The task ahead of us was to move west, our destination is Wisconsin. It will take us a couple of days to get there, long days on the road. Driving an RV is not like driving a car, your speed is slower and I drive a bit more conscious of the size of the vehicle. Don't get me wrong, the Doodle drives just fine and is actually quite fun to drive in most situations. However, unfamiliar small towns with narrow roads and eight lanes of truckers at 70 MPH can make me just a tad wary. With this in mind we do not let these situations make us stray from our course or from doing any exploration.
Goodby wine country, we will miss you
Our time in wine country came to an end too soon, but the drive west through New York State was spectacular. We have traveled west many times, always on Route 90, the New York Thruway. From our location near Hammondsport the most direct route west was Route 86, a highway we had never traveled before but certainly one I will take again. The road was a beautiful winding highway through the rolling hills of western New York and ended back on Route 90 near Erie PA. This was an awesome morning drive. The price of diesel fuel has been all over the place with a fluctuation of over a dollar..oh well.
The only picture we took at the park…must have been tired.
Once back on Route 90 heading west through that tiny part of Pennsylvania and into Ohio we began looking for a place for fuel again. We got fuel and had another quick roadside lunch and pressed on. We had a lot of miles to travel. The day ended in Maumee Bay State Park near Sandusky, Ohio. This turned out to be a 400+ mile ride. We try to abide by the 330 rule, no more than 330 miles and off the road by 3:30 - that didn't happen as we pulled into he park around 4:30 and once we got set up we were both just too tired to do much of anything. And it was hot, very hot. I wish we had more timeshare as it looks to be a beautiful park. After a few games of cribbage and a good supper we watched an episode of a series we are watching on Amazon Prime. I have an HDMI adapter for my phone so I can stream on my phone and push it to the TV. Works great. We crashed early as the following day was to be a real challenge,
What a way to start a day
We are heading right through Chicago. The Doodle was back on road by eight in the morning and we felt great about getting an early start. The came to an abrupt halt as we came to a railroad crossing where there were two trains across the road and the were hooking and unhooking cars. After about 10 - 15 minutes of this I turned the Doodle around in search of an alternate route.
Back on the highway
It was a good decision as we were able to drop south a couple of miles and find our way back to the highway. Driving through the countryside like this is really a nice way to go but today we need to make more miles. We ended up back on 90 and west toward Chicago. The GPS gave us a detour (said it would save us 25 minutes) right through Gary, Indiana. The area that we drove through looked like a war sone with burned out houses and shambles of buildings. Completely uninhabited neighborhoods and some with a few people here and there. This was uncomfortable on many levels. As we reunited with Route 90 we discovered that it was 6 to 8 lanes of traffic and lots and lots of large trucks, even some triple trailers. Traffic would be at 70 mph one minute then down to a crawl for several miles.
this guy in his fancy Mercedes didn’t have an EZPass…delayed us until they got it straightened out…
It was nerve wracking to say the least and I kept watching the fuel gauge drop. I seldom let it drop below a quarter of a tank, but here there was no place to get off easily and no fuel stops in sight. Westward we went then north, then west again and the fuel gauge dropped more. It was approaching the end of my comfort zone. Then we got off 90 and onto Illinois route 23. Suddenly, abruptly we were back in the land of sanity and within about two miles we found a fuel station and I filled up. It took almost exactly $100 to fill and of course five miles further down the road we found it for 80 cents cheaper...isn't it always the way. This was Illinois farm country, beans on one side of the road and corn on the other. And then we were in Wisconsin!
Wisconsin!!!
Pearces Farm Stand, what a place
Our destination for the evening was Pearce's Farm Stand in Walworth, Wisconsin. I was expecting a fame stand. What we found was the most outstanding farm stand in North America. The place was huge and they had all sorts vegetables, flowers and baked goods. This is the cleanest, neatest, largest farm stand I have ever seen. I was unsure where they wanted us to park the Doodle and within minutes I was chatting with Bob, one of the family that owns the farm and he took me on a golf cart ride to show me where to park.
Where we got set up at the farm.
We got settled in and had a great time walking around the farm and had a spectacular sunset. We played more cribbage and chatted about the tech and efficiency of the farm. There were quite literally thousands of potted mums, each with their own drip hose.
Fields and fields of potted mums on life support
The pots were laid out efficiently on a black mat covering the ground, and it looked like it must be swept clean every day. The whole farm looked like it must be swept every day.
Harper loved the mums
All the vegetables seemed to be grown in green houses, each potted with it own water supply. They use office chairs to roll up and dow the aisles between the plants. What an operation.
Neatest greenhouses I have ever seen
This is America. The places we have stayed, the wineries and this farmstead and the many places on other journeys represent the American Dream. People achieving their goals building a life from their ideas and efforts. This is what makes America so desirable that people will do just about anything to live here. Thanks to all who make this country such a wonderful place to be.
We had a great sunset
The following morning we were up and on the road in good time despite the fact that we only had a 3-4 hour drive. We stretched it out to an 8 hour day of course, stopping here and there along the was. We had Wisconsin 'custard' a frozen custard common here. It was delicious, Harper loved it. We stopped in Manitowoc, a town we had stopped in with the boat years ago during our great loop travels.
Parked along the Lake Michigan shore in Manitowoc
We made lunch at a park on the beach and walked the jetty watching people and boat traffic. The ferry from Michigan came in as we were there. A ghost gliding in through the fog.
Manitowoc harbor, ferry in the background.
The road along the lake shore was beautiful and we were winding along at a leisurely pace. This is the way all travel should be...we are not going back through Chicago. By 3:30 in the afternoon we were pulling into our campground just south of Ellison Bay on the peninsula that is Door County. We are here for a couple of days.
Harper, content at the campground
It is nice to have 'shore power' and a water hookup. Carol made hot dogs and salad for an easy supper and we watched tv and chatted. Rain is predicted for much of the next few days but we hope to get out and explore anyway.
Below is a gallery of images in no particular order, sorry there are no captions
