Travels in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (Back to Bridge)

Phil overlooking Lake Winnebago

August 15, 2010 Early departure (6:45 AM) so we would arrive in Sun Prairie, WI for a Mass being said for Ellie's Dad at Sacred Hearts Church.  After Mass we went to brunch at Market Street Diner in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, with Ellie's sister, Claudia and husband, Bob. The brunch had too many choices, could not try everything, left feeling stuffed!

On the road again headed NE to High Cliffs State Park, to meet up with friends, Mike & Sue, that we knew when we all lived near Marquette, MI. in 1972-1974.  Mike & Sue are Camp Hosts at High Cliffs State Park for two months, found this out on Facebook, small world. We had a spot next to them, it was like Mutt & Jeff, our 22' RV and their 36' RV.  Mike and Sue are "Full Time" RV'ers, so that explains the 36' Class A motorhome. We stayed at High Cliff two days and played a lot of Bridge (afternoon and evening). We have not played bridge for about 26 years, thus we forgot, err I should say I forgot how to play, not that I knew that much 26 years ago.  But we got back in the groove and had a good time playing till the late hours of the night.

Mike, Sue, Phil & Ellie

Once again we had lessons to learn!!!!  No. 1:  the coffee pot AGAIN!  Ted gave us a new coffee maker with a metal carafe.  Really great, don't have to worry about breaking a glass pot and it keeps the coffee hot for 6 hours.  Only, we forgot to put the cover on the pot so again, coffee spilling onto the counter.  We are getting good at wiping up spilled coffee.  Monday Mike & Sue gave us a tour of the park.   "From 1895 to 1956, a limestone quarry and kilns to extract the lime from the stone were operated here." http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/parks/specific/highcliff/history.html


We got back to our campsites eager to play Bridge, but couldn't find our RV's keys.  We knew Ellie's keys were in the RV.  We looked all over the car we all traveled in for our tour around the park.  We retraced our steps, drove around the park again.  Ellie climbed all the way up the observation tower.     We were about to call a locksmith when we found the keys.  They had fallen in the pocket of the seatbelt in the back seat.  Thank you, God!  So grateful to find the keys.  So LESSON NO. 2:  both of us should carry our keys.  Whew, so could play Bridge again!  That evening we went to The Big Shanghai Buffet in Menasha, Wisconsin and, of course ate and ate.  Total bill for the 4 of us was $37.56 (pre tip).

On Sunday a couple stopped by our site and asked to see our Roadtrek.  We are happy to be ambassadors for Roadtrek.

On Tuesday, August 17th, we headed to Marquette, Michigan (206 miles) arriving about 4:30 (eastern time zone).  We spent 2 days with Rick and Mary Kaye, our former neighbors.  They look young, must be that northern weather.  Yes, our old house is still there, but it is not pink any more.  A big change is the train tracks that ran behind our home are gone.  I had to take pictures to show our kids.  When we lived there one day a train engineer appeared at our door with 4 mischievous kids, Gene, Corrina and the two neighbor kids.  They had put a pop can on the tracks.  The train man stopped the train and came to inform me what they did, impressing on the kids that the can could derail the train.  I told our kids to sit on the footstool till their Dad came on.  We don't remember what Phil told them when he got home but it is a reminiscing topic whenever Gene & Corrina are together.  Now the area is being prepped for an "off road trail." The two evenings with Rick and Mary Kaye we played bridge till the late hours of the night and were soundly crushed by them.  My ego was at a low tide, as were my eyes as it was late.  Ellie and I need to play more.  Rick and Mary Kaye took us for a ride around Marquette to see the changes since we lived there, had lunch, ice cream at Jilbert's Dairy.  Before we departed Thursday we bought some Pasties at Lawrys Pasty Shop.  This is a must stop if you ever get to Marquette, Michigan.http://www.lawryspasties.com     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasty

On the way out of town, alongside Lake Superior, we saw another Roadtrek.  We pulled over and had a nice visit with a couple from Ottawa, Canada.  We are eager to learn from others' experiences.  They had been on the road for 4 weeks.  They traveled from Vancouver to Newfoundland, Canada.  Oh yea, they also had a Newfoundland dog.  They have traveled with their RT for 8 years.


We stayed at Koehler-Andrea State Park on Thursday night.  The moon was full.  We enjoyed walking on the beautiful sandy beach.  On our way home on Friday we stopped at Ellie's sister, Bev and her husband, Tom's home near Milwaukee.  We had a great visit.  Glad to hear about their trip to Europe and family.  We got home about 4:45 pm,  in time to get the mail from the Post Office.  Another successful trip, a bit shorter than the first one, only 843 miles.

Thus far we have been averaging 20.941 MPG and have put on a total of 2309 miles.