Lake Winnebago We Go

This next destination is a county park in Calumet, WI. This park is on the water, the campground is less than 200 yards from the water.

The park hosts are really nice folks that are flexible. When we pulled in Tom noticed the size of our trailer and suggested a move to one of the larger pull-through sites, and of course we accepted.

LOOKING ACROSS FROM OUR SITE

BASKETBALL COURT

CLIMBING JUNGLE GYM

CONFERENCE ROOM / CLUB HOUSE

Out past the trees is the water... and what goes well with water... fishing. Four boats can launch at one time.

The park is a no frills county park that has a nice playground for the children, a conference building, and an observational tower.

In its heyday it was the water tower for the Fond du Lac Table Company. In 1936, under the federally funded Work Progress Administration it was moved to Calumet Harbor, and erected at Columbia Park, as a navigational aid. Today it is an observation tower, and navigational aid open to park visitors. Me the "I'm uncomfortable with heights" guy tried to climb to the observation deck, and managed to get up 87 steps of the 100+ steps. The biggest reason for not completing the exercise was the wind; as I climbed higher, the wind was blowing harder. I will make another attempt on a day when it isn't so windy.

This is a nice restaurant, and within walking distance of the campground too. Fridays and Saturdays they have bands playing live music.

Saturday we went for dinner, before the music out on the patio. At this supper club it begins with checking in at the bar for a table, having a drink of your choice, ordering your meal, then being escorted to your table. 

Once the diner is seated, the server begins bringing your soup, salad, bread, and eventually the main course. Carol and I made it simple for our server, we had prime rib and sea scallop combo.

I had the rice pilaf, Carol had the twice-baked potatoes.

Carol had this blueberry cheesecake, with blueberry drizzle, I unfortunately had a poor copy of a cherry pie, which was not worth taking a picture of. After dinner we took a nice walk along the waters edge, better known as the boat dock.

Another night we took a walk around the park, and saw Bigfoot leaving a party... took his empties and went home.

You meet all kinds on the road. In one of the souvenir shops recently, I saw a t-shirt that said "Bigfoot saw me, and no one will believe him".

The little town of Calumet and Pipe have some unique points of interest. 

This is the second oldest building in Pipe, WI. It was the town bank, and now it is the local butcher shop, with good meat by the way. What I do find confusing is the town sign that welcomes you to Pipe, but all the address signs in the yards indicate Calumet, not to be confused with Calumetville, just down the road.

Another unique P.O.I. is the antique tractor store, which is in the big town of Calumetville, five miles from Calumet.

Out front is the attraction causing people to stop and gawk...

I decided I needed a project to do, so I worked on the cab roof marker lights.

You may be asking yourself... why does he wants to mess with these lights... because they leak during periods of heavy rain. When I first noted the issue, I took the truck into the Ford dealership in Wickenburg, AZ. They verified my assumption, and ordered replacement lights. The lights came in, but they said they were the incorrect ones, and put ours back on. THAT WAS A MISTAKE. They did a shoddy job putting them back on, and they leaked even more. 

Back to me taking the project back on. I got out my trusty 3-step ladder and removed the lights, one at a time, and put silicone caulking around the opening into the cab, then secured them back down. The outer four were pretty easy from the step ladder, it was the center one that took a little ingenuity. Here comes the ingenuity... I opened the front door all the way, lowered the window, braced the door with the step ladder, and had one foot through the window opening, the other on the passenger seat. The mission was successfully completed.

Here we are on another local mission, and this one pertained to food, cheese specifically. The first stop was to the LeClare Creamery, all the way in Calumetville.

This creamery has a lot of goat milk products, including some of their ice cream.

This silo originally stood on a farm nearby for over 100 years. It lasted so long because of its tongue-and-groove construction, no nails were used in its construction. The openings and ramp were added after it was moved to LeClare Farm.

The structure is now home for the goats, which are natural climbers.

These guys enjoyed the tree too. This pen had about five goats, only one actively attempted to eat the tree. Matt was to the rescue, I pulled the branch down a bit more for ease of access. Later I actually broke off a couple of branches for the other guys to chow down on. Other animals on the farm include llamas, and some cattle, and chickens.

Their motto here is "eat, shop, tour", and we accomplished 2/3rd of it, the tour was closed due to a private event.

Our take away included several flavors of goat cheese... and a scoop of ice cream, made from cow's milk; they do offer ice cream, in pints, made from goat's milk. Talking with some of the locals that frequent the farm, the eatery serves up some great food. Outside there is a greenhouse full of plants to decorate anyone's yard or garden.

Like I said earlier, this journey was about food, so our next stop was in Chilton, WI, at Vern's Cheese Company.

Need anymore need to be said...yes. We did not buy any alcohol, the photo was for research. The distillery that produces this brand is south of where we are currently, and may require further research when we get to Breezy Hills Campground.

I will leave you with this following note on todays journey...

This is how I challenged myself this morning...

PANORAMIC VIEW FROM ATOP THE TOWER

For those of you who really need to know, it is 121 steps (includes observation deck) to the top.

ACROSS TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LAKE

ENTRANCE TO PARK AND PRIVATE MARINAS

SEE OUR RIG IN THE TREES

IN THE MIDDLE LOOKING DOWN FROM THE TOP

While I have been conquering fears, Carol has been beading along smartly.

She has started several others, but the patterns made no sense, so she stopped doing them, but is on the march with another bead project.

We have been keeping ourselves busy with a few recipe experiments too. 

ALMOND FLOUR BISCOTTIES WITH CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE

MEAT LASAGNA WITH BACON NOODLES

The original recipe called for deli sliced chicken as the noodles. This lasagna is a meat and cheese lovers dream of a lifetime. It contains ground beef, bacon, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, and parmesan cheese. The alfredo sauce is broth (beef or chicken), half and half, cream cheese, garlic, butter, and parmesan cheese. Stop that drooling, it makes a mess.

This afternoon was a part of a good day, it started to rain.

Its hard to see, but the rain is steady, causing run off from the roof. It brought back my childhood days of playing in the rain. I put on my rain jacket, went out into the rain, and did some puddle jumping... not over, in... what a joy. Walking along the boat dock I had the opportunity to see fish jumping out of the water everywhere. What a walk.

Carol and I drove down the street to another park to see what it was about, and it turned out to be walking trails.

Shaginappi Park is 100 acres of wetlands, prairie, old-growth forest, and shoreline. 

The only questionable decision we made going to this park... it rained the day before... and made part of the trails a bit muddy.

The rest of the trails were pretty much grass covered. Down one of the trails is a lodge, the Rotary Lodge, that was built in 1939 by the Fond du Lac Rotary, and at one time served as the main dining hall for the old Camp Shaginappi Boy Scout Camp. On our little excursion we saw a gold finch, which I was too slow in getting a picture of, butterflies, and frogs

These little frogs were everywhere.

Also along the way we also saw many berries...

WINTER BERRIES

WHITE MULBERRIES

BLACKBERRIES

After our hike we took a drive to get diesel for the next leg of our trip, and it was only $3.25 a gallon, which is pretty good now days.

One more experiment recipe...

Our last weekend should be interesting, there is a fishing tournament Sunday, it is only Friday and some of the vendors are already setting up for the event. It is my understanding there will be food, drink, and live music... can't wait.

Next stop is Breezy Hills, so there probably won't be much to talk about.