Settled in Lake Delton, Wisconsin

But what a heck of a drive we had today, leaving Michigan City, Indiana - east of Gary, and headed towards the Windy City.  We had rain overnight but we were able to pack up, hook up, and get on I94 by 9am.  Typical leave time for us.  Yes, we did drug up Buddy, he is not a happy camper when that happens, but the alternative is not good, at all.

This is nothing - wait till we got nearer to Chicago - terrible.

Add another state on this trip.

Crossed over the Des Moines River outside of Chicago

Where are we going? 

A loft park model - hah!

A Denver transport - that's a big boat, wonder where it's heading to.

The roads were awful.  Construction, narrow lanes down due to construction, then weaving left, weaving right, 7 lanes to 3 to 4 to 2, a nightmare.  Pot holes.  oh. my. goodness.  The poor RV just bounced along.  At times Dave would say, sorry boys, because we were on a really stretch and I am sure they were not happy.  Took I94 west all the way out of Chicago, bypassing going into the city, then picking up I 39 heading north into Madison, Wisconsin.  Yes, we were about 50 miles farther in our travels, but only had 2 tolls we had to do, whereas if we stayed on I90 and took it through Chicago - the stop and go from the toll booths would have added so much more in time - and lots in aggravation.

And the turnoff for Madison, Wisconsin 

Hello again, Wisconsin 

Oh course we had rain - have had rain on every leg this summer 

I was impressed - how does this Helicopter not hit the pole or the wires?

And the guy standing on the rungs doing whatever.  Wow.

But the traffic.  Oh my goodness.  So many people going cad zillion miles over the speed limit.  What are they thinking?  Dave just plugged along, got into the turn off to Wisconsin Dells by 2:15pm, and we stopped and tanked up the RV, then got here to the campground by 3:15pm.  Total miles Dave drove - 300.  Lots, but not the most he's done.

Yeah - getting closer

Are we back in Sandusky?  Kalahari? Seriously?

Sure looks like the one in Ohio

Great Wolf Lodge - are you sure we are not in Ohio?

We had stayed in this campground 7 years ago, and in looking back - we were one sight over from where we are now.  Will be here until the 7th - we have a family wedding starting this Friday night with dinner for those who traveled from Cleveland.  Wedding isn't until Sunday, but there is lots of activities planned for all.

Just another 1.5 miles to go

Home for 11 days - home for 'older kids'

We are just so lucky we got in when we did - a thunderstorm came in about an hour later.  Not fun driving in an area where you don't know where exactly you are headed.

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

After visiting the bog, we traveled back to the visitor's center and watched the movie.  Afterwards I said how sad that a huge portion of the dunes has been destroyed in the name of 'progress'.  Only after citizens realized that the dunes were being destroyed quickly did they band together and today they are protected.  What's even more sad - big business is the culprit, especially the steel mills.

We would find ourselves coming down those steps later

Between dunes are marshes 

Got to bathhouse - view on walkway to beach

Looking east towards Michigan City

Looking west - Chicago is barely visible to right, groups of people
getting baptized

Went to the West Beach area where the ranger had said there were a couple of nice hikes where you get to see the dunes, the different categories of the dunes - how they creep, become stable, the different types of dunes, and then the beach where you could swim.  When we first got to the parking lot and got out and looked to the east - we saw a huge staircase heading down from one of the dunes. Little did we know that we would be on those steps later.

Oh good, on a boardwalk

Can see the different layers of sand right at water's edge 

Chicago in center

No more boardwalk, just sand 

And on we walked 

Into the trees

Walked down to the beach, saw lots of people and also could see Chicago across the lake.  Looked like a storm coming, so we decided to do walk the Succession Trail which goes through the different areas of the dunes.  As we looked at the people down in the water, we could tell there was a group being baptized.

Good, back to boardwalk

Oh boy, steps - a lot of them.  Good, at least we are going up, good on knees

And up

And now, we start down

Hard to walk on sand.  For half of the walk (1 mile long) it was on sand, I think we walked double because of the slipperyness of our feet in the sand.  Worked up a great sweat heading up the stairs and then if you go up, you must go down!  Going up didn't bother us, coming down did - not good on your knees.  But we made it and was back at the car by 4:45.

The plant at top left - it is the plant that starts the stabilization
of a dune.  Once it takes root, the dune stops shifting.

Looking back towards lake

And back up again 

We looked up from the parking lot to the top of these steps.

Got back to the RV and Dave cooked chicken on the grill and we were so famished, we ate it all!  Normally he cooks enough for 2 meals, one is a warm dinner, the second time the chicken is cut up in salad, but not that night!  Looked at my walking tracker - we did just a shave under 3 miles.  No wonder we were hungry!

Pinhook Bog, Indiana National Lakeshore

We ventured out again yesterday, was going to visit Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and when we went to the visitor's center to learn about it, the ranger said - quick - get over to Pinhook Bog, it's only open on Saturdays from noon to 3.  So, zip, off we went and got to the bog at 1:45pm.  The Bog is secured by locked gates and no one can get in if the gates are closed.  As we walked up to the gate, the ranger was just locking up.  Huh?  She was just going to lock up for a short minute while she headed back to the parking lot. Probably to go potty, but she opened up the gate again and let us in.

Pretty walk path to get to the bog

Ranger had just unlocked the gate for us to go in

We had a personalized tour of the bog.  She pointed out different fauna (orange-fringed orchid - not found anywhere else in the world; pitcher plants that basically eat bugs and other fauna; poison sumac; blueberry bushes; and the sphagnum ((spaig-num)) moss which is the basis of most of the life in the bog) and told us that the bog was at least 40 feet deep.  As we were walking on the boardwalk, we were floating on the blog - squish, squish.  Frogs kept poking their heads out at us, birds calling to us, very humid environment - of course since we were standing on top of 40 feet of water.

Poison sumac

Orange-fringed orchid 

Strands of sphagnum moss

Looks shallow - but 40 feet deep 

Peek-a-boo - frog peaking out at us through the sphagnum moss

Pitcher plant - kinda like a venus-fly-trap

Puffy cotton balls

We had visited a bog in central Ohio years ago but was not treated to getting it's knowledge and workings of it.  At that time we stood at the edge and looked, okay, impressive, but not like this Pinhook Bog.

Walking along boardwalk - squish, squish, water shooting up 

Can't tell but this Pitcher Plant had a bug inside it

Big areas of open 'water' 

Rivet

Rivet

Midst of all, this pretty wild flower was beautiful!

Formed 15,000 years ago when the retreating glaciers had a chunk of ice broke off and it melted but did not evaporate, the bottom of the bog is clay lined - think of a swimming pool's bottom - and the water is like a huge bathtub.   Very interesting place.