July 20th: Warren Dunes State Park and Chicago Yacht Club

We explored the shoreline of Warren Dunes in the morning before heading over to Gint's resort. My afternoon was spent in Chicago at the yacht club getting ready for the Mac Race. Sandy has decided to head for home for a day and will meet me in Mackinac. Oh yeah, the head is broken in the boat and there will be ten of us along for the race. OMG!

July 19th: Dunes, Dunes and more Dunes

The goal for the day was to get to Warren Dunes State Park on the Lake Michigan shoreline in southwest Michigan. It's only a couple of miles away from Union Pier, MI which is where my skipper for the Chicago Mackinac Race lives. I would be hitching a ride in to Chicago with him on Friday afternoon prior to the race. But first we had to get there and getting there required another transit of Chicago with the RV. Surprisingly, once again we made it through Chicago on I-94 without any real drama. Midday and the traffic was flowing pretty well without any significant slowdowns. Once clear of the City we stopped at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore for a looksee. There is no camping in this national park but it does have a nice stretch of beach along with some interesting dunes. Unlike the dunes we are used to such as at Sleeping Bear Dunes, many of these at Indiana Dunes were completely covered with vegetation. However there were some notable exceptions, especially Mount Baldy. Once through the Dunes, we stopped at at my skipper's resort which is a traditional type family lakefront resort with a whole series of cottages. Gint showed us around and filled in some history for us including the fact that it was at this resort that Dwight D Eisenhower was lobbied by the Republican Party to run for President in 1952. Pretty cool.

July 18th: Kettle Morraine State Park

We headed out from the Door County Peninsula to make our way southerly towards the Chicago area in time for the ChiMac sailing race. But on the way there was one last tourist town to hit, Egg Harbor, and then we found the Rusty Tractor Cafe for lunch. Both fun.

Southern Wisconsin has been seriously dry. Pretty sure they hadn't seen any rain since we were here early in the month.

When we got to Kettle Morraine State Park we were greeted by a couple of Sand Hill Cranes at the entrance.

On yet another seriously hot day it was time to hit the beach at their lake. Even Eddie didn't seem to mind. While we were there some dark clouds started to form up but since it had been so long without rain I don't think anyone seriously expected much. But it did start to sprinkle. And then it rained. And then it rained some more. All night long. The area got about 2 inches or so of badly needed rain.

July 17th: At last, a road worth driving

The dirty Lunch clothes hamper was overflowing next to where Eddie sleeps.  He didn't seem to mind but it was time.  Google said there was a laundromat in Sister Bay a couple miles to our north.  Drove through town, didn't see it, drove through the other direction and there it was, in the rear of an auto repair garage.  Yup, combination auto repair/laundromat. Clothes done, it was looking a little like rain so we drove up the peninsula to check our Ellison Bay, Gills Rock and Northport.  On the way to Northport was a stretch where the roadbuilders must have gotten bored with building another straight road.  There didn't seem to be any geographical reason for it, but I wasn't complaining.  Lunch at the Viking Grill in Ellsion Bay included "necker-nocker bean soup".  Nope, the waitress couldn't explain it either, but it was loaded with bacon and veggies and was good.

Gills Rock, where the teevee antennas are almost as big as the houses:

Yeah, baby:

 Even Ho's have to have something to do with their spare time:

 Apparently even Klenke's couldn't fix this old Chevy pickup:

When's the last time the gas station attendant cleaned your windshield for you?  Come to Ellison Bay, WI.  Shoot, he probably checked the oil too.

This evening we went to a traditional Door County Fish Boil at Pelletier's in Fish Creek. A big boiling vat of salt water with potatoes for 30 minutes, onions for 15, and whitefish steaks for 10 minutes, finishes off with a "boil over" induced by fuel oil in the fire.  Spectacular and good eating too.  With cherry pie and a Fat Tire draft beer, life was good.

After dinner the three of us took a stroll through town and I can sense that there is a real problem developing.  While Eddie is fantastic at attracting chicks, the chicks are so busy paying attention to him that they don't even realize that I am around.  Bummer.



July 16th: helping the local economy

We climbed to the top of Eagle Tower for the view and made the rounds of the local tourist villages in Door County: Ephraim, Sister Bay, Bailey’s Harbor and Fish Creek.  Stopped by the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse in the park and then it was back to the campground for more swimming, tanning opportunities, and watching those who rented daysailors and kayaks sail and paddle downwind in a nice breeze out of the bay and then not be able to go back upwind to return.  The staff in their inflatable were kept busy going out and retrieving boats.

Eddie, meet the Thing:

Do you suppose the groundskeeper gets hazardous duty pay for cutting the roof?

July 15th: I'll get you, my little pretty

We had a fairly uneventful trip up the Wisconsin shoreline from Harrington Beach SP to Peninsula SP on the outskirts of Fish Creek.  Well, unless you consider that stretch where all I could get on the radio were country music and then the last 20 miles where I followed a sucession of locals who apparently were taught that you must drive 10 MPH under the speed limit.  My frustration was rising by the time we got here.  Fortunately our campsite is really close to Nicolet Bay which is the swimming beach for the park.  The water was incredibly warm and it was a nice sunny afternoon, very nice.

We'd been talking about getting some sort of a rack or basket for one of our bikes for Eddie to ride in when we go for a ride so he doesn't have to stay in the RV.  We found one today at WalMart so decided to give it a try. Here's a pic of Eddie and Sandy going for a ride.



Disclaimer: The above picture is not intended to be a representztion of Sandy.  Everyone knows she doesn't wear hats like that.  There, do you think that will work to restore my place in our relationship?  :)

Cool mailboxes near Harrington Beach :

Sturgeon Bay, WI, and the public art is, well, sturgeons: