniversary.

Friday afternoon, we drove on up through the pouring rain and set up on our campsite. We really like the D loop in this Campground because there's less traffic. Our campsite backs up to the playground area. A real necessity when you have grandchildren.

The sites are large and open grassy, (in the D loop) some big shade trees and are level throughout the entire campground. The cost is $28 a night and includes electric, sewer and water. They  have rate discounts for people staying for a week a month or the entire season as well. No stickers are required for vehicles, no additional fees necessary. What you pay is what you get.

They have two shower buildings and one laundry area.  All of the buildings are in moveable mobile homes because this area floods up in the springtime due to the ice flows and blockages from the Oconto River out to the waters of Green Bay.

The campground is located on a peninsula that juts towards town, but to get there you have to drive around to the backside and come in around the ball park and the city pool near the entrance.

Little Chelsea Clayton and Claire were so excited to see us come to their daycare center and pick them up. That's a special treat to have Grandma and Grandpa appear at the door and say come on, let's go! (Pre-arranged with the staff and the parents of course)

It was raining out, so they helped us set up the awning and little Clayton helped with the party lights.  I have a lot of crafts and toys in the motorhome, so we kept ourselves busy while the rain poured down outside.

It was still raining outside so we did not really have a chance for a cookout, or the s'mores that we had planned. We made the best of it and cooked hot dogs and macaroni and cheese inside.

The rain let up a little bit during the evening and we were able to get out and walk around the park. The dogs enjoy the visits from the grandchildren just as much as the grandchildren enjoy seeing them.

We got in some outside playing, with the playground nearby. The kids made friends with the people in the campsite next to us. These people had a wonderfully funny gangly 10 month old Saint Bernard pup named Penny. Here she was watching us out of the zippered side screen of their camping trailer. She watched everything we did and kept her eye on Finney and Binney.

One by one I popped each kid into the bathtub before bedtime. By the time the third kid got done, the water was getting pretty brown. I am so glad we have a bathtub in our motorhome. It sure beats trying to stand in the public campground showers with three wriggling soapy kids trying to clean them up.

With all the fresh air, they were fast asleep by 9 p.m.. but of course that means they were wide awake at 5:30 in the morning ready to start their day!

The best part about camping with grandkids is when they come in the morning to hop into bed with us and snuggle for a while and laugh and giggle and plan what to do for the day. And they have to pull the dogs up into the bed as well.  Free for all fun and giggles and snuggles.

One of our special traditions is that I buy those little boxes of cereal when the grandkids come camping.  My grandma used to buy them for us.  It is enough cereal with some bananas on the side, to hold them over until we cook a bigger breakfast.  Now little Claire (one and a half years old) is big enough to sit at the table with the Big Kids!

At the entrance to the park is an office. Clayton had spied the various items that were available for rent. The office rents out canoes, kayaks, tubes, big four-person float devices, and best of all, these very fun four-wheel Pedal Go Karts. He had to finagle us a bit until we managed to find him $5 to go and rent it for 2 hours.

My oh my what a happy boy!!!

He had to take turns with his older sister Chelsea. They made sure they got their money's worth out of it before we had to return it.

There wasn't much traffic on our small D loop road, so they could enjoy themselves and pull over if a car happened to come through.  The speed limit is 5 mph and there are speed bumps and curves that make sure the vehicles go slow.  We kept them in our range of eyesight and watched them having so much fun.  Good exercise too!

Later on after lunch, the parents came to get all three of them, while Grandma and Grandpa needed a nap!

It was pouring rain all afternoon, It was very pleasant to lay in the motorhome and sleep with the rain hitting the roof. One of the nicest camping experiences if you have to have lousy weather is to at least hear the Rain On The Roof!

Because it was raining, Erin and Waylen invited us to bring all of our cooking out stuff for supper over to their house. Our younger daughter Heather and her husband Jesse joined us with two more of our grandchildren, Jameson and Whitney.

Waylen grilled out all the food and we ate indoors because of the weather. The kids had a blast in the toy room and finally settled down with a movie while the grown-ups visited out in the living room.

"Peace, man"  (Whitney)

We toddled on home to the campground, which is only about 4 or 5 blocks away.  This time we swiped the oldest grandson, Jameson who is 9, almost 10. He will be quick to remind you of that.

It was a pleasant evening walking around the campground because the rain stopped. It was now dark out. We got to walk the entire campground with the dogs before bedtime.  It's a very quiet park, on a Saturday night there was nothing going on of any noise whatsoever. Many of the sites are seasonals in loops A and B.  With the weather forecast of rain all weekend, not many even came to spend time at the campground.

Jameson curled up on the loveseat to sleep with the dogs out in the living room in the motorhome. It's nice to notice that as grandchildren get older, they also sleep in later in the morning. So we got to doze until almost 8 a.m. before we all started moving around.

In the morning, Grandpa and Jameson made a quick run over to the local Kwik Trip gas station.  He stocked up on glazer donuts and bacon!!! Jameson said these are two "must haves" for breakfast when you are camping.  LOL

Of course, Clayton had told Jameson all about that wonderful four-wheel pedal go-kart so we had to make sure we went back to rent another two hour stint for Jameson to enjoy.

There He Goes!

The weather was pretty nice and things were starting to dry up. Jameson had had fun riding around the campground and being very careful if there were any oncoming vehicles. Like I said, there really weren't that many, as most of the regular seasonal people didn't even bother to come camping that weekend due to the weather reports.  I think by the afternoon, there were only 2 or 3 other occupied RV's in the whole park.  We let him pedal around the entire grounds and enjoy his fun time.

Of course, I had to have a try at that fun little pedal go-kart too!

Jameson filmed it with my phone, he forgot a few times to aim at me because he was busy watching his silly almost 60 year old Grandma acting like a kid!!!

As the day went on, it began to heat up. Jameson's parents came to pick him up in the afternoon, and brought Whitney for a while to play as well. We had a little tea set for her to set up while the grown-ups visited in the shade under the awning. They had to go visit other family later on Sunday, so we were left to ourselves again.

It was pretty hot out, so we hopped in the Tracker to ride around our "old home stomping grounds".  Remember, we lived here in the area for 13+ years. We drove out by Oconto City Park which is a small campground right on the waters of Green Bay. There are 9 rustic sites for $15 a night. The sites are located across the road from the actual beach and picnic area. We were thinking about going there on Monday and Tuesday, depending on the weather reports.

From there we drove up to the city Breakwater Park. No camping, but just a pretty park to go out to see the waters of Green Bay, which leads into Lake Michigan.

This park has a beautiful harbor and docking area. There's a long causeway that goes out into the bay with a turnaround at the end. Attracts a lot of local fishermen. I am pleased to say that the water levels in the Great Lakes have risen back up to normal levels again. All of the cottages along the shoreline had lost their waterfront beaches and had been nothing but a swampy marsh for years and years. Now the water is back up to where each place has it's own beautiful shoreline and beach again.

From there we drove a little further up the bay to North Bay Shore County Park. This is run by Oconto County. We like camping here as well, the sites are nice and clean and open and far apart. Some of them are even blacktopped. The rate here is $25 a night and includes electric and some of the sites also have water. There's a small newer shower building and a beautiful harbor access to put in your boat if you are a fisherman. 

 https://www.co.oconto.wi.us/parks/camping/north_bay_shore_county_park/

Here is a little map of our travels and where the other parks are located:

We drove on back to our motorhome and decided to stay put for the night, rather than pull up stakes and move to one of the other parks. We visited with the neighbors until dark, and then went in to take showers and go to bed early. Woohoo! Those grandkids sure wear us out.

Monday morning we woke up and checked the weather reports. Now the weathermen were promising hot humid sticky weather for Monday and Tuesday. Ick!  Instead of spending the extra money to camp with hookups, just to sit inside in the air conditioning is not really to our liking?

Steve did a good rinse out of our holding tank because we had sewer at the site. Then we started packing up by 10 a.m.  We hit the road and headed south towards home.

The nice thing about having a Wi-Fi thermostat at home is that I could turn on the air-conditioning via my phone, and have the house cooled down by the time we would get there two hours later.

On our way home, I also looked up the local ad for Dick's Family Foods in Sherwood. They always have wonderful locally butchered meat and we try to buy a lot of our groceries there.

They had country style boneless ribs on sale for a $1.50 a pound, as well as pork roasts for a $1.50 a pound. Great for pulled pork sandwiches. They had big sirloin beef roasts for $2.50 a pound. Large frozen turkey breasts were on sale for $ .99 a pound and our favorite 1/3 pound hamburger ground chuck patties were on sale as well. We got 18 meals for two of us) worth of meat for only $67.00!

The nice thing about having the motorhome right in the (parking lot is that all the meats and freezer items can go directly into the refrigerator to be transported the last 17 miles to home. I even stocked up on sherbet that was on sale, otherwise it would have melted by the time I got home in this weather if I had been in the car.

We got home in the afternoon, got the rig parked, unloaded, and laundry started as well. Although we had planned to camp for two more days, the weather just wasn't cooperating. Now that we are back home, Steve called his part time job boss at the county ADRC Transport service to let him know he would be available to drive if needed.

Of course, they needed him. So it was back into our normal routine.

But having a fun weekend with some of our grandkids was priceless!!!

Camping at High Cliff State Park in Sherwood, Wisconsin

We spent last weekend camping at High Cliff State Park on the northeast tip of Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin.  As most of you know, Steve is also the head maintenance person at the park... so it is a favorite place to go!

Here is a link to the park website: http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/parks/name/highcliff/    50 amp electric sites for $28 a night.  Non electric sites are $18 a night.

I drove the motorhome out to the park on Thursday at noon while Steve was already at work.  He came on his lunch break to help back into the site and I got us set up for the weekend. I took the afternoon to walk around with the dogs, and then a nice long nap was in order!  It was quiet yet in the park on a Thursday with only about 30 rvs or so scattered around.  Once Friday starts, all 112 sites fill up as well as the 8 large group sites with multiple units and tents and families.

We got a favorite site to get all set up on... and enjoy the canopy of trees overhead to help with the horrible heat and humidity we have been having for a few weeks in Wisconsin.  So many trees do not appeal to the rvs with satellite dishes, but we sure appreciate the cool green of the heavily forested hickory, ash and ironwood trees!

At four pm, Steve was done with his shift and came directly to the campsite. 

Only a 1 mile commute to the campsite from his shop. 

And of course, he had to relax a bit after a long day! 

Thursday night we drove up in the car as far as DePere, WI to meet up with our son-in-law Waylen to pick up some precious cargo.  Seems the Day Care is closed on Friday for a deep cleaning after the main summer programs are over and before the school year begins.  These poor little waifs had NO WHERE to go!   We picked them up at 8:30 pm and drove away with them into the darkness of the backseat of the car. They did not know we were going camping, and they kept telling us we were going the wrong way and had to turn around. They do know the way to our house, even in the dark! As Clayton saw Grandpas shop come into view, he knew we were at High Cliff! 

We had the air mattress and sleeping bags ready, as well as two doggers to cuddle with. Since we removed the second couch in our motorhome, there is plenty of floor room to put down a queen size air mattress for sleepovers.  

They gladly hopped into bed with no muss or fuss after brushing their teeth.  They were SO happy to be camping!  Clayton says this is their Bay-Kay-Shun before school starts! 

Promptly at 6 am they awoke and hopped into OUR bed for some morning cuddles! 

It was still pretty dark out!

Grandpa still had to go to work on Friday, so it was just me and kiddos.  Time to put them to work!!!  We got them some garbage pick-up grabber sticks, and a couple of safety vests.  Time to give back to the park with some volunteer work.

 High Cliff State Park is a long skinny park along Lake Winnebago with a lot of hiking trails, a beach, a marina, and multiple picnic areas.  The butterfly ponds to the north part of the park have great natural habitat....and paved handicap access paths. A lot of the rest of the park is all criss crossed with dirt and rock hiking trails and a large volume of people use them.

Along with people, there is always GARBAGE!   The kids eagerly scour the paths and woods for pieces of trash and litter... sputtering the words GAR-BICH ....GAR-BICH .... GAR-BICH  as we collect the trash and dispose of it properly.

Here is a closeup of the campgrounds.... 

we walked all six roads and collected trash that

the raccoons hauled off into the woods.

It just warms my heart to hear my granddaughter Chelsea say that we are *HELPING THE EARTH BY PICKING UP GAR-BICH*   At only six years old, she understands.  Yes! 

After a nice lunch and a bit of a nap, I took the kids and the dogs down to the beach.  There is a designated swimming beach where dogs are not allowed, but there are also two dog friendly beach areas on each side of the marina.  We had to drive down the cliff to park below, because there was no way that I was going to drag back two kids and two dogs and picnic blanket back up to the campground when we were done.

The kids were busy on the natural shoreline, throwing in sticks, picking up shells, and even discovering dead fish bones. *yuck*  It was a hazy hot humid day, but they were totally in their own element of discovering nature and burning off energy.   I shot this little video clip of them on the shoreline.  They were not *supposed* to get wet----

On our way back to the car,

little Clayton could NOT RESIST doing this

(if I was a bit younger, I think I would have joined him!) 

Remember how I said they were not supposed to get wet? 

Yup....  someone was.  So we stripped off his shorts 

and wrapped him in the picnic blanket 

for the ride up the cliff back to the campground. 

Grandpa was done with work at four, and had a short commute back to the motorhome for a kid style supper at the campsite. Yes, they voted for PIZZA!    I know its not a very camper-ish meal, but we did eat it outdoors on the picnic table.  That counts for something, right? 

After supper, these kids wanted to do MORE picking of GAR-BICH  so they donned their vests and we went out with Grandpa in tow.  Yes, after a full day of maintaining the park, he now had to go out and walk around and help pick up litter?   Oh well, it is good for the park, right?

Along the south edge of the park is a large alfalfa field that was only knee high for the kids.  The dogs were on long leashes, they were not loose. They towed the dogs along through the clover plants, and each dog followed dutifully, but reluctantly, kinda of like little boats floating along.  You could not see their feet, but their tails streamed behind like a rudder.

I was presented with a lovely bouquet of wildflowers

Grandpa started up a campfire.... 

Good Camping Hint:  use tiki torch fuel to start a campfire, 

less stinky than lighter fluid

 and better than damp newspaper and matches

 on a humid dew filled evening.

Out came the roasters, the marshmallows and makings for Smores.  What a pleasant evening it was with cooling off temps and a campfire to enjoy.  This is what camping memories are made of. 

We are fortunate enough to have a bath tub in our motorhome.  So while I was scrubbing up the grubby four year old Clayton, darling Chelsea was spending some quality time with Grandpa by the fire while she waited for her turn.   I overheard them talking about school, about toys, and about silly stuff that grandkids only talk about with Grandfathers when camping.  I think she was also angling for another marshmallow? 

We watched the weather reports and knew the rains were moving in overnight. Steve put away all of the lawn chairs and outside stuff while I got the last grandkid into and out of the bathtub.  Both kids fell asleep right away without a peep... and Steve and I got to sit and relax and watch the Packer pre-season game that started at 9pm.  Well, we both dozed off during the game, but I woke up about midnight during the last two minutes to watch the WIN!  YAY!   

The next morning was all wet and rainy as expected.  Bummer for two camping kids.   Instead we hauled out some of the fun stuff from my stash in the motorhome.  I keep games, puzzles, crayons, books  etc. in the motorhome for days like this.  

A favorite of the grandkids are these old nature books, where they can identify trees, birds, bugs, etc. and I have a nice collection of them from my friend Linda.   I was always fascinated by these little hardcovered books as a child myself, and I remember checking them out from the library on Fridays so I could take them along camping on the weekends.   Here are Chelsea and Grandpa looking up different kinds of Birds. 

 Breakfast was easy to make, 

and the grandkids learned the recipe of our Breakfast Bake dish. 

They both worked on it, doing all the steps and anxiously watching it bake in the oven. 

(they also made rice krispie bars with sprinkles) 

Its an easy breakfast with everything in one pan to make it easy to serve for a group. 

Here is the recipe. but take note: 

we skip the milk... 

it makes the center too mushy and takes too long to bake it out

and the biscuits get overdone while the middle is still runny! 

By 9 am the kids were getting bored. It kept pouring outside.  Hmmmm what to do?  We grabbed our umbrella out of the closet and tossed them (and the dogs) into the car.  We drove to our house, only 14 miles away.  There we played games, played with toys, tossed in a load of laundry and relaxed for the rest of the morning.  I found some more craft projects to work on, and they got Grandpa to help make beaded necklaces.  

They helped clean the house with me. Any jobs that I do, they are both eager and willing to join in. We kept them occupied for the rest of the morning, but we wanted to get back to the campground for some lunch.  All of the food was out there in the motorhome, with not much to eat left at the house.  LOL 

We went back to to campground in time for a a nice lunch, and then their parents came to pick them up.  What did we do then?  Us grandparents took a LONG LONG NAP in the afternoon rain.  What a peaceful thing to do, sleeping with the rain hitting the roof on the motorhome. Ahhhhhhh

Sunday it was still humid and hot, but the rain stopped.  Our friend Vicky came out with her sheltie Tara and her new darling little puppy Stuart!   Finney and Binney checked him out from head to toe! 

We went out and walked on the trails with the dogs... 

yes, High Cliff has dog friendly trails, and even horse trails.

That little puppy (12 weeks old) just chugged right along to keep up with the big dogs. His little legs had to go three times as fast as theirs to keep up!   I shot this little video clip of him prancing along... so funny----

That little tyke walked almost all the while that the big dogs did!  We walked about three miles on the trails, between the deep woods in the shade, the open areas of prairie and across the lime kiln quarry flat stone ledges.  We were tuckered out and hot and sweaty by the time we got back to the campsite. Dog dishes of cool water to cool off, and sitting in the shady campsite in our lawn chairs. What a great Sunday.

It was so nice to snuggle a little pup...

Be well, Little Stuart, you will grow up happy

and healthy in your new home with great peoples.

As the day wore on, the heat and humidity were uncomfortable again.  It was time to load up and get road worthy.  Steve stowed the outside gear while I did the inside stuff.  Soon it was time to hit the road.  He stopped at the dump station for taking care of the tanks... while I drove ahead with the car to get back to Chilton.  The dogs were happy to be back home, and ran around the house barking like little nutcases.  Steve called from the corner where he was waiting with the motorhome.  I went out and stood on our four lane road to block traffic while he backed in the rig to our yard.  

Another fine weekend of camping at High Cliff State Park was in the books!