Traipsing Through Wisconsin

This past summer, Kaitee decided that she was going to use her work vacation days and travel by train to Boston for a week. While she planned, Matt & I blocked a few of those days on the calendar to take advantage of one less kid at home - road trip for us!

To catch the train, we drove Kaitee to Princeton, IL (a little over an hour drive). Our initial thought was to hit the road directly after dropping her off. There were a lot of "what ifs" and unknowns going into that weekend, mainly that Maddie had just had foot surgery (would she be okay on her own so soon?). Ultimately, we decided to wait until Monday to make a decision about going or not. 

We arrived in Princeton and headed to lunch with Kait. While we were eating, she received an alert that her train was delayed by an hour. We ran a few errands and then went to wait in the parking lot. 

Que the storm clouds...

The clouds opened and it POURED! We made a mad dash for the train platform - thankfully it stopped raining by the time the train arrived. We said our goodbyes (she would be gone for 8 days) and headed back home.

Sunday evening, Matt & I decided to hit the road after I finished at work Monday morning. 

Monday Morning, sitting in the van:

Matt: Where are we heading?

Me: Shoulder Shrug...🤷

Me: Wisconsin? Let's head north on 61 and I'll look at the map and come up with a plan before we hit Wisconsin. 😁

This is something that we had never done (on overnight trips). For the planner in me, it was nerve-wracking. 

Day 1 (Monday), our first stop was in the Wisconsin Dells area. We rode the free car ferry across the Wisconsin River, into Merrimac. 

We made a quick restroom stop at the HUGE McDonald's in Wisconsin Dells - made to look like a log cabin.

Matt wanted to try to find some of the letterbox series, "Wisconsin Counties" by Britcon Pride. He had found a few of them on previous trips with the twins. His ultimate goal is to get the stamp image of each county (to complete the state of Wisconsin).

The first letterbox of the trip was in Baraboo (home to Circus World) - Walnut Hill Cemetery. This cemetery is the final resting place for the Ringling Brothers (see their mausoleums below). It is also where John Duckens is buried. Duckens was born a slave @ 1820 in Kentucky. He escaped in the early 1850s, eventually making his way to Wisconsin (Baraboo/Mauston) where he purchased land and worked. He died in 1894.

From Baraboo, we headed north into Mauston (another county box found) then into Friendship, WI to find our third county box and visit Roche-a-Cri State Park.

With the exception of our first stop in the park, it was pretty quiet. (there was another couple at the first stop). The rock formations were impressive and the petroglyphs were an added surprise that we didn't know about. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes were horrible in this location so we didn't stay too long.

We then headed to Top of the Rock Trail - for a hike up the staircase (all 303 stairs!). The view from atop the rock was amazing! We were thankful that the mosquitoes weren't bothering us at all at this stop.

We left Roche-a-Cri State Park and started heading towards Plover, WI to see the World's Largest Potato Masher! Along the way, we saw this wayside park and stopped to see the rock formation up close. We later found out it was aptly named "Ship Rock Wayside". 

Once in Plover, we found the Food & Farm Exploration Center, where the World's Largest Potato Masher is displayed. The masher was installed in 2023, is almost 40 feet tall and 7500 pounds! Impressive!!

Who needs a tree when there's a masher to hug!!

We were very impressed with the landscaping, lighting and other nice displays outside the center.

As the sun was setting, we looked at hotels in the area as well as dinner options. We enjoyed a late dinner at Monk's Bar & Grill (we loved seeing our Iowa Hawkeyes in Wisconsin!) then drove 40 minutes north, into Weston for our hotel - allowing us a better starting point in the morning. 

Day 2 (Tuesday) - we woke up to the sun shining and the promise of another beautiful fall day in Northern Wisconsin.

Our first stop was near Poniatowski, WI to see (stand on) the Center of the Northwest Hemisphere. There are 4 such centers (Northwest, Northeast, Southwest & Southeast Hemispheres) on Earth. Two of these are on land (Northeast & Northwest centers) while the the two Southern centers are in the ocean. 

We parked in the small parking lot then set out on foot to the marker. We were surprised by the 1/4 mile walk to the marker - it was nicely done - but we weren't expecting the walk. It was a nice way to get our day started.

We were the only people there and took the time to read the signage and take pictures.

I wish we had a napkin or towel with us to clean off the marker - it was pretty dirty.

Really cool bonus was this commemorative coin that we received. 

Our next stop was Dells of the Eau Claire County Park. We knew that our time was limited as we had a timed stop further up the road, so we didn't walk any trails in this park. It is a beautiful park, so we will spend more time hiking and exploring if we are ever back in the area.

From Dells of the Eau Claire, we drove east towards Marinette (Peshtigo), making a few stops to look for more of the county letterbox stamps (we found one). Once in Peshtigo, we stopped at the Historical Museum for a quick tour and history lesson on the deadliest fire in US History (Oct 8, 1871). 

The museum is an old church (the first church rebuilt after the fire). Going into the restroom, we found this sign 😃

The museum had a large display of historical pieces and it was time well spent as we walked through, taking everything in.

Leaving Peshtigo, we drove south on Hwy 41 to see this marker - We were officially half way between the north pole and the equator! They did a great job of adding a pull off and added the sign to a large rock. 

From this point, we had to decide if we were going to head north or south for the night. We looked at our map and decided to head south towards Door County to visit 2 parks. 

First stop was at Potawatomi State Park. Matt & I visited this park a few years ago but the lookout tower was closed for repairs. I had heard that it reopened this past summer, so we stopped to climb to the top and enjoy the view. It was incredible! WOW!!! By far, the best view from all of the Door County towers.

Last stop for the day was at Forestville Dam County Park. 

Day 3 (Wednesday) - our plan was to start heading home but take some time at a few parks as we made our way back to Illinois. We stopped in Appleton to see the 46 foot tall Ticonderoga Pencil (and grab some lunch). Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the pencil is located inside the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers stadium - so we were only able to see the pencil from outside the stadium.

From Appleton, we headed south along Lake Winnebago. We stopped at High Cliff State Park and did a short hike as well as climbed the overlook tower to enjoy the view of Lake Winnebago.

Continuing towards home, we made 2 quick detours to cemeteries - one for a county letterbox (no luck) and another stop to pay final respects to my Uncle Phil and take pictures of his gravestone. 

We continued heading towards home - stopping only for gas and dinner. We arrived home much later than we hoped/planned (we both would be back to work the next day and we prefer to have a few hours to unpack, unwind! Instead we pretty much headed straight to bed.). While we arrived late, we were so thankful for our day of parks & cemeteries. 

Wisconsin is such a beautiful state with so much to offer! We truly enjoyed our time away as we drove through the state, visiting parks, seeing some fun "oddities" and finding some letterboxes. Our only regret was that we didn't have more time to see & do more (including meeting up with extended family)!

While we were traipsing through Wisconsin, Kaitee was exploring Cleveland and Boston! One of her favorite moments was sitting in the Cheers bar - in Norm's seat! - drinking her favorite: Shirley Temple!

Some sights from her day in Cleveland...

She absolutely loved Boston!

And then she was home!!

She loved her time away and really enjoyed the freedom of exploring what she wanted to see/do, at her own leisure! She is already looking at ideas for next years vacation!