Roses 1.0 Van Life

First a note to those I don’t know who have signed up to follow this sporadic, somewhat pointless blog…..you’re welcome to if you want but it’s mostly for me to remember where we went and what we did. It’s also for friends and family to see the same, should they be interested. I keep it public to make things simple.

Spring Mill is a beautiful park, maybe Indiana’s best. We arrived late in the afternoon of the 7th. Will made pork chops Thursday evening, delicious. The crowd of campers grew Friday and Saturday commensurate with the Halloween decorations. Halloween is big with the camping crowd. Friday we hiked to Donaldson Cave, Noel, AK, Will and I climbed up the short cliff wall to enter and explore. Eagle eyed Anne Kash found a cave salamander. Here’s a picture of us emerging from a window into the cave above the stream that flows out of it:

We walked the trail along the stream to the road, near the nature center. Colleen and AK drove. We ate at the lodge then went back to camp. Saturday the campground was nearly full, halloween decorations everywhere. Nature center in the AM, pioneer village in the afternoon. Built in 1817 and operated until the early 20th century, it was purchased by Portland-Lehigh cement for the water coming from the cave. The cement company donated it to the state in the 1920’s but kept the water rights. The state renovated the buildings with help from the CCC and WPA in the ’30’s. It’s been a jewel of the Indiana state park system ever since.

One more pic, can’t resist putting it up:

No Thursday night was at this state park, Burr Oak must have been Wednesday, Hotel Indigo was Monday and Tuesday.

Door county for all its fame is still largely agricultural and rural. The tourist spots are the towns on Green Bay, the two state parks and certain fruit farms, cherry this time of year, apple later. Here’s Al Johnson’s Swedish restaurant, the “goats on the roof” gimmick really works, it was by far the most popular place in Sister’s Bay (well ok, the food was really good):

The water didn’t seem much colder than I remember it being in South Haven, MI despite being significantly farther north. You can see people were out swimming.

Here is a picture of another Green Bay beach, the one in Peninsula State Park:

This pic doesn’t do the beach justice. There’s a bath house with shower, a concession stand and a food truck in the parking lot, paddle boards and kayaks for rent. It’s easy walking distance from the campground. Another nice thing about this park is the extensive network of bike trails through the woods. Finally there is a play 6 nights a week at the amphitheater. We really enjoyed “The Fisherman’s Daughters”, a musical commissioned for this park. Written by a folk musician from northern Wisconsin, Katie Dahl, it was great. Maybe I don’t know what’s good, but to me there is no comparison between the music and lyrics of this obscure play and what passes as “popular culture”. I recently read a paean of praise to the genius of Kanye West, a world renown multimillionaire celebrity. Meanwhile folks like Katie Dahl get by playing house concerts. ???

This park by the way must be the redstart capital of America. It provided me a chance to learn their song by hearing it over and over. Still not sure I got it down though.

We left late Friday for Rushton Meadery. Bought a bottle of mead there then hit the road for home Saturday AM. The night was marred by nearby fireworks and the generator of another RV’er but we managed. Saturday night spent in Mattoon Il Cracker Barrel parking lot (impressed by Mattoon, typical small town America) then home Sunday.

Tuesday and Wednesday stayed at the Hotel Indigo on IHG points but had to pay the pet fee, worth it. Had a great room, meaning it was right by the elevator which went straight down to the parking garage and street. Rochester is clean and safe, flower beds on every block. Incredible, Sammy found rabbits in several of them. Turns out cities aren’t the best place to walk him, Pigeons and sparrows, yikes. Found places to eat on the website bringfido.com. Here’s one:

Peggy was happy with the second opinions she got at Mayo. Nothing important, minor stuff. On to Wisconsin.

Thursday night was spent at another winery, Burr Oak. This is way more wine than we normally drink. Had another dry white, all have been surprisingly good.

Monday 6/21/2021, drove across Iowa. Beautiful country in the summer. Broke up the drive by stopping at a roadfood.com site in Cedar Rapids. This place was built in the 19th century to cater to the large Bohemian population that had recently immigrated.

There were numerous sweets, Kolatchkies etc., but only a few lunch items. Our orders were proportionate to the offerings. It was a very good place to stop. When the Cedar river flooded in 2008 the water was about at the top of the downstairs windows. Went on to Rochester Mn. after walking around Czech town.

Stayed on the west side of Cincy and got a reasonably early start. The drive across Indiana and Illinois wasn’t too difficult. We stopped at a Harvest Host site, a winery, Kickapoo Creek. They had a lunch with live music going when we arrived at about 3:45, but we had stopped in town for lunch. Bought a bottle of wine and walked around the grounds. Unlike some of the wineries we’ve seen this one looked prosperous. Here’s a picture of the view from our back window.

The vineyard’s on the right. This place is 4 hrs from E’ville. A good distance for a first day’s stop, and the wine was good.

Saturday 6/26 was King’s Island. Kyle and Katherine joined the group. Huge park, Peggy and I didn’t see much of it, just the children’s section. Here’s a selfie Anne took after she and Margaret had done the water log ride.

Margaret and Thomas shared a kiddie car. You could see Thomas looking around to see how it worked:

We left KI around 4, got pizza and headed back to Great Wolf Lodge for M’s party. She got a scooter which she said “I already know how to use it. I’ve always known how. It just popped into my head”. Here she is blowing out her candles, Grammy and Thomas in the background:

We slept in the van again, at another Cracker Barrel.

Friday 6/25/21 we gathered with Kevin and Jackie at Great Wolf lodge for Margaret’s 5th birthday party. It’s a huge hotel, next door to King’s Island, surrounding a mostly indoor water park. Margaret’s favorite was the lazy river, she and I did it 8 times. She did it at least 6 more with K, J and Peggy. Thomas specialized in the kiddie water slides. Here’s one of the few pics we took:

We stayed in the van at a nearby Cracker Barrel parking lot.

Drove home from Little Rock, no stops, except for gas and a quick bite, about 8 hrs. 2,200 miles to Oxnard, Ca to get the van, 4,400 miles back. Lots to do now that we’re back.

The farm we stayed at in Tx, Bee Happy Farm, was loaded with chickens, cows, horses and a dog. Our dog Sammy was a nervous wreck, constantly pulling on his leash or trying to get out of the van, so we left early after buying some grass fed beef from the environmentally conscious farmer. We decided to see Hot Springs National Park, our 8th NP this trip. It was about a 3.5 hr drive. It’s not like any NP we’ve see before. Here is the visitor center….

Here is the main drive through the park….

This is called Bath House Row. There are hotels with baths fed by the hot spring all along this side of the street. A creek fed by the springs used to run roughly down the street. Now all the water goes to the baths or to fountains. Here’s one of the springs left available for visitors to experience…

Water wells up from deep below and emerges from cracks in the rocks along the side of the “mountain”. It’s a tall hill really, an ozark mountain. It reaches 140 degrees but is in the 120’s here. I couldn’t hold my hand in it for more than 5 seconds. At one time this was a place to come to restore health. There are signs everywhere such as Babe Ruth visited here, or Stan Musial came here to recover after an injury. Seems like celebrities stopped coming in the ’50’s. You can still drink the water. People were lining up with multiple 5 gallon jugs to fill. The water seeps in, travels very deep, then is forced out from several springs. The journey takes 4,000 years! There is forested hill on both sides of the strip with hiking trails and a scenic drive. Here’s the view from one…..

We ate lunch at Stubby’s BBQ in Hot Springs, a roadfood.com legendary rated spot. And tonight we ate at Doe’s, another legendary rated place. Doe’s is a steak place, it was incredible.

Sleeping at Cracker Barrel tonight. Peggy not ready to go home but I am. No firm plan for tomorrow. Could make it home if we drive hard, or could take 2 days.

Peggy wanted to see the best of the Texas Bluebonnets and a town just south of Limpasas is known for them. Here’s a picture at Turkey Bend state recreation area near that town, Marble Falls…

She found a good spot. We ate sandwiches here then hit the road to Breshear where there is a HarvestHosts.com site, Bee Happy Farms. Traffic was terrible around Waco to Dallas, took way too long, but we arrived. No interesting restraurants, skipped two near Marble Falls. Won’t be any new birds today.

Tomorrow Little Rock area. Will probably pick another Harvest Host spot, more enjoyable than Cracker Barrel or Walmart.