Weborg in May (Part One)

I was right...dammit..I was soooo RIGHT!

...So there's this tiny (little) campground spot within a more massive campground in Door County, WI and I was bound and determined to actually "camp" there one day.  That day came recently the weekend before Memorial Day 2010, but not without some careful, strategic reservation.  If you have read my blog, you know that I have written at length about the Peninsula State Park in Fish Creek, WI. and how much FUN there is to be had there in general.  Well, just add to that "usual fun" the possibility of being in the slipstream of dozens of migratory birds and voila...nirvana!

From the many other times that I had camped within the State Park, I had gathered enough of a sense that all that I needed to do was rely on timing and location, to substantially pick up the avian action.  To that end, I started HERE on the greatest camping reservation system known to modern man; Reserve America.  Weborg is a tiny footprint made up of only 12 sites.  It has both its own flush toilets and showers however and is one of the more sought after areas in the entire Peninsula State Park.  Firing up the old computer, navigating my way to the RA site; I then read the caveat on the RA site that said: Booking Window - Reservations must be made 2 day(s) ahead of arrival and can be made up to 11 month(s) in advance.  To put the whole experience into perspective;  I had to "back up" from the weekend I had targeted, 11 months and cross my fingers.  That basically meant putting something on my calendar for 12:01 AM, June 21st to get me in there (if I was fast and lucky enough) on May 21st of the following year.  Crazy eh?   Yeah, crazy like a fox.

I will tell you that when that date and extraordinarily early time came, even though I was Birdstudy-on-the-spot, I still only barely landed my site, getting the final one available within Weborg.  Don't think that me (Mr. Sceptic) doesn't wonder if there's some under-handed tom-foolery going on there within the bowels of the RA hierarchy, offering clandestine sweet-heart reservations to big money contributors...  C'mon, you just KNOW that's got to be happening...right?  The next thing was to explain to my wife why in the hell I would reserve a campsite in May, in (almost) northern Wisconsin.  Yep, it can still be doggone cold then.  I fretted over that one for a few moments on how to justify the insanity, then decided it didn't matter to me...I had NAILED one...YES!

When the time actually came to gin up familial interest and excitement in my admitted folly that next spring; a wedding invitation and graduation party threatened to derail my train.  Still unassuaged I soldiered onward, committed even if I were to go by myself.  Thankfully my oldest son Nelson (just finished with his Junior year at U of M, and home for a spell) gleefully signed on for the trip.  This was shaping up to be a real honest to goodness "Dad and Lad" time for the both of us...now, could I just get Nelson to watch a few birds with me? 

(Watch for Weborg in May  part two...)