We woke up to blue skies and a little wind. We were happy considering the rain was gone. Now we can hit the road and move on.
The first stop we made was the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay. It didn’t open until 9:00 am so we took our time getting ready. The admittance fee for going through the museum and riding the train was a very reasonable $12. The faculty was very nice. It had a huge building with a gift shop and the McCormick Train Pavilion. The train pavilion houses a lot of old trains and you can walk through many of them. This was cool because it gave you a chance to see how people traveled by train. They also have outdoor displays of old trains where you can walk through some of them and others you can look at via a platform or walkway. They have one of General Motor’s Aerotrains (only three were ever built), it was built to keep up with the public love of airplanes and automobiles. It was a high speed train in the 1950’s but failed because it rode too hard, was uncomfortable and people wouldn’t ride it. There is an observation platform outside that give you a view of the Fox River and Green Bay. In order to get to the top you had to climb 99 steps but there’s a rest point after each eight steps. We climbed to the top and there was a beautiful view. The train ride was 25 minutes and the conductor talked about the sites around the National Railroad Museum. He also talked about the Hobo car on site. After the train ride we watched a movie about the Big Boy. Larry bought me a jigsaw puzzle called Horse on Iron by Werner Willis. We had a super time walking around the grounds and going for a ride on the train.
Model of Aerotrain Sleeping compartment in the Eisenhower WWII Train
Union Pacific #4017 – Big Boy The observation tower
Lambeau Stadium The train we rode
Next we stopped at Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary. There was an indoor area for children to interact with wildlife, similar to some nature centers. They have an area outside where you can see wild animals that were given to them for rehabilitation. They take care of animals that are hurt and once they are healed they release them back in the wild. The animals on site are animals that can’t be reintroduce to the wild for different reasons. Each display tells people why the animal is still there. We walked around saw deer, turkeys, cougar, fox, snakes, coyotes and birds. There are hiking trails in the park and an amusement park. Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary was very well kept up and we enjoyed it very much. It was free, at the end of our visit Larry went to the gift shop and asked if they accepted donations, they had a donation box hidden in the back.
One of the deer One of the turkeys
One of the coyotes
From Green Bay we traveled on to Boot Lake Campground in the National Forest. As we were driving there we saw a lot of farms and wild turkeys (a hen and four chicks) on the side of the road. The hen saw me and took off and the chicks followed. It was very easy to find a campsite considering no one was there. It did not have cell phone or internet but it has a lot of hiking trails and a couple of lakes. There is no power or running water. There are bathrooms but they’re vault toilets.
Once we settled in we went for a walk. We walked down to the boat ramp and beach area. Then after dinner we went for a half hour walk around the campground and part of a hiking trail. We have had a lot of rain but the trail was ok, just a little soft. Every site has a lot of trees and is beautiful. We really like camping in the National Forests because it’s so peaceful.
Boating on the lake Larry playing with the water pump
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I would love to hear friendly comments on anything at all. Ruth