Day Three At Wisconsin Dells

On our third night in Wisconsin Dells we stayed at Hotel Rome. This is a new attraction that has an enormous variety of wave pools, water slides, go-karts and roller coasters. It takes over a week to play on all of it. It has a Roman theme with a facade of the Coliseum and pillars. It is enormous. The stay included free access into the park for two days so it was a huge savings.

The kids were overwhelmed with what slide to go on first. Each part of the park was so fun that it was difficult to get the kids to move on to another part of the park. There was something for every age and it was fun to watch them swim and play together. Grandma even went down the water slides with us. One has to be fit to carry the inner-tubes up many flights of stairs, ride a thrilling journey down with a child on your lap and then swim it over the side. Thank god my mom has taken care of herself through the years and is still fit and trim.

There is a wave pool that was so spectacular that our children were terrified to swim in it after a few minutes. Sean took them out and when the wave started, it looked like a tsunami! Amazing that people can create technology to create such a thing!

Day Two At Wisconsin Dells

June 21st is Sean’s birthday. It also happened to be Father’s Day, also First Day of Summer, and the longest day of the year. Being in Wisconsin during the summer solstice is wonderful because you can still see the sunset at 10pm. I love that. We spent Sean’s celebration at a water park, had a nice picnic and sang the birthday song. Little did I know that my dear husband liked the park as much as the kids! It is great to see your spouse run up a hill to get in line to go down a slide. Between the three of us adults, we managed to get all the kids on rides, take them down water slides, pass babies back and forth, change diapers, hand out snacks and put band-aids on scraped toes.

That night at the campground we grilled, sat by the fire and I took out my guitar. Crickets chirped a nice accompaniment to my strumming of the chords. The children’s faces glowed in the firelight as they roasted marshmallows. Fionn managed to catch every marshmallow on fire. They started waving flaming marshmallows around like sparkler fireworks and it was time to take their sticks away. It’s all fun and games until someone has a burnt marshmallow in the eye.

Arriving Wisconsin Dells

I grew up going to Wisconsin Dells every fall with my family in the 70s and 80s. Back then it was known for its corny Zanadu and Space World exhibits, the Wisconsin Dells Duck rides of the Upper and Lower Dells, go kart tracks, Indians and moccasins, taffy candy and fudge.

The terrain is unique and easily recognizable with rivers that flow between cliffs of sandstone and rock, giving it a layering appearance. The river waters are brown from the mineral deposits and there are nature paths that run deep through caverns with many species of ferns. The oxygen is so rich you feel high walking through it.

Many of the rock formations along the rivers were named after historic Indians. Downtown Wisconsin Dells still features many Indian clothing, shoes and jewelry. If you have never attended a pow wow, they are fun to attend.

Beautiful Lake Dalton is surrounded by lovely homes and cabin resorts. Last year the region was flooded by unrelenting rain and the levy broke. The entire lake suddenly thundered into Dell River. A few homes were swept away whole. I remember the television footage and watching a newly constructed colonial float swiftly down river. Since then, the levy has been restored better and stronger and the lake is at its full level.

Wisconsin Dells has grown a lot through the years. It is now a water park mecca with miles of attractions. Roller coasters, go-karts, amphibious vehicle rides (The Ducks), haunted houses, bungie jumping and other extreme rides (to name a few) line the main strip. There is lodging everywhere from theme hotels with their own attractions to cabins and camping.

Our first night here was spent at Yogi Bear’s Jelly Stone Camp & RV. A great family place with its own water park, hey rides and game room. Clean, fun and cheap. The park has hourly activities for the kids and we enjoyed an impromptu making of a TV special by joining Yogi Bear and Boo Boo for a hayride. It will air in Madison sometime next week.

We made a call my mother, Grandma Net Net who lives in Minneapolis, to camp out with us. Grandma Net Net has the Minnesotan accent and says words like, “Oh fer cute!” and “Oh ish!” The kids were so happy to see her and we went out to eat at Paul Bunyon’s restaurant where everything is served family style—meaning that your family is seated at a large wooden table and the waitress brings the feature food for the evening. A loaf of bread is served, but only cut into six pieces, giving the illusion that this is mega huge and from the man himself, Paul Bunyon. It was great to be with my mom back at the place where I spent time with my family when I was young and sharing it with my kids today.

Sleeping With Cows

Driving from Buffalo, NY to Cleveland, OH was mostly a continuous attempt at keeping the kids happy. I took out my guitar and learned a couple Tom Petty and Johnny Cash tunes. Keegan would light up and smile when he heard the strumming, so I kept on playing. A flash thunderstorm with gusty winds met us by surprise and we pulled over to a gas station and filled up while it blew past. Most of the kids were asleep except Riley, who stood under the protective station’s roof and played in the gusty wind.
We drove until 2 a.m. and found a truck station with some spare room. We pulled in and found ourselves near a trailer full of cattle. As we slept we could hear mooing and the shuffle of their hooves. Bet they aren’t going to Wisconsin Dells.

Thinking About What I Won't Miss

I certainly will not miss the naked old guy that walked the track every day, rain or shine. Envision this: you are washing the morning dishes, the birds are singing, the sun is shining and you look out through the window into your backyard and then suddenly you catch a glimpse of some overly-tan, saggy-man-boobs swaying and bouncing all over attached to a 75 year-old man wearing tucked-under running shorts and white sneakers. He averaged 15 miles a day, everyday. For seven years I witnessed him walking the track. Legs moving like Marvin the Martian. Never said hello or waived until one day, about two months ago, he approached my husband through the fence.

“Nice job you’ve done with the place,” the walker suddenly said.
“Thanks,” replied my husband.
“You know, we’re related.”
Startled, my husband looked around as if he was hoping this conversation was suddenly for someone else.
“Yes, your father’s side through cousin blah blah blah…” he went on.

The bad news found its way into my kitchen. This town was too small and the local booby man was related. Time to move.

Another person I will not miss is our children’s schools vice principal. She lived kitty-corner to us and never mowed her lawn. A large woman herself, mowing the lawn would have given her some healthy exercise but no, we had to do it for her when we got sick and tired of it. Two weeks ago I lost my three-year-old son in her tall grass. I was struggling with my lawn mower trying to take a crack at it but after three hours I called a lawn company to take over. This brought on a hostile situation with the owner who swore she was, “just about to take care of it.” A claim she made every year after someone finally did it for her. Won’t miss her a bit.

CT’s DMV: After five attempts to get our trailer and van registered, I stand here as a witness that the DMV of Bridgeport have proven to be the most stupid people alive.
We bought our camper from some folks in New York. Before you register it in CT, you must get the VIN checked to make sure it is legitimate and matches the vehicle. Upon going to DMV, the clerk instructed me to get it done by a police officer. DMV does not do VIN checks on trailers—too big to fit in parking lot. So, I brought it to the police station, but you need a form—from the DMV. So I go back to the DMV and they don’t carry the form. You have to download online. After researching over 278 forms, I find it, get a police officer to check it and bring the completed form to DMV. DMV says they do not accept forms by police officers. But, no DMV in CT performs trailer VIN checks. Get my point? Stupid. But the real kicker is this: You cannot transport your new out-of-state trailer unless you have it properly registered in CT. But you cannot do a VIN check with DMV’s staff unless they can physically look at it and compare it to the VIN

And so we are finally ready to get it registered! But now the DMV happily announces that it will not issue it as they claim we owe back taxes on a vehicle we have not owned for six years. Although we sold it and paid the taxes a few years ago—we had a permit pulled to get central air installed in our home—so the city charged us again for taxes on that vehicle, so we paid it again because we were tired of fighting and we were hot and needed A/C. Of course, DMV won’t call the City of Ansonia to verify that the taxes were paid, so I now leave DMV again with my five children and go to City Hall of Ansonia. Apparently, the tax assessor only updates her files once a year, and neglected to do so the last few years. I sure hope the DMV out west will be easier to deal with.

Lastly, I won’t miss the frustration of not riding my road bike, not having parks for my kids to play on, not having public beaches, not having boat access, and the blight of living in the Valley.

Niagara Falls

Our trip west took us north through Connecticut through Massachusetts and into New York to Buffalo. I had always wanted to see Niagara Falls and this was very exciting. The weather had been nothing but rain and it finally paused for the afternoon. Because our kids are so young, purchasing a tour pass to see the falls was relatively affordable. Kids five and under are free for almost everything.

I never knew that the falls recede a foot or more every year because under the rock lies sandstone. The sandstone is so fragile and it collapses once the rocks give way. If you look at the bottom of the falls, once can see large rocks that have fallen through the years.

I highly recommend taking the tour. It lasted five hours, but it was well paced, information-packed, and included everything. The best part of the tour was the boat ride where they take you within 70 feet into the horseshoe fall at full throttle for about 15 minutes. Scary and exciting, you get soaked from head to toe if you don’t wear your poncho. Our kids loved it and spoke in high voices from being so excited, “That was amazing! I want to do it again!”
Get yourself to Niagara Falls if you haven’t been. It is really amazing!

Leaving Connecticut

We stayed at my husband’s sister’s house in Milford near the beach for one last night in CT. The kids played in the Jacuzzi, walked the shore and spent time with their cousins. We weren’t in any rush to hit the road and his sister put together a travel package of goodies and drinks.

Upon leaving the next morning we were only two minutes into our drive when our son, Liam, asked, “Are we almost there yet?” Fionn added, “Yeah—I want to ride my scooter!”
They have absolutely no concept of distance or time. They will soon.