The drive from the UP to Rhinelander, WI was beautiful –
lots of woods, country roads, and little traffic. The RV park in Rhinelander
was very natural and wooded but sites were mostly very close together and many
were quite unlevel. They gave us a great site – level and easy to back into.
The mosquitoes were awful and it was pretty hot so spent most of the time
inside with the A/C on.
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| Pretty campground in Rhinelander, WI |
We never unhooked from the RV, so we were on our way in
short order the next morning and on our way to Michigan to see one of Rich’s
former Navy buddies.
I was surprised to see that there are mountains in Wisconsin
– for some reason, I’ve always thought of it as being pretty flat with a few
rolling hills. Near Nekoosa we saw an Ocean Spray cranberry receiving facility
– didn’t know they grew cranberries in Wisconsin, either. Near Tomah we drove
through some beautiful rolling hill country. Also, a sign on a store: Pawn,
Liquor, and Gun Shop. Hmm. One stop shopping???
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| Pretty drive in Northern Wisconsin with mountains! |
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| Nice farm |
We passed a lot of dairy farms, some dairies, and some
cheese stores, but could never manage to get stopped in time. I wanted to give
Wisconsin cheese another try, but fate was against me.
There were lots of very small, unincorporated towns (one
giving a population of 237), and these usually had a volunteer fire department,
a tavern, and a gas station, but not much more.
Our "partially shaded" campsite at Blackhawk
We arrived at Blackhawk Campground and see that the park is
actually three loops – what looks like the original campground with
electric and lots of big trees, then a new section with electric hookups and 8’
trees, and a non-electric loop that we didn’t even drive through. It’s going to be a while before you get any shade
from those little trees. The good thing is there were new restrooms that were
nice and clean (and close to our site).
There are all sorts of birds – about 270 different species along the
Mississippi - and there are birding trails all over the place. I’ve seen red-winged blackbirds, red tailed
hawks, and some kind of falcon. We have to come back here when it’s a little
cooler. The highs have been in the 90’s since we got to Wisconsin.
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| One of the gondola cars with two piggy-back cargo containers |
We drove south on Highway 35, which follows the Mississippi
River for a long way as does the train track. There is a lot of train traffic
here and many times they had piggy-back cargo containers piled two-high in
gondola cars.
We also saw tugs pushing barges down the river – up to 15
barges at a time (three wide and 5 long). They have to break the barges in half
to get them through the 29 dams that are on the upper Mississippi. One “tow”
(15 barges) can haul the same amount of grain as 870 tractor trailers or 225
railroad hopper cars!
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| A newly repaired barge and a fellow in a fishing boat - makes the barge look huge! |
While I was walking Dickens in the campground and noticed a
lot of small holes (about 1-2” in diameter) in the ground with what looked like
bleached-out crab legs next to them. I asked a ranger about it and, although he
hadn’t seen them before, was able to tell me that they were turtle eggs that
had been dug up overnight by the raccoons. Poor turtles.
We’re in this part of Wisconsin
so we could see a former shipmate of Rich’s. He and Jerry Strok were in the
Navy on the Chilton together back in 1965-67. Jerry came out to the campground
after we got settled and we had a great chat, catching up on the past 45 years
and getting to know each other all over again.
The next day we met up with Jerry
and his friend Harry around noon to take a ride on the Mississippi in Jerry’s
boat. We were lucky – it was just the four of us – sometimes he has as many as
15 on the boat. They had done some work
on the boat and wanted to be sure it was running right (I think they brought us
along to help row). We started out on the Black River, where Jerry and his wife
live, then headed to the Mississippi and north to the Lock and Dam #7, which is
just north of I-90 in La Crescent, Minnesota, where we headed back.
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| Nice house on the Minnesota side of the Mississippi |
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| The water in the Black River was high and we only had about three inches of clearance when we went under it! |
One of the strangest things we
saw were lots of structures built on floats – from what looked like aluminum
sheds to small cottages and everything conceivable in between. The
powers-that-be have been trying to get rid of them, but the float fans keep winning.
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| Some of the float houses on the Black River |
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| A real Green Bay fan's float |
Another strange thing to this
Floridian – a sign on a store “we buy furs, hides, and ginseng”.
Later that evening, we went to
dinner with Jerry and Mary at an upscale Mexican restaurant where we had a
great time and wonderful dinner. We got home around 8:30 that night – poor
Dickens!
The next day we headed out, just
driving around, and found an A&W Drive-In, with car hops and everything!
ended up crossing the I-90 bridge across the Mississippi to – you guessed it –
Lock and Dam #7, where we wandered around for about an hour.
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| Roller dams in the foreground, tainter gates in the rear |
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| Red-winged blackbird |
We headed back to
La Crosse in time to meet Jerry and Mary for lunch, hit the library for some
wireless for my computer, then picked up some groceries, and headed back home
to poor Dickens where we put things away to get ready to start the trip back to
Gainesville. Bummer!
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