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Published: June 23rd 2010
TurkeyTrot
Taken at Rock Cut State Park in Rockport, IL. This little girl was chasing a wild turkey, one of many that wandered through the campground.Well, summer has arrived in Florida, and it's time to to make our escape to the Great Northwest. We began our trip on May 31. We will spend the next 5 months as volunteer campground hosts in various state and county parks. Our schedule is as follows:
June 15 -July 15 Lewis & Clark State Park, Williston, North Dakota
August 1-31 Richard Bong State Recreation Area, Kansasville, Wisconsin
September 1-30 Lake Fairfax County Park, Reston, Virginia
October 1-31 Highland Walk Golf Course at Victoria Bryant State Park, Royston, Georgia
The plan is to head north toward cooler climes, and then turn west toward North Dakota. Along the way we hope to find some sights worth seeing and some golf courses worth playing. We first hit paydirt in Manchester, TN, where we found a nice state park with a beautiful 9 hole course right next door. We then moved on to Chapel Hill, TN, where we found a state park adjacent to an even nicer 18 hole course. We were on a roll. We spent the next 3 days dodging thunderstorms as we made our way through Indiana and Illinois.
On June 6 we reached
Scenic Lunch Stop
We stopped for a lunch break on the edge of Lake Michigan just South of Sheboyban, WI. the Richard Bong SRA in SE Wisconsin, where we will spend the month of August. We met up with Pete & Bette Purdy, camping and golfing buddies we met in Georgia. They are spending the summer at Bong, and will still be here when we get back in August. Pete & Bette showed us around the huge park, introduces us to some of the other volunteers, and took us over to a great golf course right next to the park, where we played 18 holes. That night we went with a group to a neat pub in nearby Burlington, where we had what was billed as the "world's best burger". We had a great time, and I have to agree the burger was great. We are looking forward to our return here in August, and will have a further report on this area then.
We then headed north up the picturesque west coast of Lake Michigan to Two Rivers, WI, where we stayed in a neat little waterfront campground/marina. It's still early in the season up here, so we had the facility pretty much to ourselves. A great place to just relax and enjoy the view.
Before heading
Statue of Liberty
Saw Miss Liberty riding in the back of a pickup truck in Two Rivers, WI. No idea where she was going. west from Two Rivers we made a little side trip to visit Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers and a big part of NFL history. It was named for Curly Lambeau, founder, former player and coach of the Packers. It is the longest continuously-occupied stadium in the NFL. It was built in 1957 for $950,000 and originally seated 32,500 ($29 per seat), but has been expanded over the years to its current capacity of 72,928. The last renovation/addition was in 2003 and added 7,630 seats at a cost of $290,000,000 ($38,000 per new seat or $4,000 per total seat). My, how times have changed. It was fun to walk around the stadium and gift shop and look at some of the memorabilia and pictures of the glory days of the 1960's.
We then made our way west to the quaint little town of Wabasha, MN on the banks of the Mississippi River, where we found a nice campground right in town. The next stop was Fort Ridgley, a Minnesota state park and golf course. This will probably be the last chance to play golf before we reach our final destination, so I ventured out, even though the
Two Rivers Marina & Campground
Jan caught this shot of a Great Blue Heron flying across the docks. Reminded us of home. forecast was for rain. Jan decided to pass because she doesn't like to walk hilly courses, and doesn't much like playing in the rain. Imagine that!
June 11 found us in Turtle River State Park in Northeastern North Dakota. We weren't due in Williston until June 15, it was rainy, and we were tired of driving, so we decided to spend a couple of days reading and vegging out here. On June 13 we saddled up for the final run across North Dakota to Williston. We stopped in Minot to stock up on groceries. Minot is the largest town we'll see for a while. With a population of around 35,000, it's a pretty big town by North Dakota standards. By late afternoon we arrived at Lewis & Clark State Park, our home for the next month. It's been a good trip, but we will enjoy staying put for a while.
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