As usual I didn’t feel like doing anything. I knew if I would just sit down and doodle it out I would get on board for vacation and plan something fun.
I knew I didn’t want to go far and I knew I wanted to be by a city to visit a museum or two, kind of an urban camp trip.
I finally came up with Madison Wisconsin for our trip. Madison is a lovely city I have never had the pleasure to visit. The Dells were close by and nice state parks to camp in.
I also toyed with the idea of just Hollace and I take the AmTrak train to see Paula in Baltimore. I guess one of my prime objectives was for Hollace to really enjoy herself and our last trip out to Paula’s ranks as Hollace’s favorite vacation. I was planning on taking mom along since she has never been out there. Actually it was kind of her idea on the Amtrak. I didn’t want to drive out by myself nor did I think that was a good use of our vacation and I felt like I was too fat to fly out. I went to investigate train tickets for that week but couldn’t find sleeper cars available which was part of the adventure for me going Amtrak. I didn’t want to spend 18 hours sleeping in a seat.
I finally decided we should do this next year so I can get a proper reservation. Of course I knew RAW would be jealous of the train so we figured he would ride along and he rent a car to visit his relatives in North Carolina.
I felt bad when I commented on FaceBook on a photo of Baltimore of Paula’s telling her that next year we hope to come out. She comes back with “not next year, next week”. She then says she will pay extra if I can make it work with in the next 4 weeks. 
So Wisconsin it is for this year!
Saturday June 23
That weekend was Sarah’s high school graduation party so Hollace and I headed up to Manitowoc to celebrate. The party was held at a bowling party. Cousin Donna and her family came up. It has been awhile since I seen them. Her husband Steve asked me if I wanted to do a logo for his side business.
We ended up staying the night. I went off to Sherry’s and of course Hollace stayed with Emma. Sherry and I walked 90 minutes that night just for the exercise. While it wasn’t hot there it was humid and when I came back I was shocked to see my hair so frizzy and curly.
I went back to Cindy’s to hang out the next day. In a phone call, RAW mentioned that we should bring Emma with us on vacation so we did. We left Manitowoc at 3:00 for home.
Monday June 25
Monday morning we all headed out to Devil’s Lake SP. I was monitoring the weather forecast for the week and everything was looking good temperature wise until that weekend when all of a sudden the whole week was now mid 90s with Thursday’s forecast to be 102!
We get to Devil’s Lake without a camping reservation which isn’t really a good idea even when it isn’t a weekend because on 25% of Wisconsin’s are electric and even less are first come first serve. They only had 4 sites that we could have for only one night. If we come back Tuesday at 8:30 we can see if we can get one of four first come first serve sites.
Site 109 for the night was a lovely wooded site. We enjoyed the campsite while the girls dug a hole and made mud. They had fun that wasn’t connected to electronics which was important.
Of our options for the rest of the week we were hoping that site 7 wouldn’t extend their visit. All the available or hopefully available options were in the sunny side. Site 7 had a tree that could give us shade so we hoped for that.
Tuesday June 26
The next morning at 8:30 we drove past it and seen it was now vacant so we rushed up to the office and booked it. That tree we liked for shade ended up being more entertaining then originally thought when the girls climbed it and practically lived in it, reading.
After we loosely packed everything up and set everything back up on site 7, we headed out to The Dells. It is the water park capital but that wasn’t our objective. I wanted to walk around town and take a Duck ride. The weather wasn’t too hot yet so it was a good time. When I was a kid we rode the ducks and it was cold and miserable so I was looking to change that perception. The weather was perfect and it was a nice ride albeit expensive. Over $100 for the four of us. I know if was that expensive in the ’70s for our family of 6 I double I would of had that miserable experience.
On our way back to camp we hit the Walmart. You know there is at least one Walmart or similar big box store visits on our trips. This was the only trip the whole week.
Wednesday June 27
A visit to the big city of Madison was in order. It was much hotter now thanking God for working AC in the truck and the camper. While in Madison we visited the Museum of Contemporary Art and the State Capitol building. Was hoping to hook up with Shelley from BYB but that didn’t pan out. It was just too hot so eventually we left back for the camp site.
Thursday June 28
This was the day they originally forcasted to be 102. They backed off on that forecast a bit but it was still hot. I had planned for that day a visit to the Cave of the Mounds where the temperature is a consistent 50. I say good planning don’t you think? While at the camp site I just hung in the ACed camper and chilled and caught up on my reading. I finished up 50 Shades of Gray. Not really a good book to chill out to but whatever.
By 7:30 it cooled off so much that I actually went into the camper to warm up after venturing out.
I was was always checking on the weather for Fort Wayne where Dorothy was with a broken AC. Their temperature that day was 106!
Friday June 29
Dorothy’s 89th birthday! RAW keeps getting himself frustrated trying to call his mom. She can’t hear her cell phone and has trouble making calls. We finally get her on the phone to wish her a happy birthday. We debated on extending our trip one more night but it is just too hot and besides there were lots of loose planners like ourselves anxiously waiting for those 4 first come sites to open up for the weekend.
On the drive home Dorothy called to report that a big storm just went through and she had no power. We find out later that a 91 MPH gust went through Fort Wayne. It was reminiscent of our vacation last year when a similar gust hit our area. Mom said they had a good storm the night before with a good rain (we are in drought). Only our house didn’t get any storm or rain.
We get home at 5:30. Vacation is officially over.
I have Emma here until the weekend after the holiday. On July 5th I plan on taking Emma and Sarah (and of course Hollace) to stay in a hotel in Chicago where the whole entire week is again forecasted to be middle 90s. I am already sick of this summer.