Friday at Arrowhead

On Friday, we got some to-do's moved to the "DONE!" list...

We had put the American flag in the top of the driver's side window several months ago, but we wanted to put a black background behind it to make it stand out. In Antigo, we got black foam-core poster board, and on Friday, we got it cut to shape and put into place. We're happy with how it came out!

We decided to smoke the other half of pork shoulder that we had gotten at Costco (way back in Utah!). We did the first half when we were in Amboy back in June (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2021/06/some-more-camping-pictures.html). This is partway through, when Carl put the probe in to keep track of the temperature. He ultimately smoked it for about 6 hours and then covered it and slowly cooked it for about another 6 hours. We then let it "rest" for an hour or so, and pulled the meat. Even though it was too late to eat for a meal on Friday, we definitely enjoyed tasting as we pulled! Yum!

We also continued our signpost project. Unfortunately, although the paint can we had still had paint in it, the propellant ran out before the project was completed... so we had to make a trip to Home Depot.

After returning from Home Depot, Carl completed the painting of our sign post.

A *big* combination rig came in -- probably a 36-40' class A motorhome pulling a *long* bumper pull trailer. We were wondering how they would get the trailer backed into a site, but, it appeared that they might be with a number of other folks in pickups towing trailers, so maybe they disconnected and used a pickup to position the trailer. The roads in this campground are not very wide, so maneuvering a big class A is challenge enough, so adding the complexity of positioning a trailer would be quite the feat!

While we've seen class A's towing cargo trailers (with tools and toys and all sorts of things in them, this was the first time we saw a class A towing a camping trailer...

The finished signpost and our sign in front of Gracie

Our site at Arrowhead Campground

We are enjoying our time with friends here in the Wisconsin Dells!

Wisconsin Dells with Friends

On Thursday, we returned to the Wisconsin Dells, this time to Arrowhead RV Campground, and with friends from Village Church of Bartlett, joining their annual trip to this location.

Thursday was also George's birthday...

... so we had the opportunity to celebrate his birthday!

He got the candles blown out!

We enjoyed cake and ice cream and celebrating George!

Last day in Antigo

On our last day in Antigo, we planned a shopping trip to get groceries before the next two campgrounds where we will be joining two different rallies with pot lucks and happy hours to bring food to share.

Carl also checked the air pressure in the tires and used Gracie's on-board air to air up some of Gracie's and the Jee-rage's tires.

We got a couple of options for the lantern on the top of our sign post and Carl drilled the hole into the top to accommodate the solar light.

We sanded (roughed up) the PVC to ready it for painting black... but we were not able to do the painting as it got rainy in the afternoon. 

A severe storm was predicted for the late evening, but, thankfully it seemed to break apart before reaching where we were parked -- we just got lightning and rain, no hail, and no strong winds -- we were very grateful!

Some more projects

Carl has been working on some additional projects over the past few days...

Carl did this project a week or so ago, but I had not taken a picture of it... he added a 12v outlet now under the coach in one of the bays. He has a 12v vacuum cleaner that he uses when cleaning the Traeger Ranger smoker -- he was having to pull out a battery to power it, but created a 12V outlet that allows him to do the cleanup very simply!

A few months ago (actually, about a year ago now!) we saw this signpost at an RV in a campground and liked its style and construction. We took a picture with the plan to try to recreate it at some point... well... Tuesday was "some point"!

This is what ours is looking like so far -- we want it to be black, and had wanted to get black ABS supplies, but... we weren't able to find many components in the black ABS... so we decided to go with white PVC. We were planning to paint it even if we got the black ABS (because there would probably be writing on the piping), so we'll just paint the white components. We had a guy at Menards involved in helping us find all the plumbing pieces we needed (we ended up going to Farm&Fleet for some additional pieces too) - I think the fellow at Menards enjoyed putting the puzzle together as much as we did!

We had gotten a solar light for the "lamp" on the top of the post (it may be hard to see in the picture from the example lamppost above) - but we realized that the one we got has a square base, and it would be a lot easier to put on a light the top of our post if it had a round base -- so we're going to look for a solar light with a round base to complete our project. We also need to sand the plastic to rough it up a little in hopes that will help the paint to stick. And... we may want to put some ballast into the base -- we can use tent stakes through the base to hold it down, but we think a little weight would be helpful too. At this point, we are not planning to actually glue the pipes together, we think that they may hold together well enough with just friction, and we will want to take the cross piece off when storing anyway. Eventually, we may get a wooden sign instead of the photo sign that we currently have. But, we made a lot of progress on Tuesday!

A few weeks ago, I posted about the problems we had with the awning no longer retracting (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2021/06/were-done-but.html) -- Carl had come up with a work-around, but it was a bit difficult to implement if we wanted to just put the awning out for a couple of hours (which is normal since we do not leave it out if we are away or for overnight). Carl had ordered a switch (Link to Amazon product) from Amazon and he got it while we were at Galen and Julie's... (it sure is nice to have a mailing / delivery address to use! -- thanks, Galen and Julie!).

On Tuesday afternoon, he got it installed and it successfully extends and retracts the awning. He wants to mount it to the side of the compartment, but it is a lot easier than the paper-clips and battery technique!

Heading south

We reluctantly ended our visit with Galen and Julie on Monday and headed south to Antigo, Wisconsin.

A few last pictures in Winchester, Wisconsin:

A selfie before we headed out...

Galen took some pictures of us with Gracie...

We were all hooked up and ready to head out...

... such a nice visit!

Now we are in Antigo, Wisconsin for a few days -- looking forward to doing some bicycle riding and visiting the town.

More activities in the Northwoods!

On Sunday, we joined Galen at his and Julie's church (Julie had to work). We got to hear the reports on their successful "Flea-zaar" which was held Wednesday, the day before we arrived -- a big once-a-year flea market / bazaar that the church uses to raise money for various mission projects that they support.

In the afternoon, we decided to try out kayaking -- it has been several years since either Carl or I had been in a kayak, but, with help from Galen (he did the launching and getting us successfully in without capsizing), we were able to head out.

Carl took the blue kayak -- a little less stable than the orange one.

He paddled out to the end of the dock while I was getting ready to get into the orange kayak.

We started out staying in the reeds as that would give us protection from the wind and waves --

... but Carl ventured out into the open water just beyond the reeds.

We swapped the camera to Carl so he could take some pictures too...

... both of us were enjoying getting the feel of paddling and working with the waves.

Near the end of our kayaking, Carl was trying to use his paddle as a sail since the wind seemed that it should blow him directly to the dock. Let's just say that the paddle did not work well as a sail...

Enjoying the Northwoods

We are enjoying our visit in the Northwoods of Wisconsin.

On Saturday morning we went out on the jet ski (Galen is on the far side of the jet ski giving instructions before we headed out)...

... heading out through the reeds...

Julie gets a picture of us as I'm getting a picture of where we are going with my underwater camera (so it is waterproof, just in case!).

Getting up some speed

The picture I was taking as Julie took our picture leaving the dock area.

I was getting pictures over Carl's shoulder

It was windy and a little rough on the surface of the lake, so we got a little wet on some turns.

We had to remember where the dock was to get back to it when we were done!

Coming in to the dock.

Then we went out with me driving... we didn't take the camera with us that time.

Coming back in after I was driving.

My hair is pretty crazy from being wind blown!

Then Carl went out by himself.

Carl said that the jet ski had even more power with just him on it!

Carl coming back in...

Finally Galen took Gracie (the dog) out for a spin.

He had told us that it would be smoother if we got to higher speeds -- we didn't get up as fast as he was able to go!

The jet ski back on its lift

After our rides, we sat at the dock and enjoyed the wind and waves -- and a family of ducks that paddled by...

There was an eagle overhead seemingly considering duck soup for dinner, but the ducks did not seem to be bothered.

In the evening, we went to Manitowish Waters for a concert in the park (or concert in the dark). Boats came up along the shore to enjoy the music.

There was a Tiki Bar with drinks available.

Folks brought folding chairs or blankets and sat outside to enjoy the evening.

Our group waiting for the concert to start.

The concert started at about 8pm -- it was still light when the music started -- some of the children were enjoying dancing (or running around) in front of the stage.

After they took a break, it was dark, there may have been some alcohol introduced into some of the audience members, and there were a lot more adults on the "dance floor" in front of the stage.