Houston - WI - SD - CO trip Sept 2018, part 1

Click on an image for a larger view

Our three week trip is here.  This has been on our calendar for the past few months.  Even with that in mind it still snuck up on us.  The initial route; go to northern WI to visit family, dashing west to SD to see the Badlands, Mount Rushmore and Wind Cave NP then home.  About three weeks prior to the trip Nicida asked me if we could visit WI by way of Houston to visit her family and her 102 year old relative leaving for CA in the near future.  I could not say no.

This trip will be split into three postings.

Mercury/Redstone rocket

We start a few days before the Labor Day weekend.  Camping most of the way, we made arrangements to stay in a room in Houston; I don’t have air conditioning in the camper…  The trip through NM is good, little weekday traffic to deal with, one of the benefits of being retired.  I don’t really want the long days of travel but we have just finished visiting with Nicida’s kids so we are on a tight schedule.

Finding an RV park near Sweetwater, TX we settle in for the night watching the sun slip below the horizon, the distant thunderheads turn pink, followed by Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars coming into view.  We are also amazed at seeing the Milky Way making its appearance so close to town.  The view to the north is non existent with the city lights washing out the view.

Our second day on the road we sleep in until 8!  This never happens when we don't have miles to travel. So our day long drive to Houston starts a bit later than expected.  Note to self: Set the alarm when you want to be someplace.  We arrive in Houston in time to take quick showers and drive to the restaurant.

Saturn V rocket 

Next day we go to NASA Houston.  Taking the tram around to the command center we file in to a viewing room to see the actual room where many of the early manned space flights and early shuttle flights were controlled.  The room has about half the racks of hardware in place; the others are out for refurbishing.  We are reminded that next July 20 is the 50^th anniversary of the first landing on the moon.  I remember seeing the landing; I didn’t think about it being 50 years ago.

Saturn V rocket other end

From there we are taken to see a number of the early rockets finishing off with a Saturn V lying on its side with the stages separated showing how everything fit together.  Truly impressive.  The first rockets from the Mercury flights are minuscule when seen next to the Saturn V, Apollo rockets.  There is a mockup of the shuttle on top of a 747; a digest of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo days with other news headlines of the day.  There is an exhibit of the Mars landers finishing off with the planned Orion mission to Mars in the late 2020’s through the 2030’s.   The unseen long term planning is on display.  If you are into NASA this is the place to come.

Rain or predicted rain is all around us each day we are in Houston.  Coming from 30+ years of desert living I feel sweaty and sticky every time I venture away from air conditioning.  As we are leaving on to the next part of our trip, we hear the day’s forecast ‘flood watch, expect up to 3 of rain over the next 4 – 6 hours’.  I’m glad we are leaving.

Our next stop is Door County in the peninsula of Wisconsin, northeast of Green Bay.  We notice the corn through most of AR, MO and IL is all brown but still standing in the fields.  A Google search tells us that the area has been hit with a fungus.  It is sad to see miles and miles of brown corn plants.  In WI we see the familiar tall, green corn plants inhabiting the fields.  The heat and humidity follow us to north central IL.  It’s 92 with humidity.  Approaching the campground we see a huge ominous cloud with thick gray rain following behind, moving our way.  It’s one of those clouds you see on ‘Storm Hunters’ where people intentionally go out looking for these things, usually tornadoes are involved.  It’s moving fast, and our way.  I tune in an AM station hoping for a weather forecast half expecting to hear the radio alert siren announcing a tornado watch or warning.  Instead, I hear music and the crackle of static from the local lighting strike.  All is quiet at the campground, no rain, no storm, and only a handful of campers.  Later in the evening we hear the winds start and accompanying rain on and off throughout the night.

The next morning is quiet, there are no reports of tornadoes.  Our first stop is just outside of Milwaukee to do a bit of shopping, then to Henning’s Cheese Factory where I have been buying cheese for the past 20 plus years.  We pick up a pound of cheese curds for my mom, her favorite.  After trying a curd or two Nicida is also up for a pound of curds.  I get my usual Mango Fire cheddar and am happy.  From there we are on to Door County.  Deviating from the usual interstate highway we travel two lane roads following the lakeshore.  The wind is calm and so is the water.  Arriving at Peninsula State Park we set up, make dinner, walk the campground before dark, then plan our next day’s activities.

After breakfast we start out on the hike to the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse, a short mile or so hike.  The original lighthouse was constructed in 1868.  The lighthouse has been in continuous operation for over the past 150 years and now uses an LED for a light.

Returning to the camper we have lunch then on to the Eagle trail.  The trail is rated ‘strenuous’ a 2 mile loop trail in which part of the loop is on the top of the 150’ bluff and the other part follows along the shoreline at the bottom of the bluff.  We opted to do the top portion first, not strenuous by our scale.  The views across the small bay are scenic with small marinas and picturesque hotels lining the shoreline.  The hike down was more of a challenge with uneven surfaces made up of layers of tree roots covering the ground.  Every little root lies in wait to grab our unsuspecting hiking boot as we pass.  Further along we find ourselves directly below the bluff where we were enjoying the view 30 minutes before.  The bluffs are spectacular but it is a bit unnerving because we are walking where parts of the bluff are missing forming caves.  We look at each other thinking ‘the remaining parts only have to stay in place for a few more minutes’ as we quickly pass by, after a photo, of course.  
After our hike we tour the area by truck driving further up the peninsula taking in the quaint towns devoid of large corporation businesses.  We visit the Death's Door Maritime museum at Gilles Rock, returning for a fish boil.  
It is quite a production;  a large cauldron filled with water boils away sputtering out boiling water then sizzling when it hits the outside of the pot and the wood fire below.  Potatoes are added first, followed by onions.  The boil master adds a ‘bit’ of salt as he put it; it looked like two cups from the size of the scoop.  Whitefish is the last ingredient, a few minutes later a small amount of kerosene is thrown on the flames causing the fish oils to boil over the edges of the cauldron resulting in a huge flare-up; and lots of picture taking.  The show is complete; on to the restaurant for the results of the fish boil.  To our surprise nothing was salty.  The meal is very tasty and is followed with a piece of homemade cherry pie made with locally grown cherries.  We ended the evening catching a colorful sunset over the bay as the sun sank into the water.

Our last day in Door County included a stop at HyLine Orchard.  We pick up several foods stocking up for the balance of our trip and wanting to try some unique things.  The dried cherries and dried Honey Crisp apples are very tasty making us wish we had purchased several bags of each.  They also have a type of plum we have not seen before finding them quite tart but also tasty.  We mentioned we haven’t been through an orchard before so we were given a tour riding on a golf cart through the orchard and buildings they use to process all they grow.  It was quite a tour seeing only a few of the 75 acres they have actively producing.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark