We left Petoskey, MI and headed back over the Mackinaw Bridge for the third time in about a week and a half. By this time we were pros! We drove just over 300 miles almost all the way through the Yooper (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) to arrive in Northern Wisconsin to stay at the Borderline RV Park.
We decided to stay at the Borderline because our friends, Kirt Warner and Pam Mercer, from Myakka summer there and we wanted to spend some time with them. They had gravitated to this area as Kirt’s grandparents had a place there for years where Kirt had visited as a kid.
We arrived in time to take their pontoon out on the lake where their cabin is located called Black Oak. We got to see this bird with eagle eyes looking for fish:
We had a great ride with them and Bear. We were able to stop by the beach and let Bear play in the water. He was in heaven! We headed back to their place right before the rain came in.
Since it was Friday we headed over to Bent’s Camp for a traditional Wisconsin Friday night fish fry (they use Spotted Cow beer from the New Glarus Brewery):
Bent’s Camp was established in 1896 on Mamie Lake which is part of the Cisco Chain of Lakes. Check out the front door:
It was beautiful! A destination location for cabin rentals, fishing, hunting, and snowmobiling for many years. An interesting aspect on the interior was that the walls and ceiling were covered with birch bark.
The fish fry was good and I had the Wisconsin traditional cocktail, a Brandy Old Fashion, to go with it. We took some pictures out on the deck overlooking Mamie Lake:
On the way out in the parking lot we noticed a snapping turtle nesting right next to the tire on the car next to ours. We talked two guys into grabbing it and moving it off into the woods so that she won’t get run over.
Good deed for the day – completed! When we returned to the campground Pam and Kirt showed us the clubhouse. This mannequin lady was standing just inside the door:
Since we had a long day we crashed in the coach as soon as we returned to the campground.
On Saturday, Kat and Kirt went to play pickleball in the morning and since the weather stated that it was going to rain and thunderstorm all day so we decided to do a pub crawl and check out some local bars. Across the street was this sign so we had to stop and take a picture:
Next to that sign was this one:
We started the pub crawl by going to the Burnt Bridge Tavern located in Conover.
We sat at the bar and ordered Bloody Mary’s and their signature snack – pretzel roll.
It was a typical Wisconsin tavern where we sat at the bar which overlooked a grassy area where they put out food for the wildlife.
Unfortunately we didn’t see any animals whilst we were there. They also had an outdoor bar that wasn’t open when we got there but looked like it would be a fun area to sit and relax. We did play Shake-a-day and bought pull-tabs. Pull-tabs are a state run lottery game, while Shake-a-day is a bar specific dice game with unique rules and a half split on the money jar. I think that we need to start this game at our bar in Myakka!
The next stop was at Bauer’s Dam Resort located on the Lower Buckatabon Lake.
Nice place where we were able to sit and have a drink!
From there we drove around the lake to stop at the Buckatabon Lodge & Lighthouse Pub.
We stayed indoors as the wind kicked up and was directly in our face out on their deck.
We ran into two other couples that we saw at our first stop and talked with them a bit. There was a guy at the other end of the bar who was celebrating his birthday and his group was a little loud. I saw this sign attached to the ceiling and thought it was funny:
We were able to get outside for a picture of us with the little lighthouse and the lake in the background.
A nice stop! It was the first time that Pam and Kirt had been there.
Our next stop was at the Black Oak Inn
where saw another carved wooden door
and we ordered their cheese curds made with Spotted Cow beer from the New Glarus Brewing Company in Wisconsin. You can only buy Spotted Cow in Wisconsin!
Excellent cheese curds! We saw this sign
and inquired about the liqueur. We opted to try a shot of Malort’s and all agreed that it was the worst tasting liquid that we ever ingested.
Someone told us that in order to get the taste out of your mouth that you need to go into the men’s bathroom and eat the urinal cake. We didn’t! On the drove back to the campground and since the mosquitoes were so bad, Kirt taught us a childish song that goes like this:
There’s a skeeter on my peter whack it off. There’s a skeeter on my …..
Childish but funny as we added new verses and laughed along. Sorry (remember that was stop 4) can’t include those verses in this PG-rated blog. We headed back to the coaches to get cleaned up before going put for dinner. I was excited for dinner as we were heading to the Twilight Supper Club – a Wisconsin supper club! Growing up we would go to supper clubs and they include a relish tray, whiskey old-fashions, four or five piece band, and dessert grasshoppers.
Definitely a tradition! The Twilight was good, but not the type of supper club that I remembered.
Sunday morning we went to the Forest Lake Country Store for breakfast where I had a delicious homemade french toast!
From there we went up to Paulding to hike around the Bond Falls. Short hike, but the falls were very nice:
Check out the ducks braving the waters above the falls:
Did you know that a group of ducks on the water is called a ”raft”? On land they are called a ”brood”. See, you can still learn something at your age!
You got to love the way Mother Nature works – look how these trees are growing around the rocks:
On the drive back we stopped at the Paulding Lights location. Although we didn’t get to see them as they are only visible at night we did hear about the story.
Apparently when you stand at this location you can see different colored lights coming towards you down the old railroad track. Multiple experts have witnessed the phenomenon but no one has been able to explain why they occur.
We headed back to the Borderline RV and made dinner and played games in the common area.
The view across from the table we ate at and played games:
Kids will be kids:
And I guess I’m no exception!
Saying goodbye to Pam and Kirt the next morning was sad but we knew that we would see them in a few short months back at Myakka. We left about 11:00am to head to our next location where we would be visiting friends from our home town, Libertyville IL.
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