Day 43 Mercer, WI-Conover, WI

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Jo: Beautiful sunrise at the Loon Lagoon in Mercer, WI. After the guy's morning chores (Alan took out the trash and Kevin washed the coffee pot) they took off for Conover, WI. Then Janut made sure the rack was secure, secured the electrical cord, filled the water bottles, and walked the Bob dog. I swept the floors, beat the rugs, dusted, bushed some of the dog hair off the seats, and cleaned Bob's water dish. It was a short ride day, so Janut, Bob and I didn't have much time to sightsee. We saw a 16 foot loon (Mercer, WI, is the loon capital - the red eyes are for seeing under water, and they can fly up to 80 mph), bought more ice, ate PBJ sandwiches on soft fresh Italian white bread (mmm, fresh soft bread...funny how the small things in life can make you so happy), and stopped at the forest service office to see the first smokey the bear head. We were bummed because the office is closed on Mondays...but as we walked away a forest service guy came out and asked Janut if we needed any help..."uh, we just wanted to see the first smokey the bear head" ... he smiled and invited us in! I had no idea it was made from a real bear head! It was kind of creepy looking. Not much else to see as we drove along the country roads...we did see a giant dart, a lady get her mail, and a bug on the side window hanging on for dear life for about 2 minutes. We detoured thru the Star Lake campgrounds and really liked the lake side camp sites in the west campgrounds...we really liked one site (see picture), but we had to move on to a campground with showers for the sweaty bikers! We saw Kevin and Alan coming out of the Burnt Bridge Tavern, and drove beside them to our destination for the evening, the Buckatabon Lodge and Lighthouse Inn in Conover, WI...looks like an old holiday/vacation trailer park...but they have showers! For dinner, chef Kevin made Knorr pasta in Alfredo sauce, grill master Alan grilled juicy pork chops, and I pushed some microwave buttons to heat up chopped broccoli. I did my daily shoulder exercises outside. Another day's gone.