When I take out the Cougar, I typically reserve my driving to around the Marshfield area. In many ways, taking a road trip with it would be cool, but from a collector's standpoint, I like to limit the amount of miles I put on the car, as well as the additional risk of damage that comes from being on the road.
The Cougar is also horrible from a pure road trip experience compared to say my 2017 Focus, which I believe is the ultimate road trip car. The Cougar lacks cruise control and air conditioning. Not having either (especially in the summer) would be miserable over long distances. The suspension and other technology aren't the greatest, so a long-distance ride can become uncomfortable. Not to mention the best I gas mileage ever got with the Cougar was 18mpg (compared to my 40-50mpg I regularly get with my Focus).
As you can see, the Cougar isn't the greatest car to take on long trips. With that being said, I still like to take it out on the highway for shorter trips and put a few highway miles on it. In this case, I had half of a tank of gas I wanted to use up so I could put fresh gas in so it could sit over the winter.
I figured North Wood County Park would be a perfect place to explore. This county park is only about 12 miles from Marshfield. We used to camp there a lot when I was a kid, and there's a lot of cool places to take pictures.
Some of the best drives are on the alphabet highways. You take County A to get to North Wood County Park.
When you turn in, there's a long road that is tucked between some fields.
There's a split in the road where you can go to the campground or around to the day use area that includes a swimming area, picnic areas, and disc golf. We headed towards the day use area.
We took it a bit slow and made it to the pavilion area where I parked the car, and we got out to explore.
North Wood County Park has been around a while and still has old school pit toilets.
We decided to walk over by the playground and then off to the dam. There was a large branch of a tree down due to a recent storm.
We got a good view of the suspension bridge.
We then got close to the dam, looked at the suspension bridge again, and then the vast open areas around the park.
We walked towards the suspension bridge.
We noticed some kayakers enjoying the lake.
North Wood County Park has been around forever. The stone building where there's flush toilets and a place to change for the swimming area has been around since 1940. It was actually dedicated in 1935.
We continued to walk towards the suspension bridge.
The suspension bridge freaked Victoria out, so I went solo on it. You can get some great views!
I made it to the other side, where the campground is located. I saw a hiking trail I was tempted to go down, but Victoria was still waiting for me on the other side.
I decided to come back and walk across the suspension bridge.
I looked over at the corner of the swimming area. This swimming area is stagnant, and I always thought it was kind of gross to swim in (the actual area where it's sectioned off isn't as bad).
We hopped back into the Cougar and then drove around a bit more. I decided to stop at a bridge and get some pictures before heading back to explore the camping area.
We made it to the camping area to be greeted by high water. The gates weren't closed, but I wasn't going to risk it with my Cougar like some other people decided to do.
I turned around and headed back to Marshfield.
While I didn't get to explore the campground, my mission was accomplished for using up the gas I wanted to. I took the Cougar to the gas station and filled it back up. I then went and put it away in the garage.
This little mini-road trip was fun in the Cougar. It was nice to take it out a little bit and also see North Wood County Park again. The suspension bridge is always fun to walk across, and there's a lot of natural beauty in the park. Maybe next time the water won't be as high, and I'll be able to go across and explore the campground.