Sonya's Blog - Day 29 - Driving to the Wisconsin Dells

Sonya’s Blog - Day 29 - July 21 - Driving to The Wisconsin Dells

We were woken up bright and early by Adam, to his credit he thought we would be up since Blake went on and on about how I get up at the crack of dawn and why can’t I just sleep in. Well I wasn’t awake at 6:45 this morning, but Adam was. Suz wasn’t awake either, so he had that challenge ahead of him. He wanted to get the girls up and ready so they could get an early start on the road as they had a 10 hour drive ahead of them up to Ontario. They managed to get on the road by about 7:30 so that was pretty good. We went back to our RV and had breakfast and started packing up for our drive to Milwaukee. We were not moving too fast as it was only going to be a 2 hour drive or so.

After breakfast I need to call the Alberta Government about my licence as Jeff still had not received it. Right before we left Calgary I went in to renew the registration on our truck because it expires in August and the clerk noticed that my license expires this December. I argued with her, but then realized that I am indeed going to be 45 in December and it does need to be renewed every 5 years. So she renewed it then and gave me my temporary license. I told Jeff to look our for it and then he could just fed ex it to me in Chicago when we were there. My temporary license now expires tomorrow and there is no sign of my new license. So I called and was informed that licenses will not be forwarded, but automatically returned to sender - awesome. As of this point they have not received my license back, because while Canada Post is quite efficient they are not so efficient on the return to sender thing. I had non-deliverable Christmas cards returned to me in March! So I can wait for them to get it back and try and talk them into sending it to me where I am or I an jump through hoops and go through all this rigamarole trying to get a new license while I am out of Province. Then she informs me that “really if you are out of Province for more than 3 months you are a non-resident”. Really, I am sure all those people that travel for a year or snow-bird take their licenses with them. This would not be a problem if my license wasn’t expiring. It’s not like they are going to come take Blake’s away. Furthermore, I told the lady at the Registry that I was having my mail forwarded and no red lights went off there. I would have been better off at this point to have kept my license and let it expire in December, at least I could still drive. Who knows what is going to happen now. I am going to wait for it to be returned at this point. We are returning to Canada in about 10 days so hopefully they will send it to where I am once they get it back.

That put me in a super good mood (Sonya sarcasm - this was added by Blake as he is super helpful) and then it was onto packing up. The longer we stay in a place the longer it takes to pack up it seems. Plus we are super lazy about it because we don’t like doing it all that much. After much pissing around we finally got everything ready to go and the RV hooked up to the truck. Blake wanted to play 4 “holes” of Frolf before we hit the road, I wanted to hit the road. Blake won and we played. Then we started to pull out and we couldn’t get out of the campground. They have gates that block your entrance into the park unless you have one of their key cards and you cannot get one until you check-in. We were about 1/2 hour late leaving and 2 rental driving campers were super early checking in. However, they parked really far back on the road at the narrowest part and we could not get Smaug through there, so we had to wait. We went in to tell them, but the lady checking them in, didn’t tell them to go move their camper and then come back. Oh no, she had to finish up first. We must have sat there for 20 minutes. Meanwhile another bus was trying to pull into the campground, hauling a small car. Oh the drama! The guys finally came out to move their campers and then Blake and the driver of the bus had to manouveur around one another in a slow dance of trying not to hit each other. I am not sure who decided that a road into a campground should be super narrow and only be wide enough for one vehicle, but it was probably not the best choice. While we were waiting I looked up the name of our next campground so we could program it into the truck’s GPS. Well it turns out we are not going to Milwaukee like we thought, but to the Wisconsin Dells first and then Milwaukee. Blake forgot that he had changed around the reservations because it was much cheaper to stay in the Dells during the week and plus he thought it wouldn’t be as busy at the Water/Amusement Park. We were going to Mount Olympus and if you camped at their resort then your admission to their Water/Amusement Park was free. It was still only a 2 hour drive so we went on our way. The drive was pretty uneventful, but Wisconsin might want to think about cleaning up the roadkill more often, it was pretty gross out there.

We arrived at the Wisconsin Dells and it is very touristy, think Niagara Falls tacky touristy. Lots of crappy things to go to like Ripley’s Believe it or not and Haunted Mansions, etc. There are also a number of water/amusement parks just lined up from the Highway to the Wisconsin Dells Parkway. We finally found Mt. Olympus, which was easy as it is one of the largest parks, finding the campground was not as easy as they have a number of resort buildings all along the Parkway. We finally found it and it was in a good spot, across the street from the main entrance to the park. The campground, however, was the crappiest campground I have every seen in my life. It was a parking lot, really, that they decided to put power/water/sewer hookups in and call it a campground. The sites were so close together, just enough room to shove a picnic table into. We decided to set up and then take the kids over to the park as we were allowed admission to the park on all of our days there, including check-in and check-out days. We all had bracelets we had to wear with a barcode on them and you could use them to scan purchases in the park as well so that you didn’t have to bring your wallet.

Setting up was a challenge because our hitch doesn’t seem to like to unlock sometimes, which is frustrating. When it was finally done, we had supper and then took the bikes and headed to the park. It was only a 5 minute bike ride which is awesome because it will allow me to run back every couple of hours to see Kizmet and give her a walk. They have 2 sections of outdoor waterpark, one indoor water park and then a large amusement park area and a small indoor amusement park area that is really for little kids. The park is open till 7 and then select parts are open until 10 for resort guests, which includes us. The amusement park is roller coasters and go carts, with swings that go way up in the air. They also had a few other rides that were not included in our admission price. We road the Zeus roller coaster and a couple of the go cart tracks and then headed over to check out the water park area. Tash and I did not have swim suits, but of course the boys had their swim shorts on because they can just wear them as shorts. They road a couple of slides. Isaac was bemoaning the fact that we only had 2 full days there, but after walking around it was going to be lots of time. They also had a one-day special of $10 entry fee which I was pretty sure was not a one-day special but the rate all the time. The posted rate is $45 for the day, I bet tomorrow the one day special will be $10. It doesn’t matter for us because we have already paid and we wouldn’t have found cheaper camping including the cost of the park. I guess the only advantage would have been that the camping might have been nicer and then we could have tried other parks, however we would not have been a 5 minute bike ride away.

Isaac soaked from the slides:

We headed back to the RV and called it a night. Isaac wanted to make sure he was at the park when it opened at 10 AM and was making big plans with Blake about what they were going to try first. Tash and I were not too fussed, and Tash would rather sleep in if she can stay at the park until 10.

Kizmet was very happy to see us so I took her on a long walk while the kids got ready for bed. Isaac was pretty hyped up about the excitement so it took him awhile to talk himself out and get settled down. Of course, he is never talked out, we have to just shut the door and tell him we are done listening to him and he will go to sleep because he doesn’t like not having an audience.

Until tomorrow,

Sonya