Wisconsin Dells to Tennessee!

Blog #12: September 11, 2018

We left Minnesota and drove to the Wisconsin Dells, a place I've wanted to visit again since my childhood. I was busy writing in my journal, when John yelled, "What's he doing in our lane??!!" and I looked up to see this:

After having a slight heart attack, I realized it was just John having fun with me, as the semi was being towed backwards. (Karma must have been on my side, as shortly after we arrived at the RV park, he discovered that our toilet was clogged, and it took him three days to fix it).

We checked into the Sherwood Forest Camping and RV Park for $43/night. It's a very nice campground, but the mosquitos were awful due to a very wet year. We would definitely stay here again, hopefully without the mosquitos!

The next day we drove our truck and kayaks to the nearby boat launch for a day of kayaking the Dells of the Wisconsin River, "a scenic, glacial-formed gorge that features sandstone formations".

Teddy posed perfectly for one nice shot, then looked at John as if to say,

"Can we get going now?"

More photos from the Dells!

We had a map of the Dells, and thought we would paddle upstream from the boat launch to Witch's Gulch. We were warned not to paddle up The Narrows, as that was for Advanced Kayakers. Well, we thought we were taking the correct turns when suddenly it was very hard to paddle! We made it upstream to Witch's Gulch, and discover that we'd come up through The Narrows after all!

If you'd rather see the Dells without kayaking, there are boat tours available. After returning to our camp site, we walked to Edytka's Polish Restaurant. We'd never had Polish food before, so we ordered the Edith Special: sausages, hunter's stew, pirogis, cabbage rolls plus fresh bread: everything was wonderful!! (I'm writing this blog in 2022, and I'm sad to say that I just saw online that this restaurant is permanently closed.)

September 13, 2018:

John spent all morning unclogging our toilet while I did laundry (the easier of the two jobs by far!). We hear that Hurricane Florence, which is heading for the east coast, is now a 3 instead of a Category 4: hopefully it continues to die down! We pack up and head towards Indiana through Illinois. There is LOTS of standing water outside of the Dells, so that explains all of the mosquitoes. As we drive though Illinois, I look over at the car beside us, and all the occupants are on their cell phones, including the driver! Then they move ahead of us, in this position! Aargh!

We drive through miles and miles of cornfields.

We pulled into Sugar Creek Campground in Crawfordsville, Indiana (northwest of Indianapolis) later than we usually like, around 7:30.

After looking around Sugar Creek Campground, we decide to stay another night so we can play here today. This is a lovely campground, with so much to do! We kayaked up Sugar Creek past a bridge then back. They have their own fishing pond, so guests like us can fish without a license. (I tried, but got skunked. As my friend Scott said, "It's still better than teaching school!" Ha!).

Cindy and Jill's brother Alan lives in Crawfordsville with his family, and they invited us out to Little Mexico for supper. Imagine our surprise when his folks Dean and Arlou from Minnesota were with them! They were delivering a piano to Alan's wife Candace. The food was wonderful, and the company outstanding!

We learn that Hurricane Florence hits North Carolina as a Category 1. While our hearts go out to them, we realize that no one will be ready to show boats there for awhile. We start looking for sailboats online, and find several that look promising on the Florida/Alabama border. We have a friend in Chattanooga, so we decide to visit her on the way south.

September 15, 2018:

After a game of Frisbee Golf (John won 44-31) we're on the road again. While looking at our paper map of Indiana, I find Santa Claus! Now you know!

As we skirt Indianapolis, we see a huge building. It is the Lucas Oil Stadium. I Googled it, and discover that Taylor Swift is there tonight!

The landscape became more lush and rolling as we crossed a little corner of Ohio and then into Kentucky.

We knew we were heading south when we saw this water tower in Kentucky!

Kentucky is absolutely beautiful as we drive to Lake Cumberland State Resort Park. What a beautiful state park!

.

We found a place to park, and walked down the road to the marina. This is such a beautiful place for boating and other outdoor activities.

September 16, 2018:

Penelope finds a "chiminea" tree on her morning walk!

We see Kudzu for the first time. This fast-growing plant covers other plants and even trees! This Asian plant "was intentionally introduced to North American by the Soil Erosion Service and Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s for the purpose of controlling erosion in the American Southeast" (from Wikipedia).