It's Not All Perfect

Not much going on today. Rainy, cold, and windy so we went to look for a place to have breakfast. We found the "Robbins Nest" and it was really good. Very cute place with lots of local crafts and photos on the walls. After breakfast we went to check out Hayward. Normally in a town that is a "hot fishing spot" the fly shops are easy to find.... not here. Didn't see one. So we got groceries and went back to camp. This campground is really dismal. The site is small and all dirt and with this rain it is all mud. Not a place we would recommend.

We decided to go back to the casino and sit in the parking lot where we could get wifi and work on the blog. Naturally we had to play a little (and give some back....).

Wisconsin was only a pass through state and we really haven't been impressed so far with what we've seen. I think it is truly a sportman's state and you need to really spend time here (atleast a week if not more) to enjoy it.

You Need a Rainbow...

Well we knew we would have to leave Michigan eventually, but we loved it! Now weeks of wilderness will come to an end. I can't believe we spent almost a month here. Driving along Rte 28 W out of Michigan and into northern Wisconsin on Rte 77 a beautiful Monarch butterfly came through my window and landed in my lap. Unfortunately it didn't survive. We crossed into the Central Time Zone today, this is our 9th state. We saw 5 deer in the first hour in Wisconsin. We are driving on the Great Divide National Scenic Highway. It runs through the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. We stopped for lunch at a roadside park that was located on the Great Divide. This is one of the points in North America where the water coming from the northern rivers flow to the Atlantic and southern rivers flow to the Gulf. It is 950 ' above Lake Superior and 1550' above sea level. There is a wonderful diversity of plant and animal life in this area. The byway passes through forests harboring black bear, timber wolves and white-tailed deer. It crosses lakes, swamps and bogs alive with beaver, loons and bald eagles. We have seen several large beaver houses and can hear the loons on the waterways. Along the road we saw several signs warning of Elk on the side of the road with blinking lights and we also saw strange purple triangle boxes hanging in the trees. We are wondering what they are for.

We had a terrible time trying to find the Lake Chippewa Campground today. "Adora" our GPS took us the wrong way and had a very bad day. We had a very close call today driving down the back road. It seems drivers like to pass over double yellow lines in Wisconsin. This guy passed a tractor coming in the opposite direction on a two lane road, over the double yellow, right for us. Ken hit the brakes and manuvered the coach so the "clown" could go between the two vehicles. It was very scary!

We came to Hayward specifically to fish, but you can only get a 4 day license here and we won't be here that long. There were several articles in our fly fishing magazine about this area, but it is mostly lakes. It is rainy and kind of dreary.

Finally we found the campground, got set up, and then went to dinner. We had a great waitress at "The Ranch" who answered our questions: The elk here are tagged and when they are within a mile of the lighted signs they blink to warn drivers. The purple boxes are researching insect infestation in the woods.

We found the Lac Courte Orielle Casino so we decided to stop after dinner. As we got out of the car there was a nice rainbow right over the casino. We knew it would be lucky and it was.... we both won $$$ - Yeah!