Road Trip - driving from Chicago to the Wisconin Dells ( Devil's Lake) for camping.
For those of you from the Midwest this will be very familiar, entering on the mundane.
If you are not from these parts, then this is an example of what see.
Oak Park, Illinois
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obligatory Frank Llyod Wright shot
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Gotta pick up some audio books for the long drive
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Churches
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businesses
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Forest Park, Ill.
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Melrose Park, Ill.
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Northlake, Ill
The orthodox version of a storefront church.
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On the road ! ( I-90 )
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Schaumberg, Ill.
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Elgin, Ill Toll stop/pass.
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Farmland
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Belvidere Ill
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Rockford, Ill.
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Approaching Wisconsin
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Wisconsin
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first signs of standing water
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Grain elevators ( storage )
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Silos ( hay and corn stalks decompose in these - to be used as feed ).
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Getting hilly as we approach the Dells
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Very wet wetlands
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another set of storage bins
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Round barn
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We are there - campground on the left, state park on the right
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Cooking Supper
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Day 2 - before the rain
Breakfast
The lake is very high, the beach totally submerged, this does not deter the kids.
Too windy for canoe rental so off on a hike
The lake is very high, hiking and wading
Taking a shortcut - up the rocks
A long way up
At the top
An injured finger - and blistered feet - from those that took the long way around ( aprox 5mi )
Storm coming
Waiting it out ( Thunderstorms are short )
After the 2nd set of T Storms that day - campground road getting rugged.
A river running through our campsite
3rd set of T Storms
A real trooper
Box oven with dump cake ( cooked in the rain )
Day 3 - after 4 sets of strong thunderstorms, and 2 tornado warnings, trying to dry stuff out.
Another set of thunderstorms rolls in
Enough is enough - heading home - my wife noticed that we usually drive down the boat ramp to the ferry's ramp, not today.
Less than 24hrs later the dam for lake Delton ( Wisconsin Dells ) overtopped and washed the dam away, along with 5 houses that had been built on top of the earthen dam. The water coursed down the Wisconsin river here. This river was formed when lake Wisconsin drained during the last ice age, the same event that created the Dells, including lake Delton.
Madison, Wisconsin
The ever surreal Ella's Deli
Back on the road - heading out of Madison
Back in Illinois - the rain stopped at the border
Doomed development - way outside the city, no transit link.
Getting close
Back in Oak Park
Linear Mode
