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No rain last night, so we got a nice dry start. Today’s ride was to be just 35-38 miles, so we weren’t rushed and had a leisurely breakfast and futzed around blogging, etc.; something we came to regret later.
We were on roads for most of today, but they were some of the nicest, quietest roads we’ve been on ever. Again, very flat!
We stopped at the Walmart and Aldi’s in Marinette, Wisconsin, before we went to Menominee Michigan, its Twin City; as someone told us, one town divided by a state border. We went to the River Park Campground, our 2nd option for last night — and glad we didn’t as Badger Park was a better choice! We found a picnic table by the water, had lunch, and then headed north. A quick check of the radar showed that we might be getting wet later in the afternoon.
And we did, but not soaking wet. Just as soon as Dana finished the statement, “We may be able to beat the rain to the campground!”, a peal of thunder roared as if to say, “Ha, so you think!” There were very ominous clouds behind and in front of us, but at this point it was only sprinkling, and the temperature dropped quite a bit. We got out our rain jackets and carried on, scoping out every house or barn we passed for potential shelter. When the rain started to get a little heavier, we saw a shed and a barn down a small lane, just a few feet from the road, and both with open doors. We ducked into the shed which was someone’s shop/man cave as there were many tool boxes, power tools and a couple of cases of beer. As we were standing there, a woman from the house drove by in a car and waved and smiled. We took that as tacit approval to continue hanging out.
It was quite a storm with lots of thunder, lightning, and wind, but we stayed safe and dry. The man cave also gave us the opportunity to charge our devices as we waited. After about 45 minutes, the rain stopped and we continued on. We got to JW Wells State Park around 5 PM, registered, and headed towards our camping spot. Since everything was still wet, we rode over to the bathhouse to get our showers while the ground was drying out. Except it started raining again. We took shelter in a little alcove of the bathhouse — right by the camp host who invited us over to have a seat under his canopy.
Tom was on his last full day as camp host (along with his wife Dawn and their adopted daughter, Selena). He had been there since late May and was ready, as he put it, “To get home to my Laz-y-boy and sit in front of my big screen TV and do nothing!” He asked us if we rode through the mothball-sized hail. “No, luckily we didn’t get any hail at all.” He said some campers threw in the towel and packed up and left. And he gave us a couple of beers for later. Casey, the Park Ranger we met at registration, also stopped by for a chat, too. We stayed there until the rain stopped and then got our showers and went to the campsite.
The storms had passed and the sun had come out and with a strong breeze, everything dried pretty quickly. As we were making camp, Sally & John came over from their camper van to ask about our trip. They had sold their house south of Philly and had been living in their van for the last 7 years, with occasional stays in Air BnB’s. After a nice chat with them, we had our dinner, glad that we had escaped another bad weather event, and ready for some rest. That was after Casey stopped by with my seat cover that I had left in the office. What a great place with very nice people!
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