Camping at Interstate

Over Labor Day weekend, Josh and I headed up north to Interstate State Park for some camping. Interstate is Wisconsin's first state park, so we were pretty pumped. We were also excited to get out of mid-state area and embraced the thought of a five hour drive. Upon arrival, however, our sore butts and backs combined with our totally wide open campsite covered with gravel, and neighbored by some...interesting people...was a little less than ideal :) Check out this video Josh took on his camera to get a full view of our campsite. Don't worry, because Josh and I are such troopers, we of course had a blast the whole weekend.

To start off, the interesting people warrant a paragraph all to themselves. Directly next to us was a big rig camper... My fondest memories of this family include the woman lounging in an old beach chair, the little girls that totally gave Josh and I the stink-eye every time they rode by on their bikes, the stereotypical 40-some, slightly Stallis (West Allis - it has a reputation and meaning for those from Milwaukee) man who set up a tent halfway and we were convinced was going to be drunk by noon and not finish setting it up, the pug named Bam-Bam that also doubled as the Stallis man's "wife," the bug sprayer the Stallis man used to spray the entire radius of his campsite... These are just a few of my memories, there were many many more... :)

We spent most of the weekend hiking as usual. There were many different trails, ranging from a cool (literally, it was like stepping into an ice box) walk through a rocky cliff area to a grassy mosquito trap leading to a small waterfall. The area was quite pretty, especially the scenery looking into Minnesota and the beautiful landmarks we happened across on our hikes... The area really was very pretty though - we just happened upon some funny picture-taking opportunities along the way. As a side note, Minnesota has its own Interstate State Park, and from we could tell, it is UGLY, totally not as cool as Wisconsin's version :)

As usual, our nights consisted of campfires. Now, if you remember, at Wyalusing, we could hardly start a fire due to our totally soaked wood and campsite. In totally opposite conditions, at Interstate, we could hardly start a fire due to the incredibly dense wood that would just not hold a flame. Note: the Interstate employees are liars! We were specifically told that wood bought from the Interstate campground would "burn better" and be "less expensive," but upon further investigation, wood bought from the area BP gas station proved to be superior. After we figured this out, we stocked up on wood from the BP and contentedly sat back and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.

Our Saturday night adventure involved going to Loggers, a local bar, to watch the first Badger game of the season. We met my favorite person ever, Kaitlyn, and ordered a pitcher of Bud Light (RAC pitcher style!!!) and some food. The food was a little lacking, but we've come to expect this and have, by now, realized how spoiled we've become with the fine dining in Madison. Another funny story - upon walking into this bar, which was recommended by workers at the state park office, we were shocked to find that not one, not two, but ALL the TVs in the bar were set to the Weather Channel! Seriously... We had to pretty much bribe one of the bar tenders to switch one of the TVs to the Badger game. Sigh...

On our return trip, Josh and I stopped at Norske Nook in Osseo for some Norwegian food and, most importantly, PIE! We had no choice but to stop - Norske Nook was so highly recommended to us - plus Josh could never live it down if he arrived at work on Tuesday morning without stories of pie. Well, for once, the restaurant lived up to our expectations. Josh ordered a traditional meal called lefse. Check out the picture, it looks a little unappetizing, but it was actually pretty good. The hamburger I ate is hardly worth mentioning and definitely not worth a picture. Both of us followed up with pie. I had decided on the Chocolate Peanut Butter pie days before (Josh tried to sway me so he could get it himself, but to no avail) and Josh chose the Pecan Cream Cheese, which was pretty much a mountain of caramelized nuts. Both were incredibly delicious and worth a trip back!!! Make sure to check it out if you find yourself in northern Wisconsin. Norske Nook has 5 locations!!

I'll leave you with my favorite memory of the weekend. We all know by now that every campground has some real winners in terms of weekend visitors (for example, our next door neighbor), but I still give the top award to the yappy dog that barked every 3 seconds, or every 1 second if someone walked by or made some type of disturbing noise, and by disturbing noise, I'm referring to a sneeze from Josh - no joke, the yapping commenced after sneezing. Now, I know Josh has a pretty mighty sneeze, but seriously...

Despite all of the funny/strange memories, we really did have a fun weekend. Josh and I decided that Interstate was going to be our last camping experience of 2009. We are looking forward to next year and all of the new places we'll get to explore. Stay tuned to "Big Yum" for our fall and winter adventures :)