Terri and Peter's RV Adventures

It was hard to leave Michigan and especially our Indian Lake State Park spot with its spittin’ distance to Indian Lake. But life goes on and the Plan called. I’m sure Lily was thinking, “What the heck? Why leave heaven?” Then again, the amazing thing about dogs is they have no choice but to trust you’ll take them to an even nicer (for them) place. So they get in the car/truck and don’t know if they’ll be there for a minute or six hours.

(Lily’s the perfect camp dog in the morning. No leash. She lies next to me while I drink coffee, read my books and meditate.)

The UP reminded me a bit of Newfoundland. It feels remote and not populated enough to overtly impact the environment. It also felt farther north than it was. Maybe it was the gnarled pine trees and barren landscape. Maybe it was feeling surrounded by endless, large bodies of water. Maybe it was a feeling of being exposed to the elements and dominant pine trees that lined the two lane country roads. Today’s trip took us largely southwest and it seemed to take forever to get to Wisconsin and change to Central Time.

We stopped after two hours in Menominee, MI, about a mile from the Wisconsin border and yet in the Central Time Zone. I didn’t realized Michigan has two timezones. The gas station person told us about a local place, Jozwiak’s Bar and Grill. We had the Walbash Special: A pizza (cauliflower crust!) and two Wabash burgers and two sodas for $20. As long as I don’t have to take a cholesterol test or EKG for a few months, I should be fine. It was a classic dark interior, long bar, dark wood booths kind of place with big screen TVs that you could tell broadcast Green Bay Packers games all fall and winter. It was fun and gave us a real sense of the place. We were able to park the truck and trailer under a leafy shade tree on a neighborhood street so the dogs were happy.

We continued on to the famous Door County. We’re staying almost at the tip of the peninsula so we drove around Green Bay and through a number of towns, large but mostly small: Sturgeon Bay, Baileys Harbor, Egg Harbor, Sisters Bay and almost to Ellison Bay, where our campground is. We didn’t stop because the trailer is too cumbersome to park so I’m guessing we’ll return to some of these places over the next several days. Aside from a few chi-chi restaurant names like “Lure”, the place feels like a midwestern version of Cape Cod; not presumptuous, leafy, casual, relaxed, with a lot of places to shop, eat, sit outside and do water sports. It has a very nice vibe and we’re looking forward to exploring it further.

Our campground is large with generally fairly secluded, spacious sites. We’re under a canopy of trees and feel close to nature yet have the comforts of home. I drove the dogs to a nearby beach to get their ya-yas out. I had no idea there’s an actual “Green Bay” as in a body of water that’s part of Lake Michigan. But that’s where we are. The water is so vast it’s hard to remember it’s not the ocean.

Returning to our campsite, Peter grilled turkey burgers, corn on the cob and asparagus and we celebrated shabbat. I’m grateful to be here and I’m looking forward to further explorations over the next several days.