Epsilon Adventures

2 July

Explored Voyageur National Park. Today we played as if we were Canadien Voyageur’s from old, rowing an old canoe and doing the activities needed to successfully engage in trade with the native peoples to acquire beaverskins. These skins were used to create the very stylish and fabulous beaver hats of the day very popular in Europe.

FROM THE MOBILE DESK OF COLLEEN:

Small adventures–our first week on the road to Alaska has been full of them. Some of them are fun and some are stressful, but we learn from and are changed by them. Since we bought our first Airstream in 2021 (a 2019 Bambi Sport 16RB we named L’il Epsilon) we have been living and learning about ourselves and our beautiful country.

Steve and I decided to follow in the steps of our friends Bruce and Shirley and to seek out National Park (NP) trips. Prior to 2021 we had traveled to 9 NPs.  Prior to 2025 we have traveled to 25 of them. Our goal is 20 NPs in 2025. It’s good to have goals!

Our first week on the road brought us to the RV museum at Elkhart, IN. We wanted to follow our RV heroes Marc & Trish Leach from Keep Your Daydream (KYD) of YouTube fame (https://www.keepyourdaydream.com/category/youtube/). We wanted to see the “Bird” from KYD and the history of the RV industry in the United States. Our second stop was Indiana Dunes NP and State Park. There is so much to do there we barely scraped the surface, but we will go back. It is close to home–and it’s a beach!

We then made our way to Madison WI. There is a cheese tour that starts there and I was interested in trying some of the different cheeses Wisconsin has to offer. We sampled many at the farmers Market in downtown Madison, had lunch at Fromagination (https://fromagination.com), and drove to some shops in the surrounding area. While in Madison we stumbled into the rich history of Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW) who was from the area.

We parked at Monona Terrace (https://www.mononaterrace.com) a public place designed and built by FLW which was beautiful and had a lovely tribute to him throughout the building. We then made our way to Taliesin, his home. We arrived late in the day and were unable to book a tour, but enjoyed the restaurant and gift shop. We had dinner at Ishnala Supper Club. We were told the difference between a plain ol’ restaurant and a supper club was Supper Clubs make an experience of it. The supper club expects you to spend time in the bar, browsing the grounds, and then, after doing that for a couple of hours, enjoy fine dining. We did it AND highly recommend it! It reminded us very much of the Angus Barn (https://www.angusbarn.com) in North Carolina (though they do not call themselves a Supper Club). Nevertheless, we will definitely be trying other supper clubs in the future!

We were then back on the road heading north. We stopped and camped at a marina in Duluth MN (https://lakeheadboatbasin.com). It was lovely to walk and see the boats.

At the end of the week we arrived at Voyager NP. We are staying at The Pines of Kabetogama (https://thepineskab.com) an RV resort which is lovely.

Those were the highlights of the first week. However, the small adventures that tested us were:

1. The heatwave that settled over the mid-west during this week. We pivoted from boon docking on our first day to harvest hosting at a location with electric and from dry camping at the NP in Indiana to the state park so we could have electric. Air conditioning while sleeping is divine when it is hot. 
2. We forgot to turn off our water pump after a pit stop on the road and ended up flooding the RV. It was nothing that couldn’t be cleaned up quickly, though!
3. Driving through rough traffic in the Chicago area with a camper and a nervous passenger (Colleen). Editor’s note:  I don’t know when Colleen is actually NOT an anxious passenger; perhaps she should elaborate more for the Passenger Princesses out there?!
4. Not being able to swim at Indiana Dunes State Park

I believe bumps along the road create character and teach us to love one another through irritations and calamnities. They are often times more important than the fun things we have planned. Sometimes we suffer well and other times not so well.