Day 1--to Lake Delton, WI

Hello, and welcome to the return of the Long Time Gone travel blog. Here we are again, this time with aspirations of driving to the Black Hills of southwestern South Dakota, making stops at Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park and Devil’s Tower (Wy.).

We rolled out of the driveway at about 9:30 this morning, about 30 minutes later than we had hoped. But, you know, what can you do?

It’s a blistering 95 degrees in Lafayette today; it’s supposed to stay hot through the week. And it’s not like its going to be much cooler in the South Dakota Badlands. At least for a few days. So, we’ve got that to look forward to.

 

We spent about six hours in the car -- easy except for a harrowing stretch of road construction between O’Hare and Rockford. Since we like to stop by the “birthplace” of our Teardrop trailer, at CampInn, in Necedah, Wisc., and let the guys there tinker with it a bit, iron out any kinks and upgrade what they can, we planned to leave it with them overnight while we parked ourselves at Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin Dells, and splashed around in the water park -- a sublime way to spend a sweltering afternoon.

 

We had fibbed to the kids and told them we were camping tonight. In the scorching heat. At a place with a lame playground. They were nonplussed, but were pretty much resigned to their fate. (I overheard them comparing campground playgrounds that they’ve visited in the past -- “Remember the one that had only ONE SWING?” -- and figuring that our site tonight couldn’t possibly be as bad as some others.) As we approached the Great Wolf Lodge, they noted our proximity wistfully. Keith and I finally divulged our true destination as we pulled into the Great Wolf parking lot. You’d have thought it was Christmas morning. Happy kids.

 

Ruby, who is with us for this first leg of our trip, is not allowed at Great Wolf. So I had made reservations for her at an area pet spa -- a place with a pool. Happy dog. Tomorrow, we’ll rendezvous with my dad in Stewartville, MN, near Rochester; he’ll take Ruby back to Shoreview, where she’ll be spending the next two weeks.