LAKE DELTON, WI: Enjoying Our Stay

As expected, the holiday weekend brought many visitors to theWisconsin Dells area as families enjoyed the many attractions one last time before autumn sets in.  Country Roads RV Park caters to older adults and doesn't have features such as a pool that would draw families, so it's been very quiet in the campground.

Saturday, we braved the rain and the traffic to go to Walmart and have some lunch.  We ate at Culver's - our first experience with that chain - and tried their signature burger - the Butter Burger.  We explored the area a little and then went to Walmart, which was packed with shoppers.  Glad we weren't in a hurry!  The rain ended in the early afternoon and the rest of the day was beautiful.

If you've seen our RV in a campground setting, you've seen the signs in our window identifying who we are and our amateur radio call signs, along with the 30 foot ham antenna that's on the back of the coach.  These items are noticed by many of our fellow campers and often lead to introductions and conversation.  Saturday afternoon, Tom (also a ham) and Lynn knocked on the door to find out more about us.  We had a nice visit with them later in the day and enjoyed meeting them and their large Golden Retriever, Tanner.
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Sunday, we made the trip to North Freedom, WI about 20 minutes away, to visit the Mid-Continent Railway Museum and take a 55 minute 7 mile round trip train ride in century old passenger cars on what was originally a Chicago & North Western RR Spur serving an iron mine and a quartzite rock quarry.


The conductor pointed out highlights through the surrounding farmland and wooded areas.  As an interesting aside - the conductor turned out to be a ham radio operator, Steven Brist, AB9RR.  Steven said he picked that call and the RR is for RailRoad.

At the end of the spur, the engine was disconnected and moved to the other end of the train to pull it back to the station.  We all disembarked to observe the operation complete with commentary from the conductor.

After the ride we toured the museum which housed several very interesting cars including a snow plow to clear very deep snow from the tracks, and a fish car with 15 steel fish tanks, crew quarters, and a galley.  The fish car was used to haul fry from state hatcheries to remote streams and rivers, stopping on bridges to empty the tanks into the water below.  Before leaving, we enjoyed a lunch of grilled brat, chips, and a "pop" in the picnic pavilion.

After leaving the train station we stopped at the New Freedom town square to look at the Antiques and Artisan Sale and took the "scenic" route back toward the campground.  The farmland in this area is not exactly flat, and higher hills are off to the west so it's very pretty. We spent some time in Baraboo, WI.  Baraboo is home to the Circus World Museum, the former headquarters and winter home of the Ringling Brothers circus, but there wasn't a tiger or elephant to be seen anywhere.  Before returning to the camp ground, we stopped at Los Nopales for an early dinner.

Labor Day started out with rain, but the sunshine gradually made it through the clouds.  As expected, many of our fellow campers, including Tom and Lynn, pulled up their jacks and left for other destinations. We chose to stay off the busy roads.

Today (Tuesday) was a beautiful day with cool morning temperatures and a high near 80.  For dinner, we drove to the nearby Pizza Ranch for a great buffet and returned to the campground via the long route going around Lake Delton on County Road A between the lake and the Wisconsin River.  By this time, it was dusk and the deer were starting to appear on the side of the roads. The difference in the local traffic between Sunday and today was quite dramatic as "the season" has come to an end.  Many attractions are either closed or are open only on the weekends until late October, when  most things get buttoned up for the winter, including Country Roads RV Park.