June 11 Wisconsin Dells

We woke up in Green Bay to some bird whistling nicely.  Today (12th) a bird was whistling-maybe the same kind-here in Wisc. Dells.  It was raining when we left G.B. and rained most of the 3+ hours drive, including 2 of those torrential downpours where the wipers can't keep up.  We drove through Kaukauna and I wondered if that's where those little containers of cheese are made.  There were Golden Corrals in Appleton and Oshkosh.  (I was asst mgr at one in Ks. and 2 of our kids worked for me there).  We saw a yellow VW bug that looked like a Packers helmet-G on the side and big grill like the helmet.  As we drove through a small town we saw the first peonies we've seen-white, light pink and dark pink.  I remember how we always hoped they'd bloom in time for Memorial Day in Sioux City. 
    Once we left those 2 cities we drove in farmland the rest of the 130 miles.  Huge dairy barns and others.  Then we were on the worst highway we've driven on and it was 4 lanes.  For many miles our bodies were actually bouncing.  Everything in the camper survived intact though.
    We got into Wisc. Dells and what a tourist place!  Blocks of tourist shops, countless motels and hotels and resorts and unbelievable amount of stuff to do.  If you want someplace to spend lots of money with kids, this would be the place to come for several days.  America's largest indoor/outdoor combo waterpark has 49 slides, 2 wave pools, 2 endless rivers, 18 hole mini golf, arcades, shopping, golf), wld's largest waterpark and 18 others!  Stock cars, magic shows, zip line to be done soon, comedy shows, country music shows, deer petting zoo, horse rides, haunted house, aquarium.  One place called Top Secret, which is supposed to be the White House, landed in Wisc Dells, upside down.  None of the ads say what it is about, though.  Huge, strange looking building.
    One resort is called Mt. Olympus.  300 room hotel with Roman and Greek themed rooms and countless things to do-probably 1-1/2 to 2 blocks long.  The big white mansion in our pictures is owned by the owners of this resort.
    The MooseJaw brewery is a huge building and has 3 parking lots.  We haven't been there yet, but took pics for our friend who loves moose.  It's 7:50 A.M. Sat. and the 2nd freight train of the morning just went by.  We've decided KOA campgrounds are required to build near train tracks!  We've stayed in 3 or 4 of their parks and had trains right next to each one.  Tom said he's going to start asking what the noise index of a park is before we book!
    A company here owns the largest fleet of Ducks-WWII amphibious vehicles in the world.  Since we have been on so many boat trips we weren't going to go on them, but campground gave us 1 free ticket, so we did and really enjoyed it.  Ours was named Old Glory.  We went in manmade Lake Delton, on the highway, through neat subdivisions, through the woods and on the river, seeing rock formations from millions of yrs ago-similar to the Pictured Rocks we saw in Mich.  There were a lot of swallows around them and the guide said they migrate from So. America every summer.  Tom asked how they repair the ducks since they haven't been built since 1946 and the guide said they buy some just for parts (what he figured)  and they have also been able to use parts from deuce and a half Army trucks like Tom has.  We passed a graveyard of ducks and trucks that have been parted out.  As soon as we reached the lake he went real fast down a hill into the water.  It was interesting to see how often he had to change the wheels etc, according to where he was driving.  He said when we left Europe after the war, many were sunk because it would have been too expensive to ship them back to America.  They cost $10,000 ea to build then.
    Last night we went to a country music show that included dinner.  Bill Anderson from Nashville and other legends has a show today (Sat.) but it was all sold out.  We really enjoyed this 2 hour one though, with 6 band members who also all sang and 2 vocalists.  One did only Patsy Cline songs.  Rocky Top and Orange Blossom Special were big favorites.  We sat next to a group from Felton, Mo. who said a Chrysler plant just closed there.  Thousands of employees and a million sq ft. plant now empty.  One is 58 and had worked there 41 years, so he's just taking some time off.  The older couple who own the barn where the show is are from outside St. Louis.  They come up here every summer to do this and had a beautiful home built 7 yrs ago to replace the 100 yr old farmhouse.  It is so nice, right there next to the barn.  She said they get 2 Springs, 2 Falls, cold winter, but not much snow down there, and don't have all the snow up here.
    94 degrees and humid by mid afternoon.  There was a short thunder storm while we ate in the barn, but the day was much nicer than we thought it might be.

June 10 Green Bay pictures

Bart Starr's home in the 1950's

1277 Hickory Hill Drive-Campbell's home

Mike Jerry, 68 and Roger Jerry, 62.  Their dad built 3 homes in 2 blocks and Roger has lived in one for many years

Annie Jackson grade school where

the Campbell boys went

June 10 Green Bay

Today we drove from the coast of Lake Superior to Green Bay on Lake Michigan.  Windy all night, and white caps on the lake.  We drove about 35 miles through thick forest, sometimes with the trees forming a canopy over the highway.  Michigan has a lot of forest ORV trails.  We saw a sign that said "Dogsled rides; you drive or ride."  We passed an area called Green Bay that had nice homes and cabins on it.  Some had cute names: Sun of a beach, Trail's end, Moonstruck.  Every road we've been on for the last 2 weeks has firewood stands in people's yards.  They leave a coffee can or something there and paying is by the honor system.  In Menominee we saw a factory names Lloyd's Loom that makes wicker furniture.
    Now we arrive back in Wisconsin.  Huge dairy farms and other farms.  Joe's cheese shop advertises that he's been open since 1918.  Tom lived in Green Bay from 2nd through 6th grade, leaving in 1959.  I flew to Michigan for a weekend when he was stationed there and had a long layover in Gr. Bay.  Friends of the Campbells lived there and Janet picked me up and took me to their home for lunch.  I must have had a long layover.   He was telling me about places and things that he had learned about in history class in grade school.  Green Bay is Wisc's oldest city, established by fur traders and European settlers who were entrepreneurs.  It started with beaver hats in the 1600's and in the early 1900's, someone there invented the first splinterless toilet paper.  (Thank you!)  Today  paper and shipping are the main industries.
    The Packers are 90 years old and are fan-owned.  Gr. Bay is the smallest town to have an NFL team.
    Tom visited the largest railroad museum in America there today.  It even had Gen. Eisenhower's command train from WWII.  Thomas the Train was there and so were a million kids - many fussy and everywhere underfoot.  So it wasn't as enjoyable trying to read the plaques, etc. 
    Then we went by Lambeau Field and his old neighborhood.  Jackson grade school is still in good shape, as is the home they lived in.  Bart Starr lived 2 doors down in a small rambler.  Joe Skibinski rented an apt. in the house next door.  These guys and other Packers would get together at Bart's home and they didn't care if the neighbor kids were around.  They played football with all the boys and Tom used to mow the Starrs' grass.  I always say Bart taught him how to make passes.  He does remember one time when he asked Mr. Starr if he would throw him the football and he said sure and kept assuring Tom that he could be further away than the edge of Bart's yard, and, in fact, could even stand in his yard 2 doors down.  Tom remembers this empty lot down the street from their house, which has an old duplex on it now.  He said if you were too chicken to go off the curb, across the street and up the next curb on your roller skates, you got off the sidewalk onto that empty lot.  He said he knows most of the trees on their street and neighoring ones weren't there and they're now 80' or higher. 
    Roger and Mike Jerry were neighbor kids and their parents and Tom and Gen were friends for many years, but they have both been dead for many years now.  We met the guys for a drink at a restaurant across the street from the stadium and then they and Mike's wife, Karen, for pizza at a place that opened in 1958.  Tom doesn't think they ever ate there.  We had a real nice visit.  It's raining tonight.

June 9 Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore cruise pictures

June 9 Munising, Mich. and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore cruise

    We had only the second night of rain we've had last night and still this morning.  (It appears we may be in rain a couple of days this week).  We drove out of it on the 2+ hours drive to this part of the Upper Peninsula.  On the radio a car dealer in a small town we had gone through said "Don't forget.  We'll take anything in on trade: land, livestock, even guns."

    Munising is a little town on a bay of Lake Superior.  We set up camp in a nice campground.  The back wall of our camper is all windows and they look out onto the lake here.  We've enjoyed that feature on the St. Mary's River this week and several other places.  These kayakers took off from our campsite.  Nice, huh, Dave?   Then we drove through town before the cruise.  No Victorian homes, but old ones, and most were so well kept and many have porches and many had beautiful hanging flower baskets on them, etc.  Some people had their ice fishing shacks sitting in driveways or side lots.  Lots of old buildings in a nice downtown that is several blocks long and deep.  In a shop were 2 cute plaques:  Today was a complete waste of makeup and You can't have everything - you don't have room.
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore cruise was 3 hours and 37 miles roundtrip.  It was so beautiful when we got here and then a big thunderstorm was to hit and the lake was so choppy that they postponed the cruise for an hour.  It was cloudy the whole time until the last 15 minutes.  Captain told us Lk Superior has 2880 miles of shoreline.  Not far out of the harbor we sailed over a shipwreck, but we couldn't see anything.  There are glass bottom shipwreck boat tours, too, but they are short.  The lake waters have made these rock formations and caves.  There were many cave-ins, with huge, huge boulders and small ones piled below where they came from.  The rocks went on for a few miles.  Their colors are the result of cedar root tannins, ore deposits and copper deposits, to name a few.  This lighthouse was built in 1867 and was one of many built on the Great Lakes right after the Civil War in the schoolhouse style.  It hasn't been used for over 100 years.
    Someone had left the fire pit full of partly burned logs and we hoped to have a fire with it tonite, but it has been so windy that we didn't.  That has been the problem lots of evenings when we have been next to the lake or the rivers.  We are watching the sun glitter over the lake right now.  It doesn't get dark until about 10:30 already, up here in the U.P.

    We forgot to put this picture on the blog from Whitefish Point.  Somehow we don't think this ladder scaffolding would pass OSHA or Hanford regs.

June 8 Train ride to Agawa Canyon, Ontario

view from tallest trestle - a power plant

    The canyon is 114 miles north of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.  Today was the first ride of the season, so about 6 cars without their 80 passengers each.  Some summer days there are 800 passengers.  It was a sunshiny, blue sky morning so the pics turned out well.  It turned cloudy all afternoon.  There were 2 neat, high trestles, several pretty lakes and a river and thousands of trees by the tracks.  Of course it was built as a logging train many yrs ago. 
    They said that in the late 1890's the steel mill needed 25 acres of trees a day to make the charcoal to heat the plant.  The bosses decided to buy coal from Va. instead.
    The Canadian National RR has one of the 2 indoor roundhouses (for turning trains around).
    We had 1-1/2 hours in the canyon, so took a 45 minute hike to see 3 waterfalls.  Flies and gnats were terrible.  We declined to climb 372 steps to an overlook, which shows miles.
    Interesting fact for the day:  they have toilets in the restroom in the canyon that are called a Clivus Multrum system.  It looks like a regular one, but it composts the waste, which they use on the flower gardens in the canyon.  The toilets have no negative impact on the environment.
    There was a family across from us and we discovered in the first 5 minutes that she was born in Iowa, too.  We visited a lot all day.  They said their Ontario hotel room has recycling boxes.   The afternoon was long since we had seen everything and the total trip was 10-1/2 hours, minus the 1-1/2 hrs off it.
     Today I realized I made 2 mistakes in last night's entry.  I forgot we are going one more place in Michigan tomorrow.  It will be our 5th boat ride.  Then, I said I had never heard of sugar maples.  Duh, those are the trees used for making maple syrup.  Hey, I'm on vacation, so guess my brain isn't in full gear or something!

June 7 Scenic byway to Whitefish Point, Mich. pictures

model of a sunken ship on Lake Superior and some of things that were brought up from it

St. Iroquois lighthouse

Lower Falls

Whitefish Point Lighthouse.  To the right of here we walked up 48 steps to be above the dunes.  Mich. has 275,000 acres of dunes-the largest freshwtr dune area in wld. .Edmund Fitzgerald-729' long steel hauling ship made of steel

The park phenomenon pics didn't copy to the computer!  We couldn't believe there was a brewery in the state park!  It has a restaurant, pub and meeting room.  I had fruits of the forest pie and Tom had pecan, though there weren't any pecan trees here!  I can't get this to do much of what I want it to do tonight.  The 3rd picture is of some of the dunes.  The upper falls pics didn't copy either and the brown in the water of the lower ones didn't show up well.  It really is the color of root beer.