As I mentioned in my last couple of blogs, the weather has been amazingly warm for November, and now into December in Wisconsin.
Last month, in the middle of the month, we decided to hop in the motorhome and go for a week to a campground that we know is open until November 30th.
It's a very nice, well kept county campground in the Northeast section of Wisconsin. It's almost to the border of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It's in Marinette County, and it's called Morgan Campground located on Timm's Lake. It's just East of Pembine Wisconsin.
Generally, in the summer months, it is pretty much booked up. You can reserve online here at their website:
The sites are spacious and set apart with a lot of trees, brush and shrubbery in between. In the newest loop, furthest to the back of the campground, the sites are all pull through. These are near the new shower building. They all have electric at the campsites, and there are water spigots through around various locations in the campground. There is also a dump station along with potable water to fill your tank once you get there.
Our favorite sites are the newest ones, numbering in the '40s, at the far back of the campground.
There are some hiking trails around the lake, and many of the locals come and use the beach area. The beach is located in a separate parking area from the campground. That is nice, so you don't get the local traffic driving through the campground on the way to the beach.
From their website:
Morgan Park Campground provides 45 Campsites sites on the beautiful Timms Lake in northeastern Marinette County. All the sites at Morgan Park and Campground are reservation only.
A large group campsite ($80/night by reservation only) and an enclosed, lodge day use is also available ($100/day by reservation only).
Fees:
Electric Sites: $30.00/ night per site
Reservation Fee: $10.00/site non-refundable
Firewood: $5.00/bundle
Dump Station: Included ($20.00 fee for non-registered campers)
Day Use Fee Only: $5/day at entrance or with an annual Marinette County sticker
Opens: May 1
Closes: November 30
Check-In Time: 3:00 pm
Check-Out Time: 12:00 pm
Address
Morgan Park
19882 Timms Lake Road
Niagara, WI 54151
Last time I did a review of this campground, I never went inside the really new shower building to take any pictures.
This beautiful building has an atrium-like interior walkway with big sunny windows that travel around three sides of the building.
It's a great place to get out of the weather and come hide out in case of a storm if you are tent camping.
Everything is very well kept and clean.
Each shower room is individually located with its own locking door.
The changing areas are tiled with dry floors, a sit-down bench, and hooks on the walls.
There is also a handy laundry area which is pretty much unheard of in County or State Parks in Wisconsin.
Everything is neat and clean and well kept... AND HEATED!!! Remember, this is the middle of November and this building is still accessible with hot showers and a laundry area and flush toilets.
The main water within the campground over to the spigots and dump station had already been turned off. We were so glad to see that the water in the shower building was still available. Now we could stay longer with our limited amount of onboard water and take showers down at the building.
All in all, we recommend this very nice County campground of only 45 sites. Many of the sites are big rig friendly, and it is located in a beautiful quiet part of the Northwoods of Wisconsin.
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Now that the review part is done, I will go back to our own camping for the week.
This is the first time that we are actually taking the enclosed cargo trailer for it's intended purpose, other than just our test ride. We watched it while we traveled through our backup camera while going down the road. Everything looks wonderful and it doesn't wobble or sway. It tracks very nicely behind our motorhome. Proper hitch height is important to make sure that it does not put too much weight on the tongue.
We got up to our chosen site, number 44. We were so pleased to see the beautiful warm weather for the middle of November. It was actually so nice that we opened the windows and let fresh air in. The cargo trailer worked very well to transport our E-bikes as well as our other camping gear.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous as we got set up on our campsite.
The site is level and quiet and tucked down in a little depression area between two hilly spots.
A little while later we realized the cell phone signal was very, very faint. We knew that last time it was tough on our Cellcom phone. This time with our Visible phone through Verizon it was virtually non-existent. Even with Wee-Boost cellular booster, my phone would barely extend to one bar while Steve's phone was absolutely nothing.
Since we were planning on staying four or five days, a quick call down to the folks in the park office in Marinette allowed us to switch campsites up to site number 19. It was located higher on a hill and in a more open space. Our signals improved two to three bars.
Here was our campsite for the week. It's more "open" than we prefer. There were only four other campers in the entire campground. They were deer hunters up for bow season. Gone all day and to bed early at night.
We opened up the cargo trailer door with a little apprehension. We weren't sure how things would be inside after a pretty rough bumpy ride the last 20 miles or so. To our delight, everything was absolutely in place, exactly where we packed it. Yayyyyyy!
Swinging open the wide back door allows us to reach in and grab out the things that we want. We really don't even have to remove the bikes just to bring out the firewood or the propane tank. The bikes are spaced far enough apart that we can reach the items on the shelves.
It was such a beautiful afternoon, we removed the bikes and got geared up to go for a ride around the campground. We wanted to do a little more practice up and down little hills and learning the differences between the gears and the various pedal assist modes.
We finally got up enough guts to head on down towards the beach. It was kind of nice to drive down the big hill to get there but then we had to learn about going up the big hill to get back to the campground. It really wasn't very big, but to me it seemed huge because it was my first time facing a hill!!!
I put it up to pedal assist three and started at the hill. It was amazing! The 63-year-old grandmother can pedal a bike up a hill and not get winded or exhausted. It was almost effortlessly assisting me pedal up to the top. These bikes are just so cool!
We rode around a bit more and then decided to put them away for the evening. It's so convenient to put them right back into the trailer and not have to fold them up or haul them inside the RV. We locked the trailer up securely for the night. Since then, we have ordered a motion detector light with a security alarm. That way if anybody ever fiddles around with the trailer, the alarm goes off long before the bike alarms even detect anything.
As the sun went down, it got chilly really fast. The temps were going to be down in the mid twenties overnight. We were pretty cozy warm with the onboard propane furnace as well as an additional little electric space heater. Our grey and black water holding tanks are also heated for freezing temperatures. The freshwater tank is above the floor within the confines of the RV itself and has no danger of freezing. But we still crack open the cabinet doors so the warm air can circulate underneath the sinks in both the kitchen and the bathroom.
Since we now had a pretty good cellular signal, Steve was able to hook up his unlimited service Visible phone to our Roku stick. We curled up and watched some movies and he popped us some popcorn----
All of the comforts of home!
Our last motorhome had dual pane windows and the cold weather really didn't matter as much for heat loss.
But on this Winnebago, here is something we do to help with the heat loss through the single pane windows is to add this Reflectix insulation. We cut panels that fit snugly to the windows and the rigid material is easy to stick within the frames.
We only put it up at night, and then take it off in the morning to let the sun light in.
One of our favorite things to do camping is to cook a big breakfast part way through the morning. That way it kind of holds us over until an early supper. Steve has perfected the art of being able to do three different items on the two burner stove. He does up a flat griddle of hash browns, some slabs of bacon, and at the very end I cook the scrambled eggs. Because we have an electric hookup we were also able to use the toaster. Everything works well even in the much smaller kitchen of this 25 ft Winnebago View compared to the 38 ft Safari that we used to own.
The day warmed up, just as beautiful as the day before. Perhaps even a little bit warmer! Now it was time to actually explore a little more on our bikes. We were going to really take them out on a REAL road. We got our gear all set up and adjusted our helmets. We adjusted our mirrors on our handlebars. We took along extra gear in case we had troubles. Steve has a little tool kit, we have a pre-charged air pump and patch kit, and of course our cell phones.
We peddled on the main road out of the campground and ventured further around the shore of the lake. We were headed to the waterfalls nearby called Long Slide Falls. It was SO pretty!!!
Here's a video I made that I posted on YouTube:
Steve had come here with the grandkids last year.
I had never been here.
We sat by the shore for a while just enjoying the rushing water. In no time at all this whole area will be covered deep in snow and everything will be frozen over. So it's good to enjoy it while we can.
We returned back to the campground and put on a total of 8 more miles on our bikes. It's good to take these little trips to get used to them. The bikes are able to do between 20 and 30 miles reasonably using the pedal assist mode. Maybe further if you used less assist.
Little princess Binney waits patiently back in the motorhome for us while we are gone bike riding. I know people pull cute little pet carts behind their bicycles. I know she would be absolutely terrified, not want to do it, and not enjoy it in the least. So instead, she curls up in her little bed in the motorhome and waits for us. When we got back then she comes out to perch on her throne and see what we are making for supper.
Even though the weather was warm, the sun was going to be setting soon. Steve started up a campfire to enjoy the evening outdoors.
He pulled out our new Camp Chef oven. We really prefer this over the convection microwave unit inside of the motorhome. We set it up on the table and hooked it up to a portable propane tank. This also has some burners up on the top that can be cooked on with kettles as well as baking in the oven. The evening meal was going to be Cornish pasties. This is a delectable treat from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
We relaxed around the campfire with a few of our adult beverages. The woods were quiet for the night. The hunters nearby all went to bed early. They were going to head out in the pre-dawn hours to get to their hunting blinds somewhere in the woods, out of the park boundaries.
I grew up eating these pasties, and they are a nice way to have a meal all rolled into one crust. There are potatoes, rutabaga's, beef and pork sausage meat. They are baked in a lard crust that is wrapped around the interior contents. In the old days the miners would take these down in the mine with them and heat them up on their lanterns until lunch break. Some people prefer them with gravy over them, some people prefer them with ketchup. We like just a little bit of melted butter. The pasties from Pasty Oven in Florence Wisconsin, just over the border, are our favorite brand. The potatoes are larger slices and tastier than just little teeny bits that are mushy.
We sat outside until we burned the last hunk of firewood. It was time to crawl into bed. The temperatures were dropping and we were going to get cozy and warm in the motorhome. The luxury of having electric hookups meant we also had our electric mattress pad heater. We each had our sides turned on high to crawl into a cozy warm bed. Once we're in and warmed up, then we turn them down for overnight. It is a luxury for sure.
The next morning it was pretty crisp outside but we decided to bake one of Steve's favorite breakfast coffee cakes. While he was busy letting out Binney to do her thing, I was mixing up his treat.
He fired up the oven to preheat and I got the pan all ready inside.
In 40 minutes his breakfast coffee cake was ready. We really like these Krusteaz cinnamon swirl coffee cake mixes. It truly is one of Steve's favorites. The mix is big enough to make coffee cake that lasts for 3 days.
We had a relaxing morning, waiting for the sun to warm up and the temps to increase to go for another bike ride. Steve was happy that we had a decent cellular signal that he could look at his beloved Facebook Marketplace. I was busy knitting on a wool hat. This is the kind of camping I like. Just relaxing in the woods and we don't have to do anything or go anywhere.
We were able to get outside as things warmed up. All of the hunters were gone early in the morning so we had the campground completely to ourselves. Total peace and quiet. Looking up at the beautiful blue sky and all of these birds and trees. What a great way to spend the day.
Even though the leaves are down, the trees look pretty tall and majestic against this totally blue sky. There is nothing altered or filtered on this photo. This is exactly the way it looked when I snapped the picture.
Relaxing in our chairs, while settled in the campsite. Watching a few little rustles sounds here and there of chipmunks or squirrels. They are busy gathering up their stash for the winter. As long as they stay away from our motorhome, we are okay. We have added an extra mesh layer to the air intake as well as the cab filter area on our motorhome. Both are known depositories for sassy little chipmunks and squirrels with their stash of acorns!
After lunch, we decided to go for another ride. This is what the trailer looks like when we take the bikes out. The grandkids are excited to think about next summer. They plan to spread out a queen size air mattress in here and make it into their bunkhouse! Lol! I think they will fit.
We took one more ride but then the wind started up. It was getting windier and some clouds were blowing in. We sat out by the campfire for a while but we didn't burn any more wood. That's not a good thing to do with dry leaves and woods with higher winds on their way.
We curled up back inside the motorhome and watched some movies for the evening. I did some sewing on my fold out table inside.
The next 2 days were a little chillier and a tad bit too cold to do much bike riding. We did a little bit but we really didn't venture out too far.
At least we are comfortable now with using the bikes and understanding more about the gears and the pedal assist modes. They will be a great addition to our vacationing this winter down south. This way we don't have to tow along a vehicle, but we can still get out and about.
By Friday morning things clouded up in the winds were really picking up. It was time to head on back home anyhow, because Saturday morning was opening season for the hunting gun deer season in Wisconsin! That's the last time anyone wants to be out in the woods.
We made it through the Celebration of Life for Steve's Dad, our beloved patriarch of the Pfundtner clan.
He was our last living parent, now laid to rest. Family is healing and sharing the love and support from many friends and neighbors.
We have been keeping ourselves "busy" and finding things to occupy our creative selves.
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Since we bought the two Lectric E-bikes (read my last blog- Our Lectric XP 3.0 E-bikes Have Arrived ) we have been tossing around some ideas on transporting them.
Most people transport E-bikes on a rack hanging off the back of their RV. But then they are subjected to the harsh elements and possibly theft.
Some people fold the bikes up and carry them in large heavy totes inside of their RV. But the bikes are 65 lb or so. The bikes would always be in the way as we try to walk up and down the aisle in our motorhome.
Soooooo ----- you know that Steveio! He started perusing the Facebook Marketplace and ran across a super duper bargain!!!
(doesn't he always?)
He found a really nice, lightweight, well-built enclosed cargo trailer. It's only 4 ft wide by 6 ft long, and has an extra long tongue to the front hitch. More on that later.
A young doctor had used it to move here from Colorado and it was parked nice and neat and clean in his nice and neat and clean garage. Just what we were looking for...
We checked it all out and made a deal. Then we went back the next morning after we robbed the bank for some cash. Lol! Actually, it's because we can only take out so much from an ATM in a 24-hour period.
Now, this is why we needed a long tongue. Most cargo trailers have an aerodynamic pointed front end called a "V-nose". They are great for added storage area and I am sure they pull much better behind things like pickup trucks to help cut the wind.
That's not so important behind the big rectangular box of our motorhome though.
We needed the type that's called a "bullnose" with a flatter front, with a longer tongue. We had checked with a few places about special ordering one, and it was going to be a little bit too pricey for our tastes. Steve found this used one that suited the unique need that we have.
See that back slide out? Inside is the top pillow area half of our queen size bed. The slide extends out the back, and the middle of the bed folds down or opens up like a taco.
If we had bikes on a rack, we would have to have the type of rack that would swing away or swing down just to be able to put out the bed at night to park and sleep somewhere. Or we would have to completely unload the bikes?? By having an enclosed trailer with a long tongue we could still safely extend the bed and still have the trailer securely locked on the hitch. This is especially handy when we are traveling through and just stopping for the night in a parking lot at a Walmart, Cracker Barrel, or a truck stop.
So we got the trailer home and it was time to get to work on it.
Steve put on new tires, lubed the hubs and repaired a bad ground on the lights.
If you want to watch this YouTube, I took time filming section by section of what we did and how we did it:
Another benefit, besides hauling our E-bikes, is to haul some of our additional camping gear. Our Winnebago View has a very tight margin of what is called CCC (cargo carrying capacity). We could transfer some of our heaviest items now into the trailer with the bikes. Added to that, we can haul along some extra things that we have been doing without since downsizing from the larger motorhome.
This was going to be a win-win! The Winnebago is able to tow up to 5,000 lb. This trailer is pretty lightweight, about the 650 lb range.
So we will be easily able to load up some things and still maneuver it around by hand on a campsite. Or manually move it around in a parking lot if we do decide to unhook it during our travels.
It was very easy to unhook from the back of our Saturn and roll right into our garage.
The axle is rated to carry 3,500 lb. We are probably only going to carry between 800 and 1,000 lb at any time.
The inside was nice and clean, but it was just plain old plywood. There were some rub marks on the walls but the wood was in really good shape. Before we built any type of hanging racks or shelves or anything, I felt it was a good idea to give it a couple coats of some thick heavy porch and floor enamel paint.
If you have read my blog for any amount of time, you would recall that Steve does NOT like painting. This is my project!
I chose some nice light gray paint, the same color as our steps. That way I can use the leftover to touch up our front porch next spring. It kind of looks blue in this picture but it really is gray.
It is November, and it was a little cool in the garage, so Steve set up the Mr. Buddy heater to help keep me warm. I gave it two really good coats and let it dry thoroughly in between each one.
Once that was done, Steve started working on hanging some sturdy angle iron with pre-drilled little holes already running the length of every piece. We did a lot of measuring and double checking before we did any cutting or screwing into the frame.
We did some measuring and figuring and decided to install some of these large utility hooks. We covered them with tubes of foam pipe insulation to pad them and keep them from rattling around or ruining the finish on our new lawn chairs. Then we added D rings and bungees to the walls underneath the chairs to keep them secure.
If you watch on the video, you will see that we did a little boo boo on the hanging length and then decided to go back to the drawing board and shorten up the hooks. Then we reinstalled them and it was a much better fit for the bikes standing up underneath the chairs.
Now it was time for some shelves. I had come up with a little idea of how to secure the fronts of the bikes in a gentle non-scratching way, but yet keep them from flopping around or tipping over.
So first we used a cardboard template to make the exact shape of the interior nose of the trailer. I love templates! Steve doesn't.
LOL!
It worked very well.
Yup, that worked good... Now to implement my idea!
Again, using my cardboard template, I used a hunk of this foam pipe insulation and made a U-shaped cut into my cardboard. Then I snugged it up tight around the front stem of the bike, just above the fork for the front tire. Steve had to move our headlight brackets up to a better position and this way the bikes can snug right into their little u-shaped holding "stall", just like a horse. No scratching of the paint.
So we transferred the U-shapes onto the lower wooden shelf. Steve cut them out with the jigsaw and now it was time for me to paint again. I gave both shelves double coats and we were just about done for the day. We would let them dry overnight and get back to it the next day.
And here it is, the final edge of the lower shelf. The shelf has a large piece of angle iron running the entire width across the trailer, bolted just ahead of where the u-shaped "stalls" are. The shelves can carry a lot of weight, and also let the bikes nudge right into their spaces. The foam pipe insulation is glued into place with construction adhesive.
We got both shelves bolted up into place securely on the walls and into the steel framework of the trailer. Steve used a lot of self-tapper screws to anchor everything into place. Now it was time to move some of the heavy items out of the motorhome storage compartments and put them into the trailer.
The top shelf has my Instapot pressure cooker and air fryer unit, our Blackstone flat top griddle, and Steve's electric chainsaw and charger.
The middle shelf has our Camp Chef oven, which weighs about 35 lb. Also Steve's Fire Genie pellet fire pit, and some totes full of our bicycle gear and accessories.
We bought a heavy secure cargo net that's used for the back of a pickup truck or an SUV from O'Reilly's. We securely hooked that up to the brackets. After this picture was taken Steve decided to reverse that piece of angle iron and make it aim upwards as an extra lip edge to the shelf.
Now, on the back side of the swinging door of the cargo trailer we added some taller deep hooks. These carry our helmets, our extra bungee cords, and the blue panier bags that go on the sides of my bike.
We rearranged things a couple times and got it all organized the way that we wanted it. Then it was time to wheel the bikes up and put them right in. They snugged perfectly into place at the front stem. Then the rear tires are securely double bungee'd down to D rings that are mounted into the floor.
On the bottom level underneath the shelves we have room maybe for some potential additional batteries and maybe add solar panels to the roof of the trailer. We are not sure yet. Then we can charge the bikes and have extra lights right inside of the trailer.
We also tossed in our extra quiet Champion dual fuel generator. It runs on either gasoline or propane. This one is quieter than the built-in propane Onan on the motorhome itself. We added a tote with some more bicycle gear and some small 1 lb cylinder propane tanks. It feels nice to not have them on board inside of the motorhome basement compartments.
Steve measured and bought the right drop hitch so the trailer travels level and tracks correctly.
All set!
The next thing we did after everything was tied down, was to set my GoPro camera mounted onto one of the hooks of the inside back door. We turned on the interior light and took it for a ride over some of the bumpiest roads in town. We went over three sets of railroad tracks, took a couple sharp corners, and hauled it back into the yard.
NOTHING MOVED AT ALL!
After we finished this all up, we looked at the calendar. It was November 12th, almost halfway through the month. Usually in Wisconsin we could be knee-deep in snow this time of year. But instead, we looked at what the weatherman was saying. He said we were going to have some warm days up into the 60° range! And some cold nights down in the '30s or '20s. But we could handle that. The motorhome was already winterized. Steve de-winterized quick as a wink and I tossed in a bunch of stuff. We were going to go up to a campground that we know is open until the end of November.
It was a great time to try out our trailer, and get to ride our E-bikes around to get more used to them.
My next blog will be about a campground review
and
our week of unusually warm November camping in Wisconsin.
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