Washed out in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Dells is an absolute anomaly on the midwestern landscape. Stuck in the middle of endless pastures and farmland stands a faux-vegas styled tourist trap, saturated with mini-golf, “the ducks”, and overuse of the word “family-fun”.

This weekend I had the pleasure of camping at Mirror Lake, a nice little campgrounds outside Baraboo with easy access to all the wonderful little entertainment the Dells has to offer. At our campsite — a group of about 5 tents and around 15 people — we sat in the dark drizzle of an impending rain storm, sipping on cheap beer and eating oatmeal cookies. Luckily I had come on Friday and not on Thursday, when the improperly configured tent I was meant to stay in with my girlfriend filled with rain water, soaking all the blankets and pillows. Regardless, Friday night was great, the tent kept out the rain and was actually rather cozy.

Saturday during the day was a complete washout — we spent most our time underneath the tarp playing texas-hold-em with sunflower seeds as chips. Our once blazing camp fire fizzled in the afternoon rain storms. At about 6:00, during a fierce game of “500″ with a frisbee, the sun poked it’s head through the clouds. Immediately everything started to warm up, filling the air with an intense humidity. This new warm weather inspired us to leave our camp site and explore the surrounding town.

The evening consisted of dinner and 36 holes at Pirate’s Cove mini-golf. I won the second match by 1 stroke, supposedly the most difficult course at the whole facility. With that, we traveled back to the campsite. Campfire, beer, sleep ensued.

Even though half the weekend was washed out, it was nice to experience the simplicity of camping — life sans technology. Nothing to do but walk around the woods, eat random camping food, and sit around the campfire with your friends. Excellent.