In the Twilight Zone....

I’m skipping here, but I gotta write about where we are staying this evening – a well, spooky campground in the far west end of the Yooper. It was 4:30pm Eastern, 3:30pm Central and we hadn’t made a reservation at an RV park or State Park or National Forest, which was unusual for us.  It was time.  We were driving along Route 41 heading West in the Yooper, when we were forced to do a detour to Route 2 and back up again.  We hoped to camp in Wisconsin, to get further West and closer to home, but it was not to be.  Looking at the AllStays app, I found a number of campgrounds between us and about 25 miles into Wisconsin.  The perfect location, in Mellen, Wisconsin “didn’t accept arrivals on Sundays.  Did you try Copper Creek?  No answer, I said”.  Another great location on Lake Superior responded with a utility message (“unable to complete your call”).  Two more phone numbers were not a campground, but the general number for their towns, Ironwood and Wakefield – so we couldn’t get through.  Several more campgrounds on the way to Mellen did not accept RVs… After completing the detour we headed back to Wakefield on Route 2 and then I found the icon for this campground.  Not sure why it didn’t show up before….  I called and they had room – in fact hardly anybody is here.  Nice green lawn, water and electric, plenty of room.  Just 3 RVs back in the trees.  We are out in the open, of course.  The office was interesting.  I’m thinking Bates Motel.  We pulled up to a small house and a door saying “OFFICE”.  A small sign said to push the buzzer for the bell before coming in, despite the fact that two small dogs barked their heads off when we approached – and I had called a few minutes before to say we were coming.  I pressed the button and tried to open the door – it was locked.  Finally someone answered – a small man, who was friendly but, well, I looked around and although the house looked bigger, it appeared that his workspace was a small desk, a twin-sized bed and lots of stuff.  Every inch of the walls were covered with framed pictures, newspaper articles and flyers.  There was a large trophy-looking thing behind the desk and next to a bouquet of pink mylar balloons saying “happy birthday”, happy mother’s day” and who knows what else.  There was no room to walk into or around this room.  The most normal aspect of this scene were the two shih tzus who announced our arrival.  Very friendly with lovely expressive faces – they took turns standing on the desk chair and putting their paws on the desk as if to say – “it’s really OK – how can I help?”

Where is everybody????

Anyway, we are set up in our site (Norman Bates guided us there in an ATV), drinking wine and hunkering down as a major storm moves through, rain, lightening, thunder.  Hope we make it out of here….

Two Gorgeous NJ & Mass State Parks

These are kind of brief descriptions of two beautiful state parks where we stayed over a period of 5 days, in NY and Massachusetts.  Have a short window of time to access the wifi of our good friends, Randy and Jane, in Ontario (thank you!) so, here goes:

Schodack Island State Park - Upstate NY

This is a beautiful park between a creek and the mighty Hudson River, hence the island designation.  We had a gorgeous campsite, with electricity, amid towering trees that may have been cottonwoods (?), due to the constantly-falling seeds that looked like cotton.  Who knows, but the trees and forest there were lush and green.  Trails that had been cut way back, maybe for hikers to avoid bugs(?) surrounded the park and extended several miles in either direction along the Hudson.  There were boat ramps for motor boats on the big river and for kayaks on the creek.  Alas, we didn’t bring our yaks.  We entertained the Murph by throwing his football into the Hudson at the boat ramp.

Mohawk Trail State Forest - the Berkshires

MTSF is in the Berkshires, in Northwestern Massachusetts.  Beautiful park and our site was right on a creek – not sure of the name.  We boon-docked there for 3 nights, but it was OK, as we brought the generator.  It was lovely to sleep to the creek sound, but the shower facility, one campground over, was dismal.  How does one take a shower when one hand must be pushing on the ON button to keep the water on????

Not to worry, as Moby indeed has a shower, which was needed after several humid, misty hikes.  We hiked the Mahican-Mohawk Trail a couple of times, which was used by the Indians as a trading route eons ago.

The Jersey Shore

Murphy and new buddy, Rayne

I’m writing this now because it has been a while, and so I can remember where the heck we went!  We visited the Jersey Shore over Memorial Day Weekend – we essentially looked for a place to hunker down and avoid the crowds, and one of my closest friends in the world happens to live near Long Beach Island.  So we parked Moby in the Long Beach Island RV Resort, near Barnegut, and drove back and forth to the towns on LBI, a long barrier island off the coast of New Jersey.  We also spent some time near my friend, Sarah’s hometown of Medford where there is a 20-acre dog park with many fields and streams.  Murphy had a blast there.  He also experienced his first swim in the ocean and in a bay – loved it.  The ocean waves didn’t seem to phase him!

Skipper's Seafood - sight not seen in Colorado!

Being at the shore reminded me of years spent south of there with family 12 years in a row for two-week summer visits.  Salt water taffy, the smell of the ocean, the diesel fumes from the bumper cars, shrink-wrapped packages of shells in the surf shops, sand in the toes.  And the seafood.  Loved it. The Barnegat area is know for harvesting scallops, so I partook of said critters wherever possible.  One evening, we picked some up from Skipper’s Seafood on Route 72, took them back to the RV park and Chris cooked them up in a pan with garlic and lemon and a bit o’ ginger.  Words cannot express.