I am pretty chuffed, having managed this entire camping trip by myself. I’ve never backed up the camper without a spotter before… it helped that I was familiar with the site, had a little practice with a spotter under my belt, and there was only one big tree to worry about (haha, it wasn’t even very close). Also, being Sunday afternoon, there were very few “witnesses.” There were only 4-5 occupied campsites in view. I’d have been much more self-conscious & nervous if we’d had close neighbors! I spent quite a bit of time streamlining & organizing my camping set-up/tear-down checklist before last month’s trip, and it makes all the difference.

I look pretty pleased with myself, don’t I? haha. I’d just finished leveling, supporting, chocking, turning on the propane, and hooking up the electrical… I had backed in just far enough to reach the box!*

Oh! Look at this! More teeth have been lost…

Turns out, the “backyard” playground wasn’t as big a perk as I imagined.

That’s the extent of Junah’s playground action. I was informed that it was for little kids and he didn’t like that type of swing. Oh well.

It was a little breezy, but we got a fire going with little trouble. Roasted hot dogs & s’mores were on the menu!

There was a lovely sunset.

Junah was inside, working on a LEGO 3-in-1 dinosaur set that I’d picked up for the occasion, and I couldn’t help taking a couple of stealth photos through the window. He was working on the T-rex! Before we decamped, T-rex gave way to Triceratops. Oh yeah, he also brought a few cars & trucks!! He’s obsessed with Monster Trucks at the moment!

It was a little walk to facilities. There were a couple of “stinky” pit toilets nearby, which Junah used exactly once! Flush toilets, sinks & showers a little bit more of a walk. I exceeded my “steps” goal three days in a row, and walking to the bathroom was a big part of that, I’m sure!

After dark, we did inside stuff… activity & workbooks, crafty stuff, toys. We both slept pretty well that first night; I had five days off of work and five days of meeting my sleep goal, too! The second night it was lightly raining and that woke me a few times.

More truck play in the morning, and then we set out to try and find some nearby geocaches. We tried to locate three that were right along the shoreline… and we didn’t find a single one! It was fun to look for them, though, including a lot of climbing on & peering around & under rocks.

We regrouped and had ham sandwiches lunch, then set out on a hike to try again. There were three more that I’d identified on my app as “kid friendly,” had good hints, and all three had been located by others within the last couple of months. It was a little trek up the escarpment — there used to be a ski hill there and we hiked up where the old lift used to be, the remnants are still visible (big poles with pulleys attached).

For our first geocache, the hint told us that it was an “ammo can” and “there shouldn’t be too many fallen timbers that can accommodate an ammo can.” The app doesn’t take to you the pinpoint location — it’s within 15-20 feet or so — so we were looking at a lot of “fallen timbers,” not really having a sense of the size of an “ammo can.” We’re looking and looking, feeling as though we were running out of options, when Junah said, “Hey look! I found a box!”

“THAT’S IT!!”

It was a pretty great find! We didn’t have anything to trade for goodies within, but we did sign the log and maybe someday we’ll return with some loot.

I wish I’d taken a better photo of Find #2. The hint for that one was to follow the rock line, and “in the ‘mouth’ of the alligator rock.” It truly looked like a gator!

We were getting a little frustrated trying to find the third. The hint was “base of tree,” and, well, we were in the woods... but they’d also described the canister, and when I finally spotted a deliberately placed chunk of wood at the base of a tree and saw a hint of brown duct tape, I realized that we’d scored again!

The order in which we found the geocaches was their order in size, from largest to smallest, and in quality… not that any were bad, but that first one was WOW! So glad it was Junah’s first-ever find.

The weather could have been a bit better… but it could have been a LOT worse! It was prime for mushrooms…

We saw quite a few varieties, but these were my favorite.

He made quite a few of the crafts that came with the library’s fall fundraiser promotion, and we also filled out a nature scavenger hunt page. I will admit that Junah spent a little bit of time each day playing with some “driving” apps on my phone… flying firetrucks and whatnot. It allowed me to take a quick nap one day, and to get to a few tasks… like dishes.

On Saturday night we had a taco/Frito bowl with shredded cheese & sour cream… it was pretty tasty! We built another fire without much difficulty, especially considering that it was drizzly on & off all day, so more s’mores!

Breakfasts were cereal, though this was a second breakfast… he’d made himself a ham sandwich when he got up!

I even took my knitting out of the bag a couple of times and managed maybe a half-dozen rows in all. Ha. Better than nothing.

All in all, it was a fantastic excursion, and I can’t wait to do it some more next summer.

Junah’s favorite thing about going camping was the HIKING.
His least favorite thing was HIKING BACK!!

*Other notes:

1. We didn’t have water hook-up, but I brought a couple of 2.5-gallon spigot jugs… making a mental note by the end of the trip (and now a real one) that 1-gallon jugs are a lot more practical for use in Ducky. The bigger ones are harder to move/stash and also take up half the available counter space!
2. I heated water on the stove, which was OK, but an electric kettle would have been more efficient in a couple of ways.
3. On a quest for a small dishpan or something that can be used as such. The tiny camper-size draining rack is fab.
4. It’s official: Ducky’s maximum capacity is exactly TWO people, no matter their age/size. I’d once considered taking both Jün & Gin on this excursion, but there’s no way that would have worked!

 

We packed up, hooked up, and took off on Friday — almost right on time! It was about a 3-hour drive to Sauk City/Prairie du Sac, and we had a very scenic drive a la Google Maps and the "avoid highways" feature.

We checked into the campground and set up Ducky, and then I drove Rusty over to the art center so he could set up his teaching space.

We borrowed Ali's pop-up gazebo, which expanded our "living space" by quite a bit! haha.

It was the first time hooked up to water other than in our own driveway, and only the second time hooked up to electrical. I finally used some equipment that I've had for over a year (surge protector, white hose, pressure regulator), and then some newer stuff (water filter, sewer hose).

We had cold water only (but brought an electric kettle), and there's a still-unpatched leak in the black water tank so we didn't use Ducky's toilet. We were roughing it just a little. There were toilets & showers very close by, though.

Other than Sunday, which was a scorcher, and a rain shower as we were making our departure/emptying the gray tank, the weather was great. Cool at night, breezy, clear skies… we watched ISS for a full 6-minute pass overhead and an almost-full moon rising on Saturday night while sitting by the campfire.

I made coffee & Rusty made breakfast every morning, then I took him to the art center. I diddled around, went to the grocery store, visited an antique mall, a cheese store, and most importantly…

…a YARN STORE! My only opportunity to stop at Flaxen Fleece was on Saturday, and by then I'd realized that I had everything I needed to work on finishing by blanket…

…except the actual blanket!! So it was a CRUCIAL stop. I had a pattern in mind that I wanted to shop for, and brought needles along, too, so at least I was prepared for something.

The photo was taken this morning before work… it's already pretty dim at that time of the morning! (My headlights were on the entire way to work this morning.) Anyway, the colors are a bit more vibrant IRL. It's the start/headband portion of Wild Fields, just published in Knitty worked in Malabrigo Rios, purchased at Flaxen Fleece. I bought a few hanks (thinking headbands/hats for the girls), and a couple of mini-skeins just because. It's the first actual knitting I've done in MONTHS (it's like riding a bicycle).

Anyway, back to our adventure. I had lunch "in" by myself everyday, and then we'd find a restaurant for dinner — a brewery fish fry on Friday, Mexican on Saturday, BLTs at a pub on Sunday. I never made it to Wollersheim… it just wouldn't have been that fun on my own and they were only open 12-5, anyway. I thought the campground was close enough to the art center that Rusty could walk, but it wasn't, and had I known that I'd be driving every morning I might have chosen a more remote spot — in a state park or something. It was "ok" — right on the Wisconsin River, the facilities were clean, the owner was very responsive (to a complaint about a squeaky swing that needed oil) — but there were no trees in our part of the RV park and it was very close to a busy highway (the only time it was quiet was for about 20 minutes around 4am). There were a lot of established "seasonal" sites further into the property and, oh boy, some vintage travel trailers that were fun to see!

It was a lot of fun, and kind of shame that it might be our only outing with Ducky all year! I felt truly relaxed and that I had an actual vacation!

 

This is the second attempt at a mitered border:

It's way better than the first, but still a little loosey-goosey, especially at the corner.

Actually, now that I'm looking at it, I might be picking up too many stitches. So, that's what I'll try next.

We were supposed to head to a campground today after work, but it's raining and cold and it'll be getting dark by the time we get there… I could handle it without the rain. So, we're going to wait until tomorrow morning.

We picked up Ducky at the RV place on Tuesday and I'm so happy! They replaced some corroded wiring and the outside running lights all work, not to mention the brake lights! We're still going to keep the magnetic ones on and plugged in (since we have both 7-pin and 4-pin ports), because you just can't be too safe. The Explorer is such a better match than the Escape for towing, but we had to get (another) new ball mount because the hitch receptacle is so much higher!

It's only money.

Meanwhile, and apologies if you've already seen this on IG and/or FB, but we are STOKED!

Before > After. We could play SPOT THE DIFFERENCES! haha. I'll give you two that aren't discernible: all of the lens covers for the light fixtures were removed and cleaned (b-bye bugs) and the bulbs were all replaced with LEDs!

I'm very proud of my matching stripes, which was done from memory because the big seat cushion was in Ducky at the RV place when I sewed the little ones. The stripes actually match seat-to-back, too. Originally there were little strips that joined the back cushions to the seat cushions… that would have been a real pain to replicate, but I might have to come up with some sort of solution. It would help keep the cushions together when they're acting as a bed, though that hasn't been an issue we've noted.

I'm thinking out loud.

Can't wait for a long weekend… and to go.

 

Our trial run to Calumet was made with a longer trip in mind, and a couple of weeks later we packed up and headed 3.5 hours north to the "rustic" Big Lake Campground at Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest.

Kate had gone tent camping up here a few times earlier in the summer, and this was her favorite campground. We gave our site a good look upon arrival to determine how best to situate Ducky. Let me just say that we are newbies, and we're gonna be newbies for a long time… we learned a lot on this trip, too!

Most trailer campsites are either "back-in" or "pull-through." Well, we pulled right in to our back-in site, which we determined would work best given the lay of the land and the layout of our camper. We realized later that the better thing for us would have been to move the fire ring and the picnic table in order to back in, as that was the most level spot and would have given us a lot more privacy. Not that we were exposed or anything, we were in a nice hollow and there were lots of trees around us and between sites. And, obviously, we were able to maneuver my Escape around to the other side and, eventually, we (Kate) backed OUT of the site. That was surprisingly easy! We are both getting more comfortable and confident with the backing-up-a-trailer thing with each excursion.

You can see that our stabilizers are atop some levelers in the front (four, I think, under each), and there was barely room for the stabilizers alone in the rear. It was level and stable and it felt okay.

And then it rained. I'd mentioned that it only rained at night?  It did, but oh my goodness, DID IT EVER RAIN!! (And thank god for earplugs!) It came down so hard, so fast, so much on that first night that there were rivulets through our site… right under Ducky… right where those levelers and stabilizers are. It rained the second night, too, though not QUITE as hard. We still needed earplugs; both admitted later to middle-of-the-night thoughts of being washed away!

Oh the drama! We were fine, but these are lessons that will never be forgotten.

We only saw the sun on our last afternoon, but it was certainly comfortable enough to spend almost all of the daytime outside… the bugs weren't even bothersome.

We were there for peak autumn color — you can see the difference between arrival on Thursday and departure on Monday.

We spent a lot of time building and tending campfires (and running to procure more firewood)… not the easiest thing when it's been rained on all night, every night! But we managed.

And we had McGregor!!

Our timing was perfect for a meet-up on Friday with my Uncle Jim and his friend Pat at the Discovery Center in Manitowish Waters where he was picking up a bat monitor to record activity near his place for a few days. It was great to see him, even just for a little while, and to meet Pat!

The campground was a bit more woodsy and interesting than Calumet, but I didn't hike much other than trips to the toilet with an occasional detour to the beach on the way back. It sure was gorgeous.

And, similarly, I spent most of my time working on the Safe At Home blanket for Davy… weaving in ends and seaming.

Lots of ends (that's a drop in the bucket)! It took a few tries to get the seaming method/look that I wanted, finally settling on backstitch and it's moving along — I feel like the end is in sight.

So, Big Lake Campground is "rustic," meaning there are no hookups of any kind; there are vault toilets and non-potable water available at a pump. So we were truly on battery & propane power the whole time, and had to haul in our own drinking water! Ducky's "plumbing" isn't functional right now, anyway, so we didn't even miss it… though we did spring for a "luggable loo" type of setup (which we perched in the bathroom shower area) because there's no way I'm hauling my ass to a vault toilet in the middle of the woods in the middle of the night! And, you know, at least for me, having to GO in the middle of the night is an unavoidable fact these days!

We did some more campfire cooking:

Chicken & veggies in foil packets, foil-wrapped potatoes to have with a yummy smoked pork chop from Nueske's. Those coals were HOT, and I'm still learning/perfecting my campfire cooking techniques, so the potatoes got a little singed (okay, burnt) on one side, but they were amazingly good. Yeah, okay, the chicken & veggies were also a little singed… I'm the type that likes my s'mores marshmallows FLAMING, so obviously I'm okay with some burned-y bits. Haha.

It was really lovely and, though not completely unplugged from everything… we were unplugged enough and it was great to take a break for a few days!

We cleaned Ducky up on Monday when we returned, then hauled him over to an RV service center to have a few things fixed/checked out. We're thinking of taking one more short 2- or 3-night trip in a couple of weeks, before it gets too cold, at a campground less than an hour from home.

 

I scrolled through the blog looking for my post about our first camping outing for reference… and there isn't one! I never even wrote one because all of a sudden (though not unexpectedly… heheh) there was a new baby and it's been a little chaotic and nonstop since then (except for our second camping outing) (coming soon).

So, first things first!

We hitched up on a Tuesday afternoon and hauled Ducky over to Calumet County Park, only 20 miles from home, for a two-night stay.

Newbies, we did our best backing in and setting up under the observant (but not intrusive) eyes of our neighbor a couple of sites away. A little nervous, perhaps, and wary of site conditions (level), we ended up about 8 feet short of being able to plug in our power cord. I'd had a fleeting thought about throwing the extension cord in the car when we were packing up, but didn't do that… so we were on battery power! We also had to remember how to turn on the propane power for the fridge.

This was before replacing all of the interior lamps with LEDs that use a lot less power. We also have at least four small portable LED lanterns and headlamps, so we are not lacking for light!

Also at this point in time, I'd only replaced the "living room" couch cushions and the "dining room" area still had the originals from 1987. I slept in the living room and Kate slept in the dining room, and we could have held hands if we'd wanted. It's very cozy.

We made quesadillas for supper and didn't dally much that evening, but I do recall talk of dogs, and my photo roll supports that because…

…while searching for "Scottish boy dog names" or somesuch, I came across this photo of Ewan McGregor and his adorable dog and, well, the rest is history.

I had coffee on Wednesday morning in my new insulated and practically indestructible camping mug from KC&T!

I posted this photo on IG and ended up shipping two mugs to the east coast for friends who had to have one themselves!

We made a run on Wednesday for a few supplies, including an extension cord exclusively for Ducky! Otherwise, I spent a lot of time knitting that day and finished the strips!

The little blue marker is holding a dropped stitch and was a reminder to pick it up when I picked up stitches for the roof.

We were close enough to home that Rusty came out late in the afternoon for a hike and to have supper with us.

The park is located on the Niagara Escarpment, and it's pretty cool.

It's also home to a few effigy mounds, of which Wisconsin has many.

A few leaves were starting to turn… and it was just a nice walk.

While Kate and Rusty stoked the fire, I prepared fish & veggie packets to cook over the coals.

They were overcooked a little bit…

…but delicious!

Not a bad day.

Day 2 began with coffee and pancakes (or panpakes, as the kids say) for breakfast!

We cooked 'em on Ducky's little stove and dined at the picnic table.

Playing tourist a little bit, we drove down to LaClare Cheese Factory. We are no strangers to the area, as we prefer traveling on that side of the lake whenever we're pointed south — Milwaukee or Chicago or beyond — but in "travel mode," we rarely stop anywhere.

We greeted some goats, and bought some great cheese and sausage!

I took a photo of these cheese wheels through a window, aren't they gorgeous??

After that outing, we de-camped and headed for home. It was a great little first trip and gave us a little more confidence to head a further afield and for longer. More on that outing soon!!