Mellen, Wisconsin
June 12th – June 16
I met my friends from Minneapolis at the next campground I visited. I drove across Upper Michigan, stopping in Munising for fuel, and the Marquette Meijer grocery for food. It would be my last visit to a Meijer store. I was used to their products as I always shopped at their store when living in Oxford. I stocked up on my favorites including Halo Top Keto Ice Cream. I continued on to replenish my fresh water tank in Wakefield and passed into Wisconsin, west of Ironwood.
A short distance west of Mellen, I pulled into the rustic Beaver Lake U.S. Forest Service Campground. It was my first stay at a site with no electricity or showers. I would be using propane to cook and electricity from my 2 lithium batteries. There was no cell service, and since I needed to log into work each morning, I had to drive back towards Mellen until I got a signal to connect using my iPhone hotspot. Each morning, T traveled to the USFS Penokee Trail Head parking area, 10 miles east of the campground for my work day. Since my hours in Michigan were 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., in Wisconsin I needed to be at the parking area before 6 a.m. At first, this might seem like a big inconvenience. However, If I thought back to what I did in Michigan before “Covid”, it was much better to drive 10 miles through the forest to a trail head, then 42 miles each way to an office in downtown Detroit. My temporary office in Wisconsin included fresh air and singing birds, instead of traffic and noise.
The only downside to the campsite was the swarms of mosquitos. Fortunately, we enjoyed a couple of breezy days that gave us some relief. Cost for the sites was nominal, as we benefited from our Senior Park Service Passes.
On Thursday, we hitched up and headed for Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. As that was just on the other side of the Mississippi River, I was officially “out west”. Here I will visit with my mother, now in her 90s, and 2 of my 3 sisters for a few days before heading to the mountains.
Starting All Over 