Month: August 2024

Monday, August 26, 2024

On Saturday, August 17, we said goodbye to Antigo, WI and began making our way south.  We drove through Green Bay and found our way to Door County.  A number of years ago Anne’s mother told us we needed to visit Door County and since then several friends have recommended a visit.  Door County is a small peninsula on the east coast of Wisconsin.  Some people call it the “Wisconsin Thumb”. To the west of the Thumb are the waters of Green Bay and to the east is Lake Michigan.  The Thumb is 75 miles long.  There are many restaurants of all types, a lot of busy, touristy, communities, and also some very beautiful and tranquil areas.  Our first stop was at Bailey’s Harbor Range Light.  “What is a range light?” we asked.  It consists of two lights aligned one above the other as ships approach the harbor.  Ships that keep the lights vertically aligned or “on range” safely pass the rocky shoals as they enter the harbor.  There were also two docents at the lighthouses where the two lights are located.  The main house has been very nicely restored.  The docents were great. They were volunteers and get to stay in the lighthouse while they are working as docents.

We were blessed to make contact with some friends from Wisconsin who happened to be staying at one of the local RV parks for two weeks, and we met them for an early pizza dinner. It was in Sister Bay which is a beautiful village on the west shores of the Thumb.  We were so excited to see our friends that we forgot to take any pictures.  (Oops).

Sunday morning we drove on out to the tip of the Thumb where there is a ferry to take you to Washington Island.  We didn’t visit the island, but we understand it would be worthwhile for another time.  We did drive the iconic “Curvy Road” Highway 42 between Timberline Road and Ports des Morts Drive.  This road is known for its 15 serpentine curves as it nears the ferry dock.  This road leads right to the Washington Island Ferry and then leads to what is known as “Death’s Door”, which is a section of water between Door County and Washington Island where there have been over 275 shipwrecks.  (Maybe a reason to not go to Washington Island.)

Next stop was at Cave Point County Park in Sturgeon Bay.  This was a popular local park with free admission.  This park is known for its Dolomite/limestone ledges, underwater caves and great view of Lake Michigan.  At times water sprays from blowholes 15-30 feet.

We made one last, quick stop in Algoma on our way back south. We went there to walk the breakwater to the light house, but ended up just walking around the quaint village streets.

Once we left Door County, we drove south to Bloomington, IL for the night.  From there on Monday we drove to Pawnee, IL to visit with friends at Midwest Mission.  It was great to visit with friends there.  On Tuesday we made one last stop to visit more of our Bible Study/Switch Crew friends in Roodhouse, IL.  So great to see them!  From there is was a drive south back to Camp Sumatanga in Alabama.

We visited with friends, shared meals with friends, and went to church Sunday at our home church, which is always such a blessing.  Sunday afternoon we returned to Debra and Randy’s home in South Carolina.   We don’t know exactly how long we will stay here but it will be family time and we will probably post no more than once a week (if that).  Thanks for traveling with us.

Thursday, August 15, 2024

Since leaving the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, we drove to Wisconsin and turned southwest landing in Antigo late Tuesday afternoon.  In May of 2023 we were last here in Antigo.  It was our second time to work a project with “A Year To Volunteer” at the Raptor Education Group, Inc.  REGI is a nonprofit organization that rehabilitates injured birds and educates the public about birds in general.  They specialize in raptors.  We met with Marge, the Director of REGI, Wednesday.  It was so good to see her and the staff again.  We had a great time catching up with each other.  Today we returned to REGI to sit in with one of the tour groups visiting the center.  This tour was hosted by Samantha, the Director of Education.  She does such a great job with the tours and all the birds.  While most of the birds they take in are rehabilitated and released, the birds used during the tours are non-releasable for various reasons so they become ambassador birds for REGI.  They live a very comfortable life and are very well cared for.  One of the owls we saw today we saw last year, shortly after he was rescued.  He had grown so much!  Those of you who have read the blog for very long know how much we love owls.  Well, owls and eagles and hummingbirds, etc. We just really enjoy birds.  Today’s favorite owl was the Northern Saw-whet Owl.  Too Cute!  Saw-whet Owls are some of the smallest owl species in North America.  They can be found in dense thickets, often at eye level although they can also be found some 20 ft up in trees.

We are probably going to take another rain day tomorrow to just catch up on things and then move again Saturday.  Hope you are all having a great week.

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

We were up bright and early again today to return to the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. We were the third car at the trail head.  The parking lot was almost full when we left.  Today our focus was on the Presque Isle East and West River Trails.  These trails follow the Presque Isle River, the largest river in the park and three of the biggest waterfalls in the park.  The hike includes sections of boardwalk and stairs, wooded trail, and a suspension bridge.  Usually, the two trails make a 2.4 mile loop but currently one section of the west trail is closed to hiking due to erosion.  This means that the hike as we hiked it today was almost 4 miles.  All-Trails classifies it as an easy hike even though there were a lot of stairs on the boardwalks – mostly on the West trail. There were also many roots to navigate especially on the east trail along with elevations changes.  The waterfalls were very nice.  We enjoyed the east trail as it was very quiet and peaceful with fewer hikers.  We were also able to follow the river to the juncture with Lake Superior which was really nice on this beautiful day.

When we were planning our route today, we had an icon pop up for Interstate Falls.  On a whim we decided to find it.  The parking lot is in Wisconsin but the state line between Wisconsin and Michigan goes through the the falls. It was a short 1/3 mile hike.  While viewing the falls we met a nice couple from Wisconsin.  We had a nice conversation with them.  They gave us some suggestions on other things to do in Wisconsin.  They have done Habitat projects in the past but now work in the Habitat ReStore.  They were very interested in BB and requested a tour.  After their “tour” we had lunch before leaving the parking lot.

As we pulled onto the road, Max looked across the way and saw another white Beyond in the veterinary parking lot. We pulled across the road and parked right beside the other Beyond.  As it turns out, we were all at the Ocala show in March.  We spent the next hour talking all things Beyond. They just got their rig in December and wanted to see all the mod’s we have make to BB and asked lots of questions.  We of course exchanged contact information and they generously invited us to their home.  We already had commitments in Wisconsin but we may visit them another time.

We had a wonderful time visiting the Michigan UP.  We are a little sad that time is over.  We have some new places to explore but just might plan another summer trip to the UP.

Monday, August 12, 2024

We were at Walmart again this morning.  Needed Bananas and some frozen fruit for smoothies.  Living in BB does require more grocery stops.  Then we headed west, still in the UP.  Just as sort of an afterthought, when we saw the sign for Agate Beach, a village park, we made the turn to head that way.  Interestingly, the road to Agate Beach was named Misery Bay Road.  Another of the roads was Arctic Circle Lane. Before we arrived at the beach, the pavement abruptly ended without warning and became a seriously rub board dirt road.  We adventured on and soon arrived at another Lake Superior Beach.  Again, a very pretty beach and clear water.  We started talking with a lady who was sitting on the sand looking for rocks.  God Wink.  Anne started talking to her and told her that we do a lot of mission work and explained a little about what we do.  Her response was “Are y’all NOMADS?”  The lady’s parents were NOMADS.  They are both still living and in their 90’s with poor vision but still talk of their days as NOMADS.  Anne asked her to thank them for us for all they did for NOMADS.  We had a nice conversation about her parents and it seemed to mean a lot to our new friend.  Wow!  We just randomly decided to go out of our way to this strange beach?  NO!  It was a God thing.  Thank you God, for giving us the opportunity to meet this sweet lady.

Moving on further west, we were driving through Ontonagon Harbor and saw a sign for a lighthouse and decided we needed to find it.  It was sort of a maze to get to, but it was a quaint little light house.  We just stopped and took some pictures, but didn’t go in.

We needed to get on down the road.  Our goal for the day was to visit the Porcupine Mountains.  We had been wanting to see the Porkies for 8 or 9 years and we wanted to finally make it happen.  We arrive at the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park (the largest Michigan State Park) shortly before lunch.  We did the usual visitors center tour and asked for recommendations for hikes from the Ranger.  First, we went to the Lake of the Clouds Scenic Area.  Take your breath away beautiful!  After a late lunch, we then hiked the Escarpment Trail which is billed as the crowning jewel of trails, not only in the Porkies but in all of Michigan.  This hike combines a high rocky bluff and alpine-like vistas.  Awesome.  While the scenery was beautiful, the hike was rated moderately difficult.  There was a lot of ups and downs and back ups.  This hike completed our hiking for the day.  It was another wonderful day!