So this past weekend was the first of four planned camping weekends. We reserved a campsite down at Mirror Lake in Baraboo. Things started off kind of rough when we realized right outside of Fond du Lac that we had forgotten something kind of important (hint: rhymes with "girth patrol mills") so we had to turn around and go back home to get them.
On the road again, we made it generally unscathed down to Baraboo. The state park was easy to find and we got checked in around 4:00. We headed to the campsite and set up the tent. It was much easier this time since the pole arrangements had been kept intact from last summer. After camp was set up we hopped back in the car and went to take a spin in the boat. It was raining as we dropped the boat in and continued to sprinkle throughout most of the boat trip.
After we hauled the boat back out of the water we decided that since it was only 6:00 or so we would head to HoChunk Casino just down the road. We both lost our $20 and ate at their Stand Rock Buffet. They had a big Friday fish fry special which Adam loved. After eating too much we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things: bait, ice, an umbrella... We also got to see the world's biggest Menards. Trust me, it's big. By the time we got back to our campsite it had begun to rain again so we vetoed the campfire idea and decided to call it a night a little early. We got the best sleep of the night between about 9pm and midnight.
It rained all night, varying intensity and direction. We got up twice during the night to walk to the bathrooms and each time it seemed to starting pouring the second we opened the tent. It appeared the tent had a leak but perhaps it was just condensation because of the temperature difference. It was cold. Very cold. The air mattress was pretty much completely deflated by about 2am. *sigh* It was a long night.
The alarm went off at 5:30, but we had been up for an hour or so at that time. We had planned to go for an early-morning fishing trip but since it was still pouring we nixed that and headed to the showers. They totally sucked. No water pressure, hot hot water. Ugh. So that made me increasingly crabby. I mean when I went back to the car I dropped a dirty sock on the ground and that made me swear up a storm. Not a pretty sight. After calming down a bit we headed to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Adam had been so psyched when he saw that there was a CB right off the highway next to our campground.
After consuming mass amounts of greasy food we drove into downtown Wisconsin Dells to see if there was anything we wanted to do. We decided to take a tour on the Original Ducks. I know I had been on one years ago but Adam had never been. After waiting in a full duck for about half an hour, our tour guide, Topher, finally boarded and we were on our way, barreling through the woods and diving into lakes. It was a fun time. It left us slightly damp and very cold, so for our next activity we decided to do an indoor one - Tommy Bartlett's Exploratory. Good, clean, educational fun.
After partying with robots and whispering sweet nothings to each other in the whispering dishes we decided to try out Moosejaw pizzeria and brewery for lunch. Our server was a very nice Bulgarian named Dimitar. He was definately attentive. Adam had elk while I stuck with chicken. We also had some of their blonde bock and Adam got a half gallon of that to go. More on that later.
After lunch I felt crappy so I wanted to go back to the campsite and take a nap. Adamm was antsy so he went down to the pier and did some fishing while I slept off the booze. When he returned we headed down to Lake Delton to do some more boating and fishing. It was easier to get the boat in the water this time but then the motor wouldn't start. All the cranking and carb fluid and help from a fellow Fox City marina worker wouldn't get it going. Finally Adam rowed us out a bit and dropped his line. He caught various sizes of seaweed before hanging up the towel and heading back in. We had quite the time getting the boat back onto the trailer. I kept drifting (I was in the boat...) and the line kept getting tangled. Grr. After the boat was finally back on land we had a "towel in the river" incident and an "oh crap, there goes the glass bottle of beer rolling out of the trunk" incident. This made for a second trip to Moosejaw where the bartender recognized us. He must thing we're alcoholics.
After a stressful afternoon we had to make the decision to stay at the campsite or head to a hotel. I was in favor of sticking it out at the park but ultimately we decided it would probably be best to head to more civilized conditions. We had originally planned to pack up the site, get a room, and then come back to the site and make s'mores, but we figured the way the day had gone, we'd probably start a forest fire. So we just took down the tent and all its accoutrements and went to the Ramada. The only room they had left was a two-room suite so we got a living room in addition to the bedroom. Heh. We watched some tv and ordered a pizza from Moosejaw (they deliver in this PT Cruiser with a huge moose hanging out on the top of it. It's awesome.)
After a much more restful evening (it appeared to have rained again during the night and was to have been even colder than Friday night. Yay hotels!) we partook of the hotel's waffle breakfast and then packed up and headed home. Adam's mom cooked our chicken and steaks on their (bigger than ours) grill and then we came back to our apartment.
Overall, not such a great camping trip. We wimped out on night two again, but I think it was a good decision. I got a little bit of a cold and Adam isn't feeling 100% either so who knows what could have happened if we'd stayed out Saturday night. We'll probably go back to that area for one of the other weekends. With the Dells being so close, there's an endless variety of things to do.
I didn't take any pictures and Adam took a few on the Ducks tour. I'm not sure I'll be posting any of them though. I don't even know what they were of. Rock formations or something...
Next trip is in mid-July.
