Posts from the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Pepin, WI – Game of Thrones

The SeaLand Traveler 511 – Porcelain at Its Best

In every life the rain must fall, and the same holds (no pun intended) for porcelain toilets.

Look what arrived in the mail . . .

After 12 years our SeaLand toilet gave up the ghost. Unlike conventional house heads which us a water trap to cap noxious odors, RV toilets use a valve to hold water.

However, over time the valve seal degrades, the water trap stops holding water, and the seal must be replaced.

To replace the seal, the toilet has to be removed, turned over, and a new valve installed. And there’s no guarantee that it will all work perfectly again.

So . . . I met this guy in our campground who ran an RV service and could get me a brand new SeaLand at cost. (It wasn’t like “Psst, buddy, want to buy a toilet”, but pretty close.)

A week later he arrived with a very heavy new porcelain throne.

Long story short . . . out with the old, in with the new . . . well, I did have to modify some of the old plumbing from the original toilet because RV service guy got the wrong toilet model. Oh, yeah, and then there were the fresh water leaks I had to fix.

But after half a day on my knees, it was all over. Ta da.

The New Throne Installed

Stockholm, WI

It’s all about pies

In Stockholm, WI it’s all about pie . . .

Stockholm Pie Company

Continuing with the food trend, both Jan and I made our own trips to the Stockholm Pie Company. This was on the advice of my sister Mary. Damn good advice may I add.

Neither Jan or I went for a whole pie because at 18-inches, they are a bit much. But you can buy by the slice which we did.

My pie of choice was Apple Crisp and Jan’s was Triple Berry.

Microwaved and ala mode — get outta here.

There’s more to Stockholm than just pie

Stockholm is pretty kitschy. Lots of quant, brightly-colored old buildings. Plenty of places to drop a few bucks (and then some).

However, there were also a lot of “Stop Sand Mining” signs all over the town.

I had no idea what sand mining was so I Googled it.

Digging a little deeper, I found that the sand that is mined is a special kind of sand (frac sand) used in fracking.

Because fracking has taken off, so has sand mining.

Pepin, WI – Why We Came Here

BBQ Pork Tenderloin

Food. That’s why we came to Pepin, WI.

Harbor View Cafe, Pepin, WI

In the mid-90’s we took a road trip in our 1982 Nissan 280ZX (the car that talks).

Aside: This was the car we drove one summer to the El Tovar Hotel overlooking the Grand Canyon.

Anyway . . . some time (we forget the year) in the mid-90’s we stopped at the Harbor View Cafe, waited in line with everyone else (there are no reservations) and had a great meal. A GREAT meal.

It’s a dinky restaurant that seats maybe 20 people tops. But the food! OMG . . . it’s all from scratch. Just the fresh bread is a meal.

So 20-some years later we returned in an RV instead of a sports car. That in itself is telling, eh?

Anyway, we’ve had two lunches at the Harbor View Cafe so far and we have not been disappointed.

Both Jan and I had a BBQ Pork Tenderloin sandwich with new potatoes and cucumbers marinated with cilantro and a curried lentil soup.

Yum.

Pizza on a Farm

And then we were told about great pizza served every Tuesday on a farm near Stockholm, WI . . .

Farm Pizza

The directions to the farm pizza were the kind that tax a GPS. I kept getting warning messages from our CR-V’s GPS and dotted lines on the GPS that led off the map.

Along the way, I passed Saint Sophia’s (a Liberal Catholic Church).

When I found the farm, it was like a speakeasy in the woods. Like everyone there was in on a secret. Very cool.

By luck, a VERY large group arrived at the order line before me and ordered SEVERAL pizzas — but each pizza only took about 5-10 minutes to prepare.

What???

Pizza Ovens

Then I saw the pizza ovens. Big.

I bought some maple syrup from one of the local farms that was collected this spring.

And the pizza? Very good, but you had better like garlic.

NEXT: Stockholm, WI and pies.

Pepin, WI

Lake Pepin Campground

Arrived at the Lake Pepin Campground on Sunday, May 11.

Pepin House I Liked (not a shed)

This is a “seasonal” campground — most sites are occupied by people who have the site for an entire camping season. However, most of these folks just seem to visit on weekends, so Jan and I pretty much have the campground to ourselves during the week, except for a handful of people who are here full time.

The campground’s web site says there are 130 sites, but the owner is adding another 50 sites which are already “pre-sold” to another batch of seasonal campers.

So every weekend the seasonals show up to boat, fish, and generally work on their places.

Another Pepin House I Liked

Sheds are big. Literally. My site neighbor, a full time seasonal and Burner (more on that later), said it all started when one of the seasonals put up a shed the size of a small  house on his site. It took off from there. For example, this morning a large, loud vehicle dropped off a shed on the site behind us.

According to my site neighbor, someone is living in one of the large sheds. He figures this is true because there’s a satellite TV antenna hooked up to it.

Seasonals are busy folks. A lot of them are building wood decks next to their campers. However, a lot of them don’t like mowing the grass on their sites which annoys the management.

Back to my site neighbor . . . the Burner. He’s a very congenial guy and very smart, but he’s always burning stuff — morning, noon, and night — and he mostly burns garbage. Little fires that smolder and smoke.

Pepin Has Alleys

We love this place. Really.

When we first arrived, we thought staying a month in Pepin was a mistake, but upon further investigation and exploration, it’s a great small town.

It’s quaint and cute and all that, but it’s more. Pepin has alleys. Though I grew up with alleys, I haven’t lived in a place with alleys since then. Pepin has really nice alleys.

We know this because we’ve pretty much walked the whole town every day. That’s what having dogs is all about. We’ve tried to take 8-month-old Flirt on a long walk each morning and afternoon because otherwise she’d bounce off our RV walls at night.

Anyway, the walks have been great. Jan says I’m getting tan and losing weight from these walks. The former is true.

Flirt and I have  gone up and down First through Seventh Streets from the campground (which is at one end of town) to Dunn Street (the other end) where they’re working on the sewage treatment plant down by the railroad tracks which are about 1/2 mile from the campground.

Pepin Marina

About those railroad tracks . . . I’ve heard that people who live close to a highway, airport, or railroad get used to the noise. We can vouch for that. Those trains roll through here day and night and the heavily loaded ones vibrate our motorhome.

Did I tell you that we love this place?

We do. Really.

Finally, the weather has been harsh. Mornings have been generally ok, but afternoons have been thunderstorm after thunderstorm.

We’ve been in a number of severe thunderstorm and at least one tornado watch.

Wisconsin was at the northern end of storms that devastated Oklahoma.

May 19, 2013

NEXT POST — The reason we came to Pepin.

Rivers Edge Campground (Stevens Point, WI)

We left the Village Inn campground at about 11 am on a cold, rainy Saturday. The Village Inn in Two Rivers, Wisconsin was our home for about three weeks while we both finished our jobs.

Cold May Skies in Stevens Point

We chose the Village Inn because it was conveniently located and it was one of the very few campgrounds to open in April. And this Wisconsin April had temperatures well below average that dropped into the 20’s during several nights.

We ended up using a lot more propane (for our furnace) than planned. However, we mostly relied on our heat pumps which worked flawlessly.

Shortly after leaving Two Rivers, the rain turned to sleet which, fortunately, was short lived.

Instead of driving directly to our next destination in Pepin, Wisconsin, we stayed overnight in the Rivers Edge Campground in Stevens Point.

Rivers Edge Campground, Stevens Point, WI

Rivers Edge is a “stop over” campground — you stop there on your way to someplace else. It’s not a destination. We’ve seen several campgrounds like this one, and I’m pretty sure we’ll see many more.

There’s nothing necessarily bad about stop over campgrounds as they usually have adequate facilities. In fact, Rivers Edge was well laid out, had a good store, swimming pool, plus a pub near the campground entrance, but . . .

It’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

For example, the “seasonal” (or long-term residents) have the best spots near the Wisconsin River.

Graupel (aka snow pellets)

Finally, the cold weather followed us to Stevens Point and we were pelted with graupel (snow pellets) several times during the day.

Well, like Scarlett O’Hara said, “Tomorrow is another day.”