End to Summer

We are still at our summer camp site in a smaller campground called Rainbows End.  Which is just out side of Reedsville Wisconsin.     Sadly, Our summer stay here is almost over. Now that the weather is cooling, it is sure feels more like fall everyday. We always head back to our winter home late September.

But it sure seems like the summer just flew by this year. We spent time with family, friends, our children and grandchildren. 

Jerry helpped out at the campground building picnic tables and he also mowed down the big field.

And as we down sized this season, Nancy and her two daughters Lynn and Laurie had a rummage sale to get rid of all the extra items.

Fred and Rita, our good friends and card buddies have left Rainbows End for good this year. They sold their rig and bought a condo a few miles away. We plan on staying in touch, but we will miss our weekly card parties. 

Trip to Upper Wisconsin Part Two

It is Friday, the start of the second part of our trip and it is going to be a beautiful day, no rain in sight, just light puffy clouds but otherwise blue skies. 

By 10:30, everyone is pack up and ready to travel to our next campground in Chippewa Falls. It is only about 100 miles down the road. Our two rig caravan heads out. We arrived at O'Neal Creek Campground by one in the afternoon.

O'Neal Creek is quite a large campground. Our site numbers were in the four hundreds. The sites are pull thru, long but very narrow with only water and electric. Now, getting onto the road that lead to our site was a bit tricky, the turns are very tight. So we were instructed to make loops, first we looped around the playground, then we across the main entrance road, then had to take the far loop through the dump station and then again we had across the main entrance road, then a slight left then right and we were finally on the road to our camp sites.

 Jerry relaxes at O'Neal Creek campground
while we waited for Jim and Mary to get their directv dish aligned. Soon we will be heading out to Autumn Harvest Winery. While at the winery we tasted their wines.
Many are made with apple.

A few bottles of wine and a peck of apples later  and we were on the road again with just enough time left this afternoon that we could take the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewery tour. 

Upon arriving at the brewery we each received four tickets for free 5oz beer samples.  Jerry got to try a lot more samples as Nancy doesn't drink beer. While we waited for our tour to start  Mary and Nancy checked out the souvenirs. Then they went to join Jim and Jerry who were relaxing by the fireplace, sipping their first sample of beer.

 Finally it was time for our tour. Our guide gathered our group at the rear door and lead us out of the building. We crossed the river by way of a walking bridge. On the other side of the river stood the brewery and warehouse buildings. Some were the original.  The tour was very interesting. After the tour, it was back to the tasting area where Jerry, Jim and Mary sampled more beers. Nancy wandered through the store again looking for a key chain to purchase as a souvenir.

Then back to the camp ground to relax for the night.

Saturday morning after breakfast we headed over to the town of Eau Claire, where the Paul Bunyan Logging Camp and Museum are located. Inside the museum are artifacts and also displays of the myth of Paul Bunyan and Babe his blue ox.

Out the back of the museum is the entrance to the logging camp its self.
This large statue stands proudly along the path leading to the first logging camp build. We wandered through the building. Each of us wondering what it would be like to live in a log camp. Jerry imagined being the blacksmith in those times.
It sure seemed like a very hard life.

The building are filled with many artifacts from logging camps around the area. Some dated as far back as 1800.

A Truck Show
Jerry spotted a truck show on the way to the logging museum it is right in Eau Claire.

  We stopped to look at the trucks before going for lunch.
The show had quite a few Semi tractors with trailers and other large trucks. All with great paint jobs like the one on the truck in the picture.
After the truck show we stopped at a nice Italian restaurant for lunch.
Relaxing back at the campground. 
We enjoyed a late supper of grilled chicken then played a game stick rummy with Jim and Mary before turning in for the night.
Tomorrow we head back to Rainbows End our summer campground

 

Trip to Upper Wisconsin

 Early morning rain didn't stop us. Although we find it, much harder to load the Escape onto the dolly when the ramps are wet. Took Nancy three tries to get it to go up the ramp and stop on the platform. But finally we got the Escape loaded and secured to the dolly.

 We headed out on Wednesday morning right after the rain. And with in a few hours we met up with Nancy's brother Jim and his wife Mary in the town of Antigo. From there we planned to travel farther north. Our destination is Hayward for a few days  to see the attractions in the area.  The second part of our trip we will traveling on to Chippewa Falls for some of the same.

Shortly after getting on hwy 8,  our two rig caravan stop at the wayside. Which made our three little chihuahua's very happy.

We had a bite to eat before heading back on the road.
Northward bound again, it was right around the town of Prentise that Nancy noticed that the trees are starting to turn. There are swatches of bright reds and oranges peaking out from their foliage. 

Nancy just loves the colors of fall.  But is sad to think what these early colors mean, soon  summer will be over and we will head south to our winter home.  Don't get us wrong, we love our winter home, our friends there and all that Florida has to offer, but we will be leaving our families behind once again.

Sorry back to the subject at hand. We have just pulled into our first campground for this trip. A place called River Road Campground.  Well if you are coming to Hayward Wisconsin for the northwoods camping, fishing and water fun, this is not the place for you. But now if you are like us. Looking for  a place with 50/30 amp service, nice and flat pull through camp sites, great tasting water, friendly owners and close to attractions this is the place to stay. And as Nancy's brother Jim likes his directv it was easy for him to set up their portable dish.

Wednesday afternoon in down town Hayward.

Nancy's brother Jim and his wife Mary

Wedneday afternoon plan is to first stop at the Hook Stone Winery for a little wine tasting.     While in downtown Hayward  we found ourselves clowning around once we spotted this crazy moose chair out front of one of the shops. What a great place for a few snap shots . Then off we went to find Coop's Italian Restaurant for pizza.

Thursday morning we awoke to sunshine, looks like it is going to be a beautiful day for sightseeing. Mary prepares BBQ in the crock pot for tonights meal. 

Musky statue is over 3 storys high

                                       First stop of the day is the Fishing Hall of Fame. Through out the Museum grounds, there are huge cement statues of different species of fish, and off in the distance we see the main statue which is more than 3 storys tall. It is really a building shaped like a huge Musky.

                                                                                                   

Jerry holds his arm up to show the size of the fish statues

Inside the museum itself there are many old lures, roda, reels mounted fish, motors and many great photos of prize winning fish and their fishman. At the base of the large musky statue there is a fishing pool.  Where the guys tried their hand at fishing.

Nancy at entrance to musky statue

And Mary snapped a picture when I stopped on the stairs before entering the Musky Statue.

Funny as I was taking the picture of the guys fish in the pool.

Inside the Musky statue there are three flights of stairs to the mouth.  Wow what a climb.  

But the view makes it well worth all the huffing and puffing that Mary, Jim and Nancy made during the climb. 

 Oh yeah we are all out of shape.

After leaving the fishing museum we stopped at roadside stand to get some sweet corn and tomatoes  for tonights meal. Time to relax a little have some lunch before heading back into Hayward for the lumberjack show this afternoon.

two man saw contest

log rolling contest

log bridge race

2PM and we are heading to the Lumberjack show. We arrive a bit early but the stands sure filled up fast. I took so many pictures it was hard to pick which to load to the blog. The four lumberjacks were very entertaining. They were not what we expected. Everyone always seem to think lumberjack are much older and big burly men. Not so here, young men who have won in the national lumberjack contest. Each has their own specialty of course. It was nice to see them compete against each other.

After the show.

We head back to camp for our even meal of the BBQ and sweet corn.

Good Wine, Good Food, Good Friends

What a nice end to the day!