Trip from Minnesota Summer 2025

We had plenty of adventures on our way home from Granny and Grandpa's house in Minnesota. The first day we drove to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where we stayed the night and went to Wisco's for dinner. The restaurant features local flavors and local brews. I had Surly Brewing Company's This Beer Is Niiice, a golden ale that was refreshing. I paired it with the Charred Chicken Bowl from their "Scontrees" menu. That's not "scones" plus "trees;" it is the last half of the state name substituted in for the first syllable of "entrees." Pretty clever, huh? It was a delightful meal.

A satisfying beer!

We got up the next morning and drove to Wisconsin Dells where an uncle was able to get us day passes to Kalahari Water Park, a combination indoor and outdoor water park with lots of slides, two lazy rivers and plenty of other water fun. Some of the slides were really fun, some took a bit of a hit on my back. Those were the "extreme" slides where riders don't use a raft or tube--riders cross their ankles and hold their hands behind their heads. My daughter rode them but her swimsuit is practically a UV t-shirt for the top so she had a layer between her and the surface of the ride. She didn't get dinged up like I did.

Other rides (with rafts or floating rings) were more fun for me. We did a lot of walking up stairs all day. Too bad my wife was not wearing her Fitbit at the waterpark!

The entrance

The lobby

Wave pool and slides

More of the wave pool

"Extreme" slides

Hot tub and lazy river

The resort does have an outdoor water park which is not open all year because they are located in Wisconsin. It had some fun slides (including one where you wound up in what looks like roulette wheel) but waiting in line in the sunshine was not my favorite.

The outdoor park

We spent almost the whole day there, leaving just before dinner time. We went to The Fudgery nearby for ice cream to tide us over until dinner in our next stop: Whitewater, Wisconsin.

The Fudgery

Driving further south, we stopped at Fair Oaks Farms in Indiana. It's a large farm and museum with a convention center. Everything is top of the line. 

Main building at Fair Oaks Farms

We ate lunch there. Since they are a farm, they had a lot of emphasis on cheese and dairy products. I got the 1/2 grilled cheese sandwich and beef chili topped with cheese and sour cream. It was delightful. I also had a local root beer, Triple XXX Root Beer. I am still puzzled why there is three Xs and the word "Triple" before them. Is it supposed to be six or nine?

Lunch!

The transport between farm locations also uses "farm fresh" products 

Another building in walking distance has an indoor high ropes course. Three of us signed up for it but only one of us made full use of all the levels.

High ropes course

Did I really stand like that?

Crossing confidently

Hanging hopefully

Resting...restfully?

Our next stop was Indianapolis where we met our niece to catch up. We went out to a ramen shop and did some geocaching. We had a lot of fun and took no pictures.

The next day was the mad rush to finally make it home. We spent about ten hours driving, with some short stops for gas, food, and geocaching.

Original Wisconsin Ducks Boat Tour, Wisconsin Dells

We took a ride on the Original Wisconsin Ducks tour in Wisconsin Dells. A generous and well-connected uncle hooked us up with tickets. We arrived on a weekday, so the line was very short to get on.

Ready to ride!

The "ducks" are amphibious trucks, the kind used in World War II to land troops and supplies in places without ports. It drives along the land and can switch to cruising on a body of water. In this case, we would be floating down the Wisconsin River along with visiting Lake Delton. But all that was after we headed out on the trail, which had plenty of signs warning stray drivers that they were on the wrong path.

Private roads!

Our driver was a college student who had been working for the company for seven years, starting in other jobs before getting to be a tour guide and duck pilot.

Our first view was of statues from the demolished Chicago Board of Trade Building. Local businessman W. J. Newman bought the statues and brought them to Wisconsin Dells to decorate a home by Lake Delton. They eventually wound as part of the tour property. 

Holding up a corner in a previous life?

The drive took us into the forests flanking the river, with many little valleys, gorges, and dells. Fern Dell provides shade and cooler temperatures. The difference was noticeable, maybe as much as ten degrees.

Ferns in the valley

A bit of the rock formations in our future

The area has a lot of layered rock known as sandstone. The formations make dramatic (though not tall) cliffs. At the bottom of the dell, our driver switched gears and drove into the Wisconsin River for a look at the river.

Shifting to aquatic mode

Some of the cliffs

The small cliffs' porous rock allows plants and trees to grow easily from them. Sometimes those provide stability, sometimes more erosion. The opposite shore showed a lot of tree-lined beaches without sandstone.

Not cliffs

Growth on the cliff side

The guide told a story about one of the formations. A preacher would come in the 1800s to speak to the natives as they sailed by. The natives didn't pay a lot of attention to him until he had a piano brought in. Then he would play piano and preach, gaining more interest even if he did not gain more adherents. Eventually, the cliff gave way and the piano crashed. You can see the rock formation that looks like a piano on the right side of the picture below. So it was a shaggy dog story. 

"Piano Falls" probably wouldn't have been a good name

Another formation is called "Hawk's Bill," just at the end of Black Hawk Gorge. The driver told us it was named after a native chief--Chief Gorge. The chief had a son he named Boy Gorge. The boy had a pet monkey he called Curious Gorge. And there were a lot of other jokes spun out from there. I loved it while my children groaned.

The Hawk's Bill formation

Better view of the hawk-like top

I was surprised to see other boaters on the water. Some were water skiing, some just cruising leisurely. The river is open to everyone.

Kayakers

A turtle sunning itself

Ready to fish? Or just sightseeing?

We saw some wildlife, but only rarely. This bird below looked like a hawk but photographed like a smudge.

Bird on the wing

Are those supposed to stop ducks from landing?

As we approached an overpass, our driver turned right into Dell Creek, driving up over a small bit of land and into Lake Delton.

Looking to turn

Dell Creek

Lake Delton Dam (with a sign in case you didn't know it was a dam)

Driving into the lake

Dam viewed from the other side

The dam was built in the 1920s by W. J. Newman (the same guy who brought the statues) to create a leisure lake in the Dells. The lake became a center for local tourism, with many resorts opening along the shores along with the larger homes. In 2008, excessive rain overfilled the lake and, while workers shored up the dam, the water went over a county highway next to the dam. It washed away the ground under the road and cleared out a channel 400 feet wide. The lake drained in two hours and Dell Creek had a new course. In about a year, locals, with the help of state and federal aid, were able to repair the road and rechannel the creek. The dam was refurbished so that it could release excess water. The lake filled again and things went back to normal.

Resort "tree houses" being built to open in 2026

Crossing over the road, we went back into the forest and took a drive through a very tight gorge, with only a few inches of clearance for the duck.

Some pleasant forest (and our last view of the river)

About to run through the rocks

At the tightest point

The area was part of an estate. A fire cleared one field of trees so the owner planted new ones, in perfectly aligned rows!

Such order and precision!

We finally made it back to the Duck dock, where we saw some of the other ducks waiting to have their turn.

More ducks

The trip was a lot of fun with some jokes and some history thrown in with the beautiful natural (and artificial) landscapes.

Geocaching August 2025

The month started with our trip to Minnesota, so we made finds along the way out.

Our first find was in Hancock, Maryland. Old National Pike Mile Marker 96 is a mystery cache that was an easy and quick find, after solving the mystery. Our next stop was the next day in Ohio at one of the rest areas along their turnpike. What Is Your Final Destination? leans into the fact that cachers would only be here because they are on the road to another destination. Nobody jumps on a toll road just to get geocaches. At least, nobody I know. At least, they haven't admitted it. Also at that stop is the multi-cache Turnpike trivia 2 which requires an NFC device and then solving a simple crossword. We walked back to the car and drove away, forgetting it was a multicache. Once the crossword was solved, we got the final coordinates. Hopefully there will be another Minnesota trip in the future and we will remember to stop here?

On our way, we took a short jog off the highway to visit Michigan where we have never cached. I found sarepo.gnitsujda.gnirots, a mystery cache that was easy to solve before we even got there. The other Michigan cache was Oaklawn Shelter at a park with a playground that my children enjoyed. 

Playground at the shelter

We drove on to Janesville, Wisconsin, where I found Circle of Friendship, 50 Below, and Thank You Rogheff from Alex after dinner (so mostly in the dark). 

One of the Janesville parks

The next day we visited UW Madison which has a garden with a cache hidden in it.

Allen Centennial Garden cache

We finally made it to Minnesota. Our first full day there I found Rainbow Colors Challenge (a cache I have been working to qualify for), Stop (at a stop sign, naturally), and MnSQ: Green Lake Cemetery (a multi-cache). The finds were fairly easy though the neighboring grass was pretty high.

Cemetery

Tramping out a trail

In Cambridge (Minnesota), I found Smell Good For Church Pt. 2, which is part of a small series in town. The container made the title make sense.

A church to smell good for

We drove down to Eden Prairie and found a lot caches, including EP Veterans Park: Semper Fidelis, a multi-cache that takes some information off a list of locals who died in service of our country. The final was on a nearby bridge where I pretended to be a maintenance worker.

Veterans Park

Daniel R. Olsen

More of the memorial

Finding the final

"She Blinded Me With Science!" was a favorite of ours, a library cache. The first stage of this multicache was under a lamp post just outside the library. Unfortunately, it was also a wasps' home, so I had to use a lot of spray to make it accessible. The message pointed to a book inside, which we found quickly and safely.

Signing the book

Leaving a Pathtag

We also found a trivia series: Sports Team Trivia #2, #4, #8, #10, #11, and #12. The solutions were tricky, which is why I didn't find the other numbers since I couldn't solve them quickly. Maybe I will work on them for that next trip. A similar challenge limited me to Training Puzzle #2 Alphabet to Numbers, Training Puzzle #4 Google Is Your Friend, and Puzzle to Solve Puzzle to Solve Puzzle. 

In Isanti, Grandpa and I found Wayside Welcome!, Hwy 65 Tour: Cambridge, MARS Evil Lead Scout, and PANDA-ACME : PTG Part 1. Then we got a beer.

Best find ever?

Then we headed home and made some finds along the way. In Wisconsin, I found Guardrail #9 in the rain (thankfully a quick find), then later on in Indiana an earthcache--Richey Woods Nature Preserve Earth Cache, Righty, IndyScan Hide #6 Trucker Sam, and I signed Emilie's 3/4 Challenge, which requires 100 finds with the numerals 3 or 4 in the title (I am at 70, so not too far).

Nature trail

Bus stop in the woods!?!

On the final push home I found I-70 EB Rest Stop Cache in Ohio. Then, to fill out my counties in Maryland, we found a couple in the panhandle that are a long way from home--Mountain Light and Footer's Dye Works. 

The mountain light!

The dye works!

Back in our home area, I found Big City Cacher Challenge X since I made it to ten big cities with an Indianapolis cache. Other mystery/challenge caches filling in my calendar were Fetchez le Vache, A Mystery About Dragons, Falling Snow, and Omnicache. I also found a traditional cache that looks like a mystery: Gur dhvpx Trb-Whfgvpr Ntrag whzcf bire 14 ynml qbt, quite the mouthful! Translated, that's "The quick Geo-Justice Agent jumps over 14 lazy dog"--why no "s" at the end?

We made a quick visit to the Museum of American History in DC and I found The DC Bioretention Cells across the street--an earthcache about rain gardens in the city.

No spoiler photo

The next week had a trip to Baltimore, where I found the garage rooftop cache Light of Baltimore 2 along with Carter's Forgotten Legacy, No Malady Here, MDCT - John Cadbury, Cenosillicaphobia #11, and LoZ Series: Theives' Den Intro. 

On the rooftop

Fun sign at a local coffee shop where I got a drink

The Cenosillicaphobia Location

I finished out the month with the multicache Calculate & Dismantle, The Maryland Virtual Challenge II, 365 Challenge, and MDCT - Domenico Ghiradelli. The MDCT is the Maryland Chocolate Trail, a series that has been mostly archived, so I won't find many more. We did stop in at the local chocolate shop and got some truffles to go. We also did the Adventure Lab: Tour of Catonsville which started near the chocolate shop. 

Random picnic bench near the 365 cache

Box of chocolates (sort of)

The month ends with 57 finds in August 2025 and a grand total of 2029 finds.