Monday, July 16, 2012

Trip to Wisconsin, Day 1

186/366  

HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!


Ah yes, the blissful Freedom to pick up and leave for parts unknown.  Like Wisconsin.  Eric and I had never been, but we had a friend getting married, who invited us to be a part of it, so we couldn't resist taking the opportunity to see the state that we had heard so much about.  I find either people know Wisconsin and love it, or don't know it at all. People from Wisconsin know that there are 49 other states, but they may all be 1, because as far as they're concerned, it's Wisconsin and EveryStateButWisconsin.  I don't encounter people who have been that just don't dig it.  Now that I have been, I see why.  It really is an Enchanting place.  

Back to the details of our trip, we began on the 4th of July.  We fully intended to go participate in the town's local parade, as we do most every year.  However, this year it was unseemly hot.  It was 93 degrees by 8:30 am when we had packed the car.  So we just continued on, loaded up, and hit the road.  We had built some Flexibility into our trip.  Hopefully, we could make it the 6-8 hour trip up to our friend Nancy's family home.  But if we didn't, we could crash in a hotel on the way, since the boys had never made it as far as 6 hours before, even on our longest days on our New York road trip last year, they only made it about 5 hours before losing their minds.  I had packed some goodies, I just hoped they worked.  But if we started early and had the whole day, maybe, just maybe we'd make it to the lake in Wisconsin by dark for Fireworks.  
We shall see....

Top 10 from the First Day 

1.  Off We Go into the Wild Blue Yonder! 


2.  Our first stop for more than just potty breaks was for lunch at Cracker Barrel, where the kids kept themselves entertained with checker games. 


3.  The kids fought the good fight.  They stayed awake playing all manner of games on their dueling leapsters.  They kindof shared the ipad to play games or watch shows.  They even watched a couple movies.  But an hour before arrival Sam fell asleep.  Chris held out until about 20 minutes before we arrived.  

Travel time total: 9 hours. 


4.  Priorities!  Our friends asked which we wanted to do first: eat or swim.  Now THAT is my idea of a relaxing vacation, where the only questions are beach or pool?  Or Eat or Swim?  We chose Swim then Eat.  After a perfectly brief yet refreshing dip in the lake we were treating to fabulous local fare:  Point Beer (from Stevens Point about 1/2 hour away) and Johnsonville Brats.  (I had no idea they were from Wisconsin.)    


5. We learned that like Indiana, Wisconsin was on a Firework burn ban too.  It's just been too hot and dry for open flames.  And Wisconsin does a lot of lumber/paper business, so it would be very bad for business and trees to have fire.  Luckily, we had packed Festive 4th Temporary Tattoos.  So as the light began to fade we broke out the tattoos to put on the kids.  Chris picked a Peace sign for his face! 


6.  Sam picked  a couple different ones, but here he's showing off his Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness Tattoo.  


7.  Who can resist this?  USA USA! 
 

8.  After we were all tatted up, we went outside with our other goodies for the kids, Glow wands and Festive red, white, and blue glow bracelets.  Leave it to the boys to start playing Light Saber with them.  



9.  Max won though.  He took out both the boys! 



10.  OK, here's one I didn't take.  Happy 4th of July from the Willman Family!!!





1 comments:

Ted Exley said...

Seems like you were able to get a lot done during your one day trip to Wisconsin! Looks like the kids had a great time as well. Thanks for the post!