R and J in the USA

We had gotten fairly attached to Michigan and were hard-pressed to leave the land of pasties behind us, but we were put at ease the second we crossed the border into Wisconsin. We were immediately pumped to be in Wisconsin. “I love Wisconsin!” Julie exclaimed.

“Can you tell we are in a different state?” Ryan asked.

“Absolutely!”

“What’s different about it?” Ryan inquired.

We play this game fairly often as we cross the border between states. Typically, we find we could tell we were in a different state. Each time we tried to figure out what clued us in. Was it something real, but hard to notice, like a change in vegetation that a more ecologically knowledgeable person would be able to define immediately but was only subtly noticeable to the untrained eye? Or, maybe, a change in the government-controlled things such as road signage, electric lines, or road design? Was it something cultural – the style of signs, housing, commercial facilities, or layout? Or was it something intangible – vibe, a spirit, or even something different in the air? Or, was it simply a placebo effect – the fact that we knew we were in a different state and were just convincing ourselves that it felt different? 

Sometimes we were able to put our finger on it, sometimes not. We came up with a few guesses for Wisconsin. Whether or not we nailed it, we were into whatever it was that made Wisconsin feel particularly Wisconsiny. 

Crossing into Wisconsin from its border with Michigan’s upper peninsula put us in the heart of the state’s beautiful Northern Highland region. The area was lush with trees and lakes, and was filled with bike paths along and through which Julie was salivating to ride. Our trip wouldn’t afford any full days spent on the bike, or even full mornings or evenings, but Julie was taking note of where she would want to return to ride some longer miles on future trips. Northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan were now both firmly on that list.

We settled in for the night at a gorgeous state park campsite just a short walk to a lake and immediately set out to inspect the vault toilets. After seeing them, Julie decided that our compost toilet in the van would do just fine for the evening.

In the morning, we made our way to Boulder Junction for our Wisconsin 5K. Boulder Junction pulsated with outdoor energy – fishing, hiking, and anything else that would keep the blood pumping and fresh air incoming. You can read about our 5K in our 5K section.

After the race we headed into town to check out the Musky Jamboree, a weekend festival of which the 5K was a part. We appeared to miss most of the Jamboreeing and settled for a walk around town and some time in a coffee shop that had the longest wait of any coffee shop we’d ever been in. In this coffee shop we found at least one way to identify that we were undeniably now in Wisconsin. Right next to the cash register at this small town coffee shop was a cheese cooler. 

The town also had some fantastic art galleries, including one with stunning paintings of nature scenes and animals. The artist was there in his shop and we had a nice chat with him, fascinated by someone having the ability to create such stunning images. We thought of our friend Sarah, who also blows our mind with the ability to vividly render reality onto a canvas.

After a lovely morning and introduction to the Wisconsin vibe, we hopped in the car to head even further North to one of the three National Lakeshores in the country, the Apostle Islands. 

We rolled into the town of Bayfield along roads with a red tint in them, belying the minerals in the earth here in upper Wisconsin. We are definitely folks that go for small towns steeped in natural beauty and focused on outdoor living. As a result, we were quickly smitten with Bayfield and contemplating what life is like in this remote northern Wisconsin spot.

We wanted to park in one of the street spots we had found on the iOverlander app. When Julie saw a parking enforcement person nearby, being a card-carrying rule follower, she couldn’t help but ask if parking was allowed there overnight. She was a nice woman, and you could tell she felt in a bind. Finally, she came out with what seemed an internal compromise between her professional responsibilities and her compassion for us. “Well, technically, no. There is no overnight camping allowed. There’s a town campground just down the road with a few spots left in it. But, well, let’s just say, I don’t plan to tell anyone you’re here.” She wasn’t giving us permission, that was clear. But she also could see in our eyes how much we liked this spot, and she seemed to be willing to be otherwise occupied. Dang rule following.  We didn’t want to ask her to do that. She seemed relieved when we said, “Oh, that’s so nice of you, but we’ll go to the campground.” So to the town campground we went.

Ryan kinda liked the campground. Julie kinda super didn’t. It wasn’t terrible. And inside the van being one of Julie’s favorite places in the world to be, it turns out that a great campsite is a bonus, rather than a requirement, for an enjoyable stay. We hung out in the van for a relaxed evening and headed back into Bayfield first thing in the morning for a boat cruise through the Apostle Islands. We saw the sun rise over Lake Superior and, to check the final lake off the list of Great Lakes to step foot in, Julie walked out into its crystal clear waters before we headed over to the boat dock. 

The boat tour was fantastic. We learned local lore of the human history tied to different islands and snapped some pretty stunning photos of water, rocks and caves. We learned about the bear populations on the various islands and how bears would occasionally swim from one island to another. The more we’ve moved through different kinds of bear country, the more we’ve learned about bears. It seems hardly fair that they are huge, physically exemplary, can climb trees, run 35-40 miles per hour, and can also swim fantastically. What can’t they do? If they can tap dance and sing as well, that’s it. We are officially filing a complaint.

We finished our time in Bayfield with a meal of lake trout, as per our manifesto to eat local food whenever there was a particularly clear local food that must be eaten. Lake trout on the shores of Lake Superior was a must. And it was delicious!

The rest of our itinerary for the day read, “1:00 PM – 6:00 PM, drive to Green Bay.” So that’s what we did. When planning our itineraries, we try to keep our daily driving to three hours max, sometimes allowing four hours. A five-hour driving day was an anomaly. Ryan got in there and got the job done.

On our way to Green Bay we crossed a major item off our life list when we stopped in Plover to see the world’s largest potato masher. It was everything we’d hoped it would be.

We rolled into High Cliff State Park a little later than planned after having trouble tearing ourselves out of Bayfield on time and away from the potato masher, found our campsite, and looked forward to seeing the park in the morning.

In the morning we saw there was a lake that could be swum in, but did not have enough time to do it before heading into Green Bay for our tour of Lambeau Field. Football is more than a game in Green Bay, and we were pretty excited to get a tour of such locally hallowed ground.

The tour guide welcomed the group and invited everyone to openly admit what team they rooted for. The half of the group who were locals were quick to say the Packers. A few of the out of towners sheepishly named other teams. The Jets. The Giants. We piped up with, “We’re from Bills country. Go Bills.” The tour guide warmly and enthusiastically replied. “That’s great. We love all the other teams. If it weren’t for you guys, we wouldn’t have 13 championship trophies.” We all laughed, and the tour began.

We got to yell “Go Pack Go” from the top seats, run through the players tunnel, and walk along the sidelines at field level. Julie was amazed to learn that, in addition to selling out the 80,000-seat stadium every game in a town of 120,000, there was a decades long waiting list for season tickets. Green Bay loves its football. It was fun to be steeped in that communal passion. We took in the Packers Museum and Hall of Fame at the end of the tour, did laundry at a local laundromat, then skipped town.

We headed north for an overnight at a Harvest Host in Door County, having heard so much about how beautiful that area was. With only one night there, we didn’t get to find out just how beautiful. But what we saw was great. 

We had only a few hours to drive through Milwaukee, which, according to more Wisconsinites than we expected, was more than enough. Just driving through, we didn’t see much of what we’d received warnings about. Julie was in love with a city that had bike paths as far as the eye could see and a beach that could rival any tropical ones she’d seen.

We made our way to a wonderful Harvest Host in rural central Wisconsin that had a huge barn where they hosted weddings and events. We had a nice conversation with the owner when we arrived, which you can read about in the People Along the Way section. The next day we woke to morning fog lit by a brilliant sunrise.

Next stop, the Wisconsin Dells. We had heard about it many times, but neither of us really understood what it was. Ryan thought it was a region. Julie thought it was a natural landscape or attraction. What it actually is is a town with highest concentration of water parks anywhere in the USA. Rolling into the Dells Julie said, “This is the Las Vegas Strip of water parks.” Never ones to turn down a water park, we researched what was supposed to be the “best” and made our way there.

We went down water slides that were unlike any we’d been on, hit some classics, and stood in awe of the one that loops a person upside down after a straight drop (on which Ryan was tempted to go and Julie was happy to give a hard pass).

We also went on the first water park ride ever that Julie has been on that she didn’t care for. It boasted being the longest water coaster in the country, so we had to give it a go. Since it repeatedly shot water right into your face, Julie spent the whole ride hoping she wouldn’t die drowning while sitting vertically in open air. She was more than happy to be done with it at the end. Despite this, or perhaps even including this, we had a blast.

Throughout the trip Julie has been actively assessing which water parks she would aspire to take her nephew to someday. Just for sheer quantity, Wisconsin Dells had definitely made the list.

We managed to snag a campsite at Devil’s Lake State Park, which we learned from other Wisconsinites was a coveted grab, but had no time to actually visit Devil’s Lake. We encountered a little campground drama when we arrived at our campsite and found that someone had left two chairs and some stand up paddle boards in our reserved site. The folks at the sites nearby said the people had just pulled out a few minutes ago time. We weren’t too keen to sit around and wait for someone to show up in the middle of the night to contest the spot, even though a call to the campground office confirmed it to be our reserved spot. The campground attendants helped us switch to another site. Any potential high drama or conflict was successfully averted.

Our last stop in Wisconsin was its capital city, Madison, to tour the state capitol building. As with every state, we loved the architecture, history, and education we got from touring the capitol building.

It started to rain after our capitol tour, and we were wiped and ready to pop our Wisconsin postcards in the mail and head over to Iowa, but Julie hadn’t biked in Wisconsin yet. She pulled her bike off the rack for a quick ride through Madison in the twenty minutes we had before we planned to head out of town. She quickly discovered that Madison has amazing bike lanes! Before long, she was biking along the water on a fantastic bike path that had separate two-way lanes for walkers and bikers. It was clear to Julie that Madison was a super cool city with plenty of great nooks and crannies to explore. Alas, that exploration had to wait for another time. But this is another reason Julie likes to bike in each state. There are things you discover on the bike that you just can’t find any other way.

She made her way back to the car twenty minutes after the parking meter had expired. With Ryan unawares inside the van, a parking ticket awaited as a little goodbye present from Wisconsin. Way to be on top of things, Madison! We paid our ticket online and headed towards the mighty Mississippi as the hours quickly brought about nightfall. 

Once again, we learned a lot about a state in a short five days, and learned more than enough to make us want to come back.