Madeline Island first day.

 Before I get into "Madeline Island first day"  A few interesting things.

CARS

The average price for a new car in June was $39,948.  The average price for a 1 year old USED car was $39,868.  ONLY an $80 difference.  Typically there is a $5000 difference and once a new car is driven off the lot it loses 7% in value.   Rough market for buyers but it seems sensible.  Remember, cars are basically big computers attached to an elaborate group of metal things.

 SHAMPOO

120 billion plastic bottles of shampoo are purchased every year and less then 10% are recycled and really, shampoo is basically water with some goo in it so transportation is a logistic nightmare with weight and so forth.  Totally inefficient.  The solution is to make shampoo into a bar form.  Unwrapped Life makes bar shampoo which has 8% the carbon footprint. 

On that same note - the whole "get rid of plastic grocery bags" thing,  Paper bags have a HUGE carbon footprint compared to plastic bags.  There is no free lunch. 

TOYOTA - the Olympics are so unpopular in Japan that Toyota has pulled all of its ads.

CANNABIS - a study of states that have legal cannabis as seen increased home values and cities that have dispensaries has driven property valuations up even more.  

Meanwhile in Colorado regulators published a report  showing youth cannabis use has not significantly changed since legalization. 

------------------------------------------------------------------

OK where were we. 

We arrived at the ferry in Bayfield which holds a spot in my brain. I have always wanted to go there.  

When I was a wee lad of 10ish I would listen every day to public radio and their weather wrap up in Wisconsin and Baaaaayfield was always one of the reports.  It sounded so exotic way way up there.

So we are coming into Bayfield and it is crowded. The idea was to get some groceries and so forth before the island but we drove all around the small town and there was zero parking anywhere for a camper.  Nada.   It LOOKED like a really fun town . . from the car dodging humans and small streets.  Buy groceries in washburn about 20 miles back.  

We decide to just go to the ferry.  The attendants are amazing as they fit the puzzle of cars, campers, huge RVs and semi's onto the platform.  The ride is about 15 minutes and we exit the ferry into La Point.  A pretty small working town with a couple of places for tourists but not that much. 

I talked to an art shop owner on why the Island was not ripe with touristy things and why are so many places closed.  He said it is a problem.  It's all about being on an island.  Do you want to work a low paying job that costs you $25 a day just to GET to your job?  The 300 full time residents on the island are older and don't want change (sounds like Columbus).  

So we travel to Big Bay State Park and it's hot.  86 degrees  WTF!!!    When I made reservations last year I wrongly assumed it would be like Door County and cooler being an island and all that. NOPE.

The difference is that in Door County the southerly winds had traveled 300 miles over 55 degree water.  On Madeline Island the southerly winds have gone over hundreds of miles of forests.  

We set up in blazing sun with no wind.  Takes about an hour to set up into our campsite which turned out to be WAY better than we expected. 

    Once that was all set up and my brother Ralls and Stacy were not here yet we took showers and decided to go into "town" to see what was there.

NOT MUCH!  Two "grocery" stores. One with 2 aisles of which 1 was all liquor, and the main store which was 3 aisles with 2 liquor.  

OK then.  So since Tom's Burned Out Cafe (no food) was right there we had to stop in.  

EVERYBODY crowded around Gus and we ordered $11 drinks and in a bit Gus saddled up to the bar and was a happy camper.   We talked to the locals about where to eat . . . . . basically there was no place to eat.  Most places were closed and even the food cart was closed for a Doctor appointment.   WELL - OK THEN.  

We did find Grampa Tony's open but the grill was closed 3:00 to 4:30.   We wandered around for a while letting people pet Gus and then as we are walking past the ferry Ralls is exiting the boat.  We wave and they stop blocking traffic and move on and we will see you later.  NOTE - this would be the start of a "Where's Ralls Now" comedy watch. 

OH - Did I mention there is ZERO cell service or Internet. 

About an hour later we swing by his campsite and I help out getting his 20 year old pop up up in the heat.  It's about 6:00 and him and I go into "town" to get ice.  NOPE - there is no ice on the island after 6:00  Everything is closed.  No gas stations on the island, no actual bars, no grocery stores.

I happen to have extra ice so I give him a bag.

It cools off and we all celebrate with some drinks and so forth but no fire. They are early sleepers and early risers.  We're normally up until 11:00.  

We get to our site and build a fire and Gus settled do in his spot.  He is so awesome. Somehow he has learned that when we set up or when we are packing to leave he will sit in his car bed and watch and not be in the way.  Never told him to do that.  

When we are in between and just doing things around the site, without us bribing him to sit somewhere he will just jump up in the camp chair and chill. 

 What we did not see when we were setting up was how great this campground is.  This is what we looked at as the sun was setting.  180+ degrees of wilderness. No other campers in view 

     

I would say 50% tent campers, 30% pop ups and 20% large RVs in the park.  

And that was day one. We went to bed and slept soundly in the quiet dark campsite. 

Tomorrow (the next day) we would see what is up with this place.