Kicking Around Kewaunee

While we were in the Manitowoc area last month we took a drive to neighboring Kewaunee to see what it was like.  I had just got my iPhone the previous day and decided it was time to figure out how to use it as a camera.

The photo above is proof I am not vain, right?  I am most definitely not digging the saggy skin aspect of perimenopause, but have to get used to it so there it is for the whole world to see.  Still, we do love the hat and my new glasses, right?

Kewaunee has a tugboat you can tour for the bargain price of $1.  Proceeds go to help preserve the Tug Ludington, of course.  The tug was constructed for World War II and participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy by towing ammunition barges across the English Channel.

After the war the tug was transferred to Kewaunee by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and assisted in the construction and maintenance of the many harbors of the Great Lakes.

The iPhone came in handy again when I got a snap of Wayne behind the wheel.  Katrina and Cory enjoyed the copy I sent them, and I was ushered into the technology of the new millennium...ta-da!

The City of Kewaunee officially acquired the tug in 1995 from the Federal Surplus Program.

There was a fishing derby in progress while we were there, and as we were leaving the tug and watching the boats going back and forth I suddenly remembered why the town of Kewaunee kept kicking around in my brain.  They have a U.S. Post Office mural! The building was right across the street, but I remembered a half hour too late and they were closed for the day.  Rats!

So instead we drove around some more and Wayne decided he needed to try to find a Geocache.  He crawled around under that tree and walked around that breakwater for a good 20 minutes to no avail.  He also tried to find one over by the tug, also without any luck.  I wandered around with my camera taking photographs like I do.

Cedar Waxwing

Evening Primrose

While the Bladder Campion below is considered a weed and doesn't flourish in spots with high quality soil, I still find its blooms rather pretty and its presence between the cracks in the rocks was a welcome distraction from Wayne rooting around in the bushes for trinkets.

We didn't get a close look at Kewaunee's lighthouse pictured with the Evening Primrose, perhaps when I return looking for that elusive Post Office mural someday.

Twice the Light in Manitowoc

If you're in Manitowoc you can park by the dock where they load the ferry that crosses Lake Michigan to Ludington and get a nice view of the Manitowoc Breakwater Light.  When we were there last month Wayne couldn't resist a walk out there and afterward we gawked at all the folks getting on the SS Badger with their campers.  We'll probably do it ourselves someday.

Not only is there a lot of gulls but the geese were guarding the pier as their territory as well.  We edged around the sassy Patriarch of the group and hoped we wouldn't have to swim the rest of the way.

There were a couple of guys fishing and a few boats made their way past as well.  The ferry to Ludington, Michigan was loading for its journey too.

I don't know what the story is with the smaller light.

After we saw it from a distance we had to see it up close too.  The parking lot for the walkway out onto the North Breakwater is past the Maritime Museum on your way to the town of Two Rivers.  The walk was about 10 minutes each way and we enjoyed the breeze off the lake.

The light is still active, so you can't go inside but you can access a walkway on the outside.

It was no coincidence that we timed our arrival with the departure of the SS Badger.  Wayne loves boats.  Even I will admit this one is a little different than the rest.

Today we're not on Lake Michigan, we drove the fifth wheel up to Bayfield way up at the top of Wisconsin and are just a couple of miles from Lake Superior. I'm sure we'll see a few more lights while we're up here.  Hope we get to see them as up close and personal as we did the ones in Manitowoc and Two Rivers.

Fans of the TV show "The Killing" will be happy to hear that Netflix made a fourth season to finally wrap the show up properly.  The fourth season was an emotional roller coaster and I don't remember ever feeling so pulled in.  They really do know how to make a show, the character work is unreal.  If you've never watched the show be prepared to have to give the first season a little time to grow on you, but it's all worth it.  I cried watching the last episode this morning.  What Wayne has to put up with, I tell ya.  Surprisingly I didn't get razzed about it at all.  What's he up to, I wonder?

Right now we're cooking our respective dinners at the campground, Wayne his grilled chicken and red potatoes sauteed with garlic and butter.  I'm on a mission to get some more iron into my diet.  I had my yearly physical a few days ago and the results show I'm a little anemic.  Ironic (ha ha) since I wasn't anemic when I was following a vegetarian diet.  Longtime readers of my blog know of my digestive saga for the past year that put me back on meat.  Since I cut corn out a couple of months ago (so hard to kick the popcorn habit!) I'm doing much better with fruits and vegetables so this week I'm reintroducing a more vegetarian style of eating and see how I do.  I bought some black beans, raisins and spinach to help boost my iron since my doc wants to re-test in a month.   Tonight I'm making a spinach and black bean quesadilla for dinner - yum!

Monarchs and Milkweed and Dreams of Flight

I know I promised to keep talking about the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, but honestly I'm just not in the mood for such a serious discussion today.  So it's Monarchs and Milkweed from the Rawley Point Trail instead.  My head is in a fluffy and flighty place.

Why is my head in a fluffy and flighty place?  I had the best work day ever...an experienced Optician is joining my team, leaving me free to cut my 30 hour work week in half for the first time in a little more than a year.  Sharing is good, I'm more than happy to give.

Since she's experienced I'd say she'll be working alone within 4 weeks after she starts, which means that by the time we return from our October trip I'll have a much reduced workload.  What does that mean besides an obvious cut in pay? (Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed the increase in funds... but I have less time to spend the money!)

That means that if I want to go camping in the middle of the week I probably can.  If I want to take a long weekend and zip down to Kentucky for some hiking in the winter, I probably can.  If I don't want to stay an hour after the patients go home trying to catch up on paperwork...well, you get the idea.

Even before I knew she was going to be hired I sent an email out to one hiking buddy of mine letting her know that a fall get together is looking possible.  My mind also keeps drifting to how nice Oregon looks in May.  Linda keeps saying she'd like to go hiking with me...it might be I'll show up in her neck of the woods with my tent in my suitcase next spring!

The Three Masted Fleet

I never know where I'm going to find my next mural for Monday Mural.  I found this one inside the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc.  Tomorrow I'll tell you about the rest of the museum.

Most bulk cargoes were unloaded from the three masted schooners by hand until 1867.  Can you imagine loading and unloading a schooner full or iron ore by wheelbarrow?  It took a gang of workers up to 3 days to unload a ship.

The fleet of 3 masted schooners on the Great Lakes carried bulk cargoes such as wood, coal, iron ore, copper and salt.  When the lakes opened up the ships ran nonstop and made as many passages as possible before ice once again closed the lakes.  When steam freighters began to have access to the lake sailing vessels were converted into barges and towed behind steamers.

Wayne thought this was probably a grain elevator across the channel from the museum.  I liked the gulls circling around the Budweiser sign.  Maybe they need a brewski after a hard day flying.

Placentia Lift Bridge Collapse

Remember back when I posted about our short recent trip to Newfoundland I mentioned they were building a new lift bridge to replace the old Ambrose Shea?

View of bridge pilings and construction progress from Ferndale Road in May

We made that effort to stop by the bridge and watch it lift for a passing boat because we didn't know if it would still be there when we returned.  They've been having some trouble building the new one for the last couple of years due to budget concerns, but it looks like they've been closing it at night this summer to get work done.

Well, I got an email from my mother today about a collapse.

photo courtesy of VOCM website

The word is not official yet, but they're thinking a cable let go.  Hopefully they'll get it sorted out because the new bridge is not due to be up and running until 2016. Putting in the new bridge is going to cost more than 40 million, which sounds crazy until you think about all that goes into the new bridge.  It's not just the design, the manpower and the materials, its the permits, the road realignment and the dismantling of the old bridge as well.

Give all that some thought the next time you drive over a bridge!  Meanwhile, here's to a quick solution to today's problem as the folks in Placentia are kind of stranded without it, or at least their cars are since the could always hop in a boat.  The main highway passes into Placentia from Argentia and that is the only way in from that direction. As you keep going out the other side and leave Placentia behind you are getting further from civilization with no easy way back.


The plans for the new bridge from the construction website:
Scheduled for completion in the spring of 2016, the work consists of building two 58 metre long temporary trestles with 600 millimetre pipe piles and a deck to enable a 150 ton crawler crane to construct the two new central piers deep in the Placentia Bay. The new lift bridge will consist of 9,290 metres of 325 millimetre pipe piling; 2,200 square metres of sheet pile used as a cofferdam; 4,100 cubic metres of concrete; 1,000 tons of structural steel; and the mechanical and electrical components to allow the central lift span to open for the shipping lane through the narrow water channel.


During construction, the team has encountered tidal ranges of over three metres with swift currents. The piling required for the south pier and south abutment has increased substantially due to changes in geotechnical conditions, which has required deeper driven piles. Once the bridge substructure is complete, structural steel will be erected. The centre span will be the major challenge as it involves shutting down the shipping lane to allow the erection of a 100 ton span using the mechanical and electrical systems of the permanent structure. The entire span of the bridge will be 100 metres, consisting of two approach spans and a centre 30 metre span.

Riding Rawley Point Trail to the Mariners Trail

When we left the forest on the Rawley Point trail we crossed the road and it continues out in the open into Two Rivers.  It gradually transitions from gravel to paved as you get closer to town.

That heavy camera pack messes with my balance while riding

We saw a variety of plants and trees as we looped behind the residential area on the outskirts of town, including a small patch of Lupine by a pond.

We stopped and talked to two little girls and their grandmother who were out with butterfly nets.  They had caught a few in a jar to take home and mount in their collection.  Wish I had thought to ask if I could take a picture of them with their nets and jars!

Hoary Alyssum

It took me two weeks to identify the flower above, which was everywhere along the trail in Two Rivers.  It is considered invasive, is non-native, and in Michigan is considered a noxious weed but doesn't appear to be listed as such yet in Wisconsin.  I saw it again in the parking lot at Bald Bluff with Barbara and Ron and finally identified it after that.  It was very attractive alongside the trail and since it was so plentiful I thought it was a native wildflower which is what took me so long to find a way to identify it.

Rudder art

Once the trail gets into Two Rivers it ends and there are small brown signs that point the way through town to connect you to the Mariners Trail.  It's a nice ride through the residential part of town and along the beach.

Rogers Street Fishing Village exhibit

You finally pick up the Mariners Trail at the Lighthouse Inn.  It runs alongside Lake Michigan from Two Rivers to Manitowoc and has lovely landscaping along its paved surface.

If you're up for a long ride you could take both trails and go from a lighthouse to the submarine museum in Manitowoc.  We can't ride that far, so we settled for stopping at the Hamilton Wood Type Museum which wasn't far past the Lighthouse Inn.

I hate to give bad press about a museum, but unless you're really into this type of thing skip this one.  We paid $5 each for a 5 minute tour and we tried to stretch it out, but the exhibits are just laid out on a warehouse floor without much effort to make it interesting or engaging. The equipment was cool to look at, but not worth the admission price or worth a special trip.

Mentioning the submarine museum was a teaser, we'll get to that visit next!

Point Beach Hideaway

Alrighty then, it's finally time to finish talking about our trip to the Manitowoc area.  It was 2 weeks ago after all.  We stayed at Scheffel's Hideaway in Two Rivers.  It's very well kept, and those of you with satellite would love the big wide open area for the sites.  It's next door to the Point Beach State Park and the Rawley Point Bike Trail so you have easy access to both of those, and being more open than the sites at the State Park the mosquitoes were a bit decreased.  However, we paid $42 a night for FHU and I felt this was a bit extreme for an area that isn't a tourist destination. Yikes, right?

Now the mosquitoes were only decreased and not eliminated because that treeline behind us was dense forest with the "swales" that breed the nasty little devils.  Just two sites over was a spur trail to access the Rawley Point trail.

bike trail with iPhone

I stopped the bike and shot the trail with my iPhone because I couldn't hold the phone and ride.  But, thanks to the basket on the front of my bike holding my camera pack I could easily grab my Canon and snap a shot of the trail in motion.  While the iPhone definitely takes a great shot that I wouldn't complain about in a pinch, you can guess which camera I used after that.

bike trail with DSLR

The flying fiends were upon if we stopped so we just pedaled slowly and I only stopped twice for the mile and half that we rode through the forested area.  Once was for this bright fungus on a log.

From a distance I only caught the yellow and thought maybe it was a lichen but it was definitely a little "fresh" looking to be a lichen.  Gross, but cool.  (Identification update: physarum polycephalum)

My other stop was to capture the little Shinleaf blossoms that I spied toward the end of the trail before it crosses the road.

It is native to Wisconsin, the Midwest and New England and is not endangered.  So cute!  We did cross the road and continue on into town, but this post is about Point Beach so I'll tell you about that in the next post.

At the end of our first afternoon in Two Rivers we drove over to the State Park to check out their campground and the lighthouse since Wayne had never been there before.  Turns out he thought the campground would be extremely difficult for something as large as we are to get into so I made a good call going with the private campground.  I think coming here in the early fall when mosquitoes have died down to camp in a small unit under all those trees is probably wonderful.  The beach is even better than Kohler Andrae in my opinion and the trail system here is much better too.

Here's a copy of the State Park map if you're interested in visiting.  Don't forget the lighthouse is in current use by the U.S. Coast Guard so visitors are not allowed past a certain point.  It's beautiful there in the early morning as you may remember from my previous post of my solo trip.

While walking from the beach to the lighthouse we spied this interesting mark in the sand.  Anyone know what made it?  Some type of insect maybe?  It was very small.