2018 Summer RV Trip – Day 40 - Salmon Spread & Door County Wrap-Up

It finally happened on our last day in Door County – a 25 degree temperature difference.  The primary reason I wanted to visit northern MI & WI was to see if they would be a good place to beat the summer heat in TN and we had already decided the answer was no.  But on Wednesday we finally got what I had been hoping for the entire time, well maybe not this much but it was 90F at home and only 65F here in Egg Harbor.  I talked with a friend in Knoxville and he said he had already lost 10# of sweat while working on his RV that morning.  This was only the 2nd or 3rd time we've been able to open up the coach and I had hoped to do that most days during this trip.

For our last day in Egg Harbor, the girls went out for a little last minute shopping including some fruit pies for the road and we began stowing items for the trip – mostly the girls wines – they found several they liked and I found none so I would not recommend Door County for serious wine but it’s good for sweeter grape and fruit wines.

Can you believe that while channel surfing on Wed. morning I came across Andrew Zimmerman’s Delicious Destinations, and there was the episode from Door County that included the Pelletier’s fish boil we went to. 

He also covered Al Johnson’s with goats on the roof, which we saw but didn’t wait in line to eat.

I had mentioned earlier that our smoked fish was very salty and I planned to make some other things with it so I looked up my recipe for smoked salmon spread.

Smoked Salmon Spread

Larry’s Recipe for Copper River Clone

8 oz hot smoked salmon, chopped, or more to taste

8 oz softened cream cheese

8 oz sour cream

2 tbsp finely diced onion

1 tsp lemon pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

4 tbsp roughly chopped capers, drained but unrinsed

1 1/2 - 2 tsp dried dill weed

Let cream cheese come to room temperature then mix everything together but the salmon.  Add salmon and mix until desired salmon chunk size is achieved.

After siting the fridge for a day, I tasted and added another couple ounces of salmon and it was delicious.  If you decide to make it (and you really should), just go by the recipe then taste and add more salmon to your taste.

Door County Wrap up

Door county is definitely a tourist Mecca with lots of places to visit, plenty of golf, beaches, lakes, restaurants, small towns, and shops but it is not solely a tourist based economy as there is a lot of agriculture with fruits (2000 acres of cherries), corn, and soy beans as the dominant crops – it was sad to see the drought damaged corn.  A fun fact from our trolley tour – Wisconsin is America’s 5^th largest cherry producer, all in Door County, while Michigan is first and second is, surprisingly, Utah.

The main activities seem to be water related with 300 miles of coastline, golf, biking (just as in MI), and driving up and down WI-42.  When you drive away from the west side of the peninsula, it’s easy to imagine the area before it was “discovered.”  The one attraction we did not see was Washington Island as the girls had no interest in the car ferry ride but I understand it is more of a throw-back to the older days.

As for the Egg Harbor Campground and RV Resort, it is a nice campground but a long, long way from a resort.  It is mostly heavily wooded with the section we are in being open but trees have been planted and with no cable or local channels, TV will not be an option at some point.  Power, water, and sewer all worked fine, but I never could get connected to the Wifi and had to use my hot spot.  As I mentioned earlier, the roads were very tight for our rig and they were gravel/sand, along with the sites so we were always dealing with plenty of dust or wet sand.  The campground was very well kept, the staff was friendly and helpful (picked up our trash throughout the day), check-in was easy and efficient.  

I believe Door County is a good place to visit at least once and the campground is fine for now but less so for big rigs – there were limited campground options for us in the county.  I’m glad we spent the time in the area, but since the cooler temps can’t be relied on, there were plenty of bugs, and it is real touristy & pretty crowded, we likely have no need for a return visit.  Colorado high country remains my go-to beat-the-summer-heat-retreat but I still want to give the Maine coast a try.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

8/29/18 Event Date