5th Year Vacation Part 2

Upon leaving the cities, we headed for the Dells. It was early afternoon when we arrived, giving us some time to check in to our hotel, and get settled for a bit before headed out on our dinner cruise for the evening.

The dinner cruise was on a old early 1900's freighter boat that provided us with a spectacular view of the Wisconsin River. Our captain was everything you would expect from a riverboat captain, handlebar mustache and all. For those that have seen The Blue Brothers, our entertainment for the night was something akin to Murph and the Magic Tones with only Murph. It was better than nothing, but Rachel and I probably spent way to much time laughing instead. It was wonderful to see my beautiful wife enjoying herself, and above all, actually relaxing.

At the far end of our stretch, we stopped for a break that included some borderline cave-ish tunnels through the hills. It was cool, dark, and awesome! I got to nerd out on the trees which were beyond words, and we were officially on vacation mode.

Our dinner was steak and lobster, and even for a river boat, was pretty darn good, but the sunset made the entire outing. It was nice to see my wife enjoying herself, and we had definitely started our trip off on a high note.


The next morning, we didn't exactly have time to sleep in as we were headed a little ways out of town to do some trail riding. I knew Rachel would enjoy getting on a horse again, and I was honestly looking forward to this part the most. I wouldn't say the people were brash, but they were a lot less worried about the tourist aspect and more down to home country folk. They were in no rush to get us started for the morning, but we were able to watch them go through their morning feed routine with their horses. With as many as they had, I was rather impressed by how good of shape their herd was in. These horses were well taken care of, and of course, we liked to see that. Before long we were under way, and we took off on Sarge and Shark, two geldings that were born on this ranch. Our guide was easy to talk to and enjoyed the easy of 'experienced' riders.

We heard horror stories of tourists gone wrong, so even at this stage I got the experienced label. It was a great ride, nothing too off the wall, but enough to keep us on our toes. We only had a couple of hiccups on the ride. One involved my horse starting to buck because of a B-52 bomber of a horsefly. One quick swat and I got to stay on the horse...The other was shortly after the fly incident and the horses were still a tad edgy. Rachel's horse missed his footing a bit and spooked, but thankfully Rachel knows her way around a jumpy horse. Again, nothing horrible but just enough to keep us on our toes. I didn't get many photos of this event as I spent more time soaking in the woods, and enjoying my time out with the Mrs. Our guide was enjoying our ride enough that our hour long ride was pushing two by the time we got back to the stables. Intended or not, we didn't complain at all! We handed out the rest of the bag of treats for our two horses, and people were pouring in for the next go, so we headed out for the morning.


Because we started so early, Rachel and I had plenty of time in the afternoon to do whatever we chose. We perused some of the shops on the tourist strip, and found something to occupy some time that we figured we could enjoy. We found a paint-your-own-pottery place that let us design and glaze something. I chose a giant pasta bowl, and Rachel picked out a rather sizeable serving platter. After getting the low-down we started our masterpieces.

When it was all said and down, we spent almost three hours working on our work. Rachel's of course looks like it was done by a professional, that knew exactly what they were doing, while mine looked like a 4th grader was finger painting. No matter, I liked it anyway.


We continued our loop through tourist town, finding nothing that really piqued our interests much. The only thing that I was interested in was an ice cream cone! Coffee chunk for me and.....cotton candy for the Mrs...gross.

We finished our loop and headed back to the hotel for a break and possibly a quick snooze before our outing to the drive-in movie theater.
I know these things have gone wayside to urban sprawl, but I hope that my hipster brethren will revive this concept. We got in on a double feature: Secret Life of Pets, and The Legend of Tarzan. We figured we would tap into the giant concession stand that was advertised and enjoy the movies from the comfort of our own car, with our own pillows! The concessions were an absolute let down, but Rachel was prepared with munchies for the trip so we weren't totally screwed for food. After the sun finally set and the movie started, we turned to the station for the movie and it was surround-sound movie!

After the 'Pets' movie concluded many family left for the evening, but the perk was, we didn't have to do so. As some families were packing up I heard the tell-tail clicking of dead battery....I knew someone's evening was going to be fun. I watched as another van pulled to the front and attempt to assist but I knew something wasn't working. So over I went to see what I could do. When I turned my phone light on I knew there was a problem. I almost burned my hand trying to pry the now welding hot prong off of the dead vehicle. They had managed to cross wires....No explosion, but it was not far away. I helped them along their way and back to the movie. I proceeded to start my vehicle to make sure our fate wasn't the same, but there was a twinge of anxiety the rest of the second movie. Once it was done, Rachel and I both breathed a sigh of relief when the car started without a hitch.


Nevertheless, we enjoyed the outing immensely, and we would like to find this avenue for motion pictures again near home if available.




Stay Tuned