We found ourselves in the unusual position of having two weeks free and no
set plans for that period. In the prophetic words of
Meatloaf "
Do ya know what it's like? All revved up with no place to go." After leaving Madison on August 2, our next
firm destination was Elk River MN on August 17 for a motor home service
appointment. Two weeks with nowhere to go! What to do? A little
research found
Buffalo Lake Camping Resort in Montello WI, about 65
miles north of Madison. Buffalo Lake is relatively close the Wisconsin
Dells, which we have never toured and close to several potential paddles. It is
also a Passport America member, meaning half-price camping. The park
seemed to have positive on-line reviews. So, we called and reserved for
4 nights, and off we went.
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| On the road. See the shiny new boat? Life is good. |
We arrived at Buffalo Lake
Camping Resort without incident, and they assigned us site #51. It was a
terribly hot day, so we hooked up to power right away, as we usually
do, so we could run the A/C. We have an Electrical Management System
(EMS) which monitors the condition of the incoming power and cuts us off
if it detects conditions that are out of spec and could damage our
120 VAC system. The EMS showed clean power, but when the A/C came on, the
voltage dropped to 102 VAC and shut us down. Not good! While shut down and under
no load the pedestal voltage rose back to 120 VAC, so the EMS
re-connected us and the A/C came back on. Then the voltage dropped
again, and cut us off again. This continued for several cycles, before I
disconnected from the pedestal. It was certainly no good for our
electrical system. I hooked into another box on the same pedestal, but
the same condition existed. Finally I unhooked again and turned or the
generator so we could cool the coach, and then hiked up to the office to report
the problem. It turned out that the park had been upgrading their
electrical system over the summer, but had finished for the season and had stopped
before finishing the pedestal at our site. Using a 30' 30 amp
extension cord I carry, we were able to reach another pedestal on
another site that had the improved service. We are probably the only ones who have ever hooked up to this pedestal who have such an EMS. Consequently, others were likely unknowingly operating their rigs at low voltage, perhaps damaging their equipment, and never reported a problem. All is well now, and everyone is
happy and cool. On 30 amp service running both A/Cs is iffy. It might work, but
if the water heater comes on or if we use the microwave, it could trip
the breaker on the pedestal. Thankfully after the sun lowered, temps
dropped and we were much cooler the rest of the week.
We had originally signed up at Buffalo Lake for 4 nights, meaning a Thursday check out. We currently had no home for the upcoming weekend. Good camp sites on a summer weekend in the upper Midwest are sometimes hard to find. Kinda like in the winter in Florida. We decided it would be nice to stay here through the weekend. It was a nice place, and there were still things we wanted to do in the area. Buffalo Lake had a 4-night maximum on the Passport America discount, so I figured we probably couldn't re-up at that rate. But I marched down to the office anyway to negotiate. The good news is our site was still available for the weekend. The bad news is she wouldn't give me the Passport America rate. She did offer the Good Sam rate, which represented a 10% discount. I countered with 3 nights for the price of 2, representing a 33% discount and she agreed. That's almost as good as the Passport rate. It's fun dealing with a family owned camp ground. We are now set through the weekend and a Sunday check out. Life is still good.
There is an abandoned granite quarry in downtown Montello. The city has installed pumps and created five artificial waterfalls that drop back into the lake. At night the falls are all illuminated. Pretty cool.
Now, off to have some fun!
