Plans Optional

An artful, traveling retirement.

North Country

We’ve had a wonderful time exploring the upper Midwest, including a long stay in Eau Claire near where our daughter is in college.

Eau Claire Hipcamp

Initially we had trouble finding a place to camp in the area. This is going to be one of the downsides to our new, more spontaneous approach. We dug deeper and uncovered a gem on Hipcamp, which is a campsite equivalent to AirBnB where land owners allow people like us to stay for a fee.

The campsite was like a park and we had the entire thing to ourselves, even over the July 4th weekend.
I had a chance to finish up our map, placing dots on our 2026 travel locations thus far.
We attended an outdoor concert, reuniting our daughter with our dogs.
Cleaning fountain pens, getting back into my Sundered Isles game after a long hiatus
An experiment. Tried painting a night market in watercolor for one of my games.
The slower travel allowed more time to notice nature’s details, like these beautiful mushrooms.

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

We crossed over into Michigan and found a first-come site on the shores of Lake Superior at Black River Harbor, thinking it’d be a nice cool place to spend a week. Little did we know that a “heat dome” would soon bring our temperatures up into the mid 90’s. Not great weather for camping, but we got in some nice hikes prior to then. On the three hot days we packed into the RV and made air conditioned road trips to nearby towns to take in sights like the extensive murals in Ashland, WI. We also did laundry and made a grocery run. Overall, it wasn’t my favorite stretch of weather, but we made it work and we’re looking forward to cooler temperatures soon.

Took a ~3 mile hike with the dogs one of our first afternoons to see nearby waterfalls.
I hiked an afternoon solo on the North Country Trail and was amused by the variety of signage that appears deep within the national forest.
But then the dreaded heat dome arrived, effectively driving us indoors for 3 days.
Genius! Every car wash should include a self-serve pet wash.
Sadie strongly disagrees.
Ashland, WI has numerous murals concentrated in the older part of downtown.
The variety of subjects was wide, with most giving a nod to the town’s history.
I especially thought my dad would appreciate the veteran mural, with all the different uniforms.

Onward!

We’re off to 4 more stops in the U.P. before we move into the lower part of Michigan. In the second week of August I’ll be flying from Traverse City to Jacksonville for a flurry of annual monitoring appointments.

After we wind our way through Michigan, we’ll stop at the farm again for another reset…and to watch some early season football games with family!

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