Planning trips with my large family is difficult, and I understand why it stresses my mom and everyone out. We’ve been trying to get dates nailed down for a trip to Door County, a few hours north of my mom’s house, for many months. Right up till the week before, we still didn’t know who all was going. But I at least knew I was, both for the mini trip up north and to hopefully also spend some time with my dad, who was turning 77.

Note: I started writing this entry after the trip but then got sidetracked and never picked it back up. So this is just an introduction, for now…

This past Christmas, I did not make the trip home. The year before, my house started flooding as we were halfway through the drive cross country. I needed to call on Yizhen to help fix my pump and deal with the water, and it was very stressful. My house and housemate situation was not much better this year, so I opted to stay in Oakland this time in hopes of making the drive during the warmer weather instead. It turned out to be the right decision, as we ended up getting flooding much worse than even the year before!

The six months since then have been odd and depressing, thanks to Google deciding in January to lay off my entire organization at various staggered dates throughout this year. I’ll write about that elsewhere, but the point is I needed a break, even if it involved driving 5,000 miles!

To Wisconsin

We had planned to start the drive after hanging out with some friends for a third annual the Fourth of July at Putah Creek. The day before, some people couldn’t make it, so that got canceled. It was probably for the best, as it took Alan and I till early afternoon on the fourth to get the plants and house situated and all ready to leave.

Instead of taking the same old route along Interstate 80 the whole way, we decided to spend a bit more time going a route further north. We took I-80 to US Highway 93 to Twin Falls through Idaho Falls, West Yellowstone, Bozeman and then I-94 the rest of the way. We split the 35 hour drive across 4 days, sleeping in the car with the dogs at rest stops 3 nights. Next time we do this, we’ll sleep in a tent outside the car!

List of stops

This is what I was working on before writing the rest of the entry…

• Salmon Falls Creek Rest Area
• Blackfoot, Idaho
• Fawn Pass Trailhead WK5, Yellowstone
• Gallatin Road
• Bozeman
• Painted Canyon Overlook, North Dakota
• Menomonie, Wisconsin
• Cadott, Wisconsin
• Hunan Chinese Restaurant, Shawano, Wisconsin
• Egg Harbor, Wisconsin
• RV campsite?
• Sister Bay, Wisconsin
• Washington Island Ferry Line
• Fragrant Isle Lavender Farm
• Historic Nelsen’s Hall Bitters Pub
• Stavkirke chapel
• Schoolhouse Beach Park
• Hyline Orchard, tart cherries
• Cave Point County Park, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
• Grumpy’s Ice Cream, Egg Harbor, Wisconsin
• Tristan’s birthday
• Fox Brook Park, Brookfield, Wisconsin
• Dad’s birthday
• Fishing, Lower Genesee Lake, Summit, Wisconsin
• Madison, Wisconsin
• Ben’s apartment
• Fox River Sanctuary, Waukesha, Wisconsin
• Running with Ruffie
• Selena’s birthday
• Chicago, Frank
• drive back
• Salt Flats Rest Area Westbound, Bonneville Salt Flats